Autumn Astrophotography Challenge is ON!
Submit entries to the Autumn imaging contest submission folder by Wednesday December 21, 2022
The imaging competition was created with a threefold goal: First, as a way to encourage club members to try astrophotography if they haven't before, Second, as a way for club members to improve their skills if they are familiar with astrophotography, and third, as a way for club members to share their astrophotography with other club members.
The plan is to have a contest during each season of the year that is synchronized with the start and end of each astronomical season.
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Winter Contest: Winter Solstice - Spring Equinox
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Spring Contest: Spring Equinox - Summer Solstice
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Summer Contest: Summer Solstice - Fall Equinox
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Fall Contest: Fall Equinox - Winter Solstice
To appeal to a broad audience four categories were selected:
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Astroscape - This category would include wide field photographs showing an astronomical object in the context of the local landscape (e.g. - Moon/Sun rising/setting over a land based object, the Milky Way over the landscape or reflecting on a lake, planetary conjunctions, etc.). This could be accomplished with the minimum of equipment such as cell phones, DSLRs on a fixed tripod or star tracker. It is a great place to “dip your toe in the water” if you have never tried astrophotography.
- Solar System - This category would include a close-up photograph of any solar system object, such as the Sun, Moon, planets, or comets. The photograph could be of the whole object (e.g. - full solar or planetary disk, lunar eclipse, etc.) or a portion of the object (e.g. - craters of the Moon, sunspot groups, solar prominence, comet nucleus, etc.).
- Medium Star Field - This category would include targets that are extended objects such as M42 (Great Orion Nebula), The Rosette Nebula, M31 (Andromeda Galaxy), M81/M82 in the same field of view, etc. where the target is in the 1 to 5 degrees across range.
- Narrow Star Field - This category would include targets that require a relatively long focal length telescope/camera setup to achieve (e.g. planetary nebula, small galaxies, galaxy groupings such as Stephan's Quintet, etc. where the target is less than 1 degree across.
Judging the Entries: Above all, this is meant to be fun, and as such, the judging will be on the informal side. There will be a 5 day window after the close for entries where club members can look through the submissions and choose “like” for their favorite photographs (liking more than one image in a category will be allowed). When the voting closes the “likes” will be tallied, the winner being the picture with the most likes overall and will be featured in the next DVAA newsletter and on our web page.
Note: Nothing is cast in stone but rather the contest is a work in progress and we will make tweaks along the way in an effort to improve the process based on membership feedback.
A copy of the rules can be found in the documents folder under Astrophotography Contests.