Astro Photographer of the year

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Lewis, good interesting link.

That's the first time I have seen detail on the moons in a pic taken through gear available to amateurs.

Actually lot of amateurs are doing this now. Some of my captures from previous years are here and here and here.

Good seeing is the imperitive for planetary imaging. It is not only the gear but one must have great seeing. Barbados is one such place, another is Exmouth in Western Australia. The search is on here in Australia for a closer spot with great seeing though. In 2018 the southern hemisphere will have Mars, Jupiter and Saturn directly overhead. We hope to host many events in the years leading up to and including this year. I think we will be getting a few people down here.

[Ptarmigan]

Thanks Paul, very nice very impressive.

One of your pics mentions resampling - I'm off to google that - so much to learn , this forum is brill

[ollypenrice]

Of course, congratulations to Paul as well - and very sincerely. But I think that we need to remember something about Damian Peach. He is the one who originally demonstrated what could be done. He is the benchmark for people to tilt at, and tilt they will and should. But holy smoke, the image is just beyond belief. As a DS imager I have no idea where to turn to think of making equivalent images and I know full well that he has a level of mastery which I cannot think of emulating.

On the DS side, I worry about comparing narrowband with natural colour. Because I work from a dark site I work in natural colour, sometimes Ha enhanced. I think this adds a little discipline because you do not have a free hand to map colour as you wish. You are constrained by nature. But you have no hope of acheiving the sharp structural contrasts or tiny stars of NB. I absolutely don't wish to belittle NB in the slightest. It is just a different form of imaging. Maybe the organisers could consider two categories? BTW, I've never entered so have no axe to grind.

Olly

[Paul Haese]

Olly you are correct with regard to Damian being the first. When I started using a Toucam in 2004 I was blown away by what could be achieved with one. Damian's and Don's images stunned me. At that stage I knew nothing about cooling, air turbulence (despite years of observing and DSO film imaging) or digital processing. In near perfect seeing though, I think there are many now who could produce the same level of detail and smoothness in an image. The seeing makes the image really, processing is such a breeze in good seeing. I know of one image at least that is as good as that one of Damians, but was not entered. Fortunately for me as I would not have come runner up I am sure.

As for NB imaging, well I am like you. I prefer natural colour with Ha influences. I have a dark sky observatory and conduct a lot of imaging from there. Click here for images. I own NB filters but as yet have not used them. It does nothing for me really, although there are some impressive images around that have used them.

[ollypenrice]

Super DS images, Paul. The dust in your M78 is really exquisite!

Olly

[Paul Haese]

Thanks Olly, lots of hours in that image; about 15 hours. It could still with some more hours though.