Telescope Reviews: July 08 Bright & DSO Challenge Rules and Comments

Welcome to the Cloudy Nights Monthly Imaging Challenge in the Beginning Imaging Forum.

This competition is intended to be a fun way for you to improve your imaging abilities and a way for you to see many new images with a variety of equipment. All imagers are welcome and encouraged to enter.

There are two categories in the Beginning Challenge - a "Bright" object category (a planetary, lunar or similar object that can be imaged with an unmodified webcam, "LPI" type imager, or a digicam - in short, a camera that is not capable of long exposures) and a "DSO" object category (for nebulas, galaxies and the like, which must be captured by a camera capable of long exposures).

Each month an object will be selected in each category of the competition by the winner in that category from 2 months previous. Having a one month delay allows voting and selection of the next object and will give a full month's time for entries.

July's "Bright" subject is Lunar Crater Aristotles.
July's "DSO" subject is NGC7023, the Iris Nebula.

The winning image in each category will be included in the Hall of Fame message thread. There are no other prizes.

Please include your imaging details such as location, date, telescope, guiding, exposure time, etc with your submission.

Rules:

1. Have fun! Support other contestants and be polite with your comments.
2. All entries must be captured within the same imaging season. For example, if the December target is the Orion Nebula, you must use images taken during the current winter, not any other year. For Lunar targets the image must have been captured within the 12 months preceding the date of submission
3. Entries are limited to absolute maximums of 100,000 bytes in file size and 800 pixels X 800 pixels square. Entries that do not meet this criteria will be disqualified. [TIP: It is our strong suggestion that you carefully check the file size of your image before and after submitting it to insure that it is *below* the 100,000 byte limit - a difference of just a few bytes too many can literally make the difference between winning the contest and disqualification. Take this advice from folks who know - a few hundred bytes is not enough to make a difference in your image that's worth risking disqualification to achieve. Don't be disqualified trying to push the limit to the wall. It's not worth it. You can check to be sure that your posted image meets the file size maximum by right clicking on the image and looking at it's properties.]
4. A separate submission thread will be created for each category. Please post your submissions in the proper thread.
5. Please do not post comments in the submission threads. You may post your comments about the submissions here in this thread.
6. Any equipment is allowed to be used in the images including rental equipment.
7. All image taking and development must be done by you. The one exception to this is that husband/wife teams are permitted.
8. Each person (or husband/wife team) may submit only 1 entry per month in each category. However, you may edit your submission and replace the image with a newer one if you wish using the Edit function.
9. If you win a Beginning Challenge more than 3 times (3 times for DSO or 3 times for Bright Objects), you will officially "Graduate" from that Challenge Category and may no longer submit images in the category that you have "Graduated" from. This is intended to encourage successful imagers to continue to sharpen their skills and increase their level of challenge, and also to give those who have not yet won one a clear shot at the title!

These rules may be changed each month as we figure out how to make this a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

Now polar align those mounts and get to capturin' some images!

Good Luck!

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Knucklhead Astronomer