Telescope Reviews: Nov12 CN Imaging/Sketching Contest Poll!

Welcome to the November 2012 Cloudy Nights Imaging/Sketching Contest poll!

Each month the best images selected from the individual Cloudy Nights Imaging and Sketching forums will be presented for the userbase to vote on. The winning entry will be posted on

the front page of the CN website for all to admire! At the conclusion of the poll, the entry with the highest total will be the winner of the contest..

Please choose your favorite from the entries below. The poll will remain open through December 15th at midnight.

Here are the entries for November!

Beginning and Intermediate Imaging's Finalist - zerro1

NGC1499 The California Nebula, Captured September 2012
Hybrid Image
Image Alignment performed with Registar

Hydrogen Alpha Capture:
Quantix KAF6303E Mono CCD
10 X 10 minutes
7nm Baader Ha filter
AT65EDQ
LXD75 mount
MaximDL Pro, PHD, Images Plus, CS3
Location: Marysville, Washington, elevation 500ft

RGB Capture:
Modified Canon 1000D(by Brent Oliver)
15 X 7 minutes
AT65EDQ
BYEOS, PHD, Images Plus, CS3
LXD75 Mount
Location: Slate Peak Fire Lookout, elevation 7200ft

Film Astrophotography's Finalist - Michal1

Here is my contribution, The Question Mark Nebula.
Imaging equipment: Pentax 6x7 camera, Takumar 400/4 lens, Kodak E200 film, Nikon Coolscan 8000 ED scanner
Exposition: single 53 min at f/5.6
Tracking & Guiding: EQ6 mount, 500/5.6 lens, QHY5 camera, PHD guiding
Conditions: Light sky, many hight clouds after sunrise.
Location: Near the town of Votice, The Czech Republic.

Click here for higher resolution.

DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - srosenfraz:

Here's my submission, M8 - the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius:

High Resolution Version and more image

information available at http://www.astronomersdoitinthedark.com/index.php?c=145&p=458

This image is from a stack of 107 x 3 minutes (5 1/3 hours) at ISO 400 using focus stacking to provide a flat focal plane across the FOV. Imaging train was a Celestron C-8 (orange

tube) with a Celestron focal reducer at f/5.8 (1160mm), and a Gary Honis modified Canon 450D. Guiding was with an ONAG on-axis guider, Lodestar autoguider, and Phd guiding.

Thanks for looking!

CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - avdhoeven

After gathering more data for the Heart Nebula I will try again this month, but now with a much improved version of my heart nebula image.

Full resolution

Info:

9 x 1800s H-alpha (4,5nm – 06/10/2012)
12 x 1800s OIII (3nm – 10/10/2012)
11 x 1800s S2 (5nm – 17/11/2012)
10 x 300s R,G,B (22/10/2012)

Equipment used:

TEC-140 telescope
SXV-H9 CCD
NEQ-6 mount
DMK21-618 for Off-axis guiding

Solar System Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Hillbrad

Jupiter and Io taken at 8:24UT on 11-22-12.
Scope: C14
Mount: CI-700
Camera: Flea3 with Celestron Ultima 2x Barlow
Filers: Astrodon RGB
Stack of 1400 images per channel
Processed with AS2!, Registax 6, Astra Image, PS4

Sketching's Finalist - frank5817

Rupes Recta at Sunrise
Sketching:
For this sketch I used: black Canson paper (8” x 10”), white and black pastel pencils
Telescope: 13.1” f/6 Dobsonian working at 222X (9mm ocular)
Date: 11-22-2012 01:00-02:45 UT Temperature: 12°C (54°F)
Hazy, slightly breezy
Seeing: Antoniadi III
Lunation 8.1 days
Illumination 64.9%

Frank McCabe

Good Luck to all our finalists!

Which Image/Sketch is our Winner?
Users may choose only one (34 total votes)

Beginning and Intermediate Imaging's Finalist - zerro1

2 05%

Film Astrophotography's Finalist - Michal1

4 11%

DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - srosenfraz

4 11%

CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - avdhoeven

7 20%

Solar System Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Hillbrad

13 38%

Sketching's Finalist - frank5817

4 11%

Edited by Charlie Hein (12/11/12 04:38 AM)