MartinB

Well our novice deep sky imagers certainly stepped up to the plate with this one. Some outstanding images. Not only does this reflect upon the talent of our novices but also the huge strides that have been made with equipment and processing software. Also lets not forget the benefit of the advice and support available on SGL. As usual, there were some very tough decisions. 1) OK Apricot - M42 M42 is a very popular target for obvious reasons, however, it presents some serious challenges, in particular the brightness range of the relevant signal. OK Apricot took full advantage of a dark sky, applied some very effective high dynamic range processing techniques along with the wonderful NoiseXexterminator AI tool to control the noise in the faint dusty regions. Wonderful! 2) Leti Theobald - The Wizard Nebula Leti started imaging 8 months before capturing this image of the Wizard Nebula. It was only her second time out with a new mono camera. The narrow band false colour rendition is spot on. The processing shows commendable restraint allowing the Wizard to glow and to sit comfortably in its starscape. Beautiful work! 3) Monster Magnet - IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula My goodness, how one shot colour cameras have improved especially when combined with narrow band pass filters such as the Optolong L'Extreme used for this image. Despite a Bortle 9 London sky Monster Magnet's has pulled out some exquisite faint dusty detail. Well done!

Jupiter has just gone past opposition but continues to be in a great position for imaging. Saturn is fading but there is a lot going on in the night sky at the moment including a forthcoming meteor shower, the appearence of a comet and a lunar/Venus conjunction. Far distant Uranus and Neptune are well placed. Doubtless December and January will bring further opportunities. Animations are welcome. So keep your eyes peeled for information about what is going on in the night sky and good luck! Start date 1st November 2023 End date 31st January 2023 No entries will be accepted after this date. As previously the winner and runners up will receive an SGL challenge mug showing their image along with a virtual medal-of-honour for their SGL signature. Please post entries directly into this thread To keep the thread manageable for the judges please do not post comments about entries, emoji reactions are welcome of course. -- RULES All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. Multiple entries are allowed but please make a fresh post within the thread. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted.

This challenge has now closed. The results will be announced within the next 2 weeks.

The results are in! https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/414630-sgl-2023-challenge-7-deep-sky-summer-triangle/

As expected, this proved to be a popular challenge and the quality of entries across the board was eye popping. The judges deliberated and um'd and ah'd and finally we had a very loose consensus. Well done everyone, the standard just keeps going up! 1) Minhlead M57 One of the classic deep sky challenges is to reveal The Ring's the outer layer of nebulosity. It is a difficult challenge requiring plenty of exposure and good processing skills . Well Minhlead has certainly made life a lot harder for us all by showing an extra layer or two and requiring a potential name change to "The Flower Nebula" 2) Mount Longlevens Crescent Nebula The OIII layer of the Crescent with all its wispy detail shows superbly in this deep image. 3) Snoami The Coathanger What could be easier than imaging an asterism easily visible with the naked eye? Well most deep sky targets actually! The Coathanger rests beautifully in it's dusty celestial wardrobe. This is masterful processing.

I have been asked about whether images derived from more than one exposure are acceptable. It is quite acceptable to use multiple images of the same field of view for focus stacking, HDR and noise reduction. The composite images which aren't acceptable are images of different focal lengths and fields of view. Typically this would involve combining a long focal length lunar image with a wide field foreground.

Yes, the image needs to be a combination of terrestial and lunar. Here is a very poor example taken by me

Earth bound objects with the moon in the background are very popular with photographers. Here is your chance excel! It could be a long focal length shot showing a big moon against some foreground object or you might prefer something wider field. It should be a single shot so no animations for this challenge. Composite images combining separate images of the moon and foreground are also excluded. If anything is unclear please don't hesitate to message me. Start date 1st October 2023 End date 31st December 2023 No entries will be accepted after this date. As previously the winner and runners up will receive an SGL challenge mug showing their image along with a virtual medal-of-honour for their SGL signature. Please post entries directly into this thread To keep the thread manageable for the judges please do not post comments about entries, emoji reactions are welcome of course. -- RULES All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. Multiple entries are allowed but please make a fresh post within the thread. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted.

This challenge has now closed. The results will be announced in about 2 weeks time

Finally, the results are in https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/414000-sgl-2023-challenge-6-solar/

First of all, many apologies for the late announcement of this result. I have been away on holiday and didn't have the opportunity to post. Anyway, I'm back now and have the results. We knew this challenge would be popular and that we would have some excellent entries, especially given that the sun is very active at the moment. However, some of the entries were simply sensational! It quickly became apparent that it is very difficult to judge a sunspot image against one of a prominence, therefore we have split the entries into 4 categories - Sunspots, prominences, full disc and animations with one winner from each. Sunspot Nigella Bryant Prominence Mark 998 Full Disc Ibbo Animation Minhlead This animation is simply astounding and is the the overall winner of the challenge. Well done to everyone who took part. There are many other exceptionally good images in the thread so it is well worth having a look https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/410393-sgl-2023-challenge-6-solar/

Start Date: 1st September 2023 End Date: 30th November 2023 This challenge was first run early in 2022 and we had some superb entries. The challenge gives plenty of scope for imagination, creativity and technical expertise. If anything moves or changes in the sky your challenge is to capture this. Easy eh!?! Looking forward to seeing what you can all come up with. A personalised mug for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places featuring your entry kindly provided by our sponsors FLO and a virtual trophy for your signature. -- RULES All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. Entries after the end date will not be included in the judging Multiple entries are allowed. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted. -- To enter please post within this topic, do not start a new topic. Please post as much information as possible - when it was taken, how it was captured and processed, etc. The info won't necessarily be used for judging but will help fellow SGLers looking to learn and improve their knowledge and technique. The thread is for image submissions only, please do not respond to entries other than by using emojies.

This challenge is now closed. The results should be announced within the next 2 weeks

Thank you Peter and Blauvista. As always I found several different ways to process this but in the end went for quite a light touch with the saturation to help bring out the OIII data.

Magnificent Peter. You can gather all the signal in the world but without superb processing it can be wasted. You have got this one peachy perfect! Peter.

Lovely work, delicate subtle processing.

A beautiful image, it has that lovely soft smokiness that you only get with the deepest images. I love that soft yellowish dusty area at the top of the main nebula. Also the different shadings of the Ha nebulosity. Subtle stuff!

Great mono images, nicely processed. The contrast is just right

That is a beauty. Superbly processed given the great range of luminosity

You can go ridiculously short with most CMOS cameras, just a few seconds sometimes. The issue really is managing the vast amount of data. Whatever you did, it worked!

Wonderful luminence Steve, looking forward to seeing the colour as well

Superb dust detail. It goes to show that when the dust is set against a background of bright nebulosity it is possible to do it justice. Well done!

That looks terrific. There has been quite a move to wider field imaging, small is beautiful!

Everyone loves the veil especially the Eastern and Western components. However I was attracted to Pickering's Triangle, especially its lovely OIII filaments This was a Comedy of Errors on my part along with being attacked by an army of gremlins. My biggest error was unwittingly to capture data and calibration frames using 2 different camera gain settings. Took an age to sort everything out but inbetween I had a couple of good nights I eventually ended up with around 10 hours of OIII and 4 hours of Ha. Scope: MN160 Camera: ZWO ASI 294 MM binned x2 Filters: Chroma Processed using PI and PS

Wow, that's a new one for me. Looks very interesting. Great work and thanks for sharing