The inaugural StuPOD, winner announced!

[adyj1]

Surely last Tuesday's ? 

[johnfosteruk]

I've just come in from an outstanding session on the Moon during a phase I haven't got to image or observe much over the last year or so and it's not even at it's highest yet. I may have to pop out again in a bit.

I had some visual first, studying the craters in what's left of Crisium, Messier A&B and the terrain in Fecunditatis. On to the Rheita Valley. The chaotic Janssen, Fabricus & surrounding craters. All in all a great session with rock solid, crisp views in the little mak. 

Before I replaced the eyepieces with the camera, I thought of Stu's world renowned contest, could I summon the courage, the wherewithal and the skill to submit a world class winning image for the second time in a week?

Would the iPhone be up to the challenge at such short notice, with so little time to prepare?

Would my waffle be enough to distract the judges from what's really going on here? (What's really going on here? I don't know)

Well, you be the judge!

This was captured using the RAW setting in Procam 5, afocal with the little 102 Mak, and a Hyperion 8mm with the adjustment ring to make it 4mm. Cropped, sharpened and levels adjusted using PS express.

Edited October 26, 2018 by johnfosteruk

[Helen]

3 minutes ago, johnfosteruk said:

I've just come in from an outstanding session on the Moon during a phase I haven't got to image or observe much over the last year or so and it's not even at it's highest yet. I may have to pop out again in a bit.

I had some visual first, studying the craters in what's left of Crisium, Messier A&B and the terrain in Fecunditatis. On to the Rheita Valley. The chaotic Janssen, Fabricus & surrounding craters. All in all a great session with rock solid, crisp views in the little mak. 

Before I replaced the eyepieces with the camera, I thought of Stu's world renowned contest, could I summon the courage, the wherewithal and the skill to submit a world class winning image for the second time in a week?

Would the iPhone be up to the challenge at such short notice, with so little time to prepare?

Well, you be the judge!

This was captured using the RAW setting in Procam 5, afocal with the little 102 Mak, and a Hyperion 8mm with the adjustment ring to make it 4mm. Cropped, sharpened and levels adjusted using PS express.

Epic John!!  I think you should submit for the through the eyepiece challenge too ? 

[johnfosteruk]

5 minutes ago, Helen said:

Epic John!!  I think you should submit for the through the eyepiece challenge too ? 

I forgot about that, entered and awaiting mug!

 

[Stub Mandrel]

10 hours ago, johnfosteruk said:

This was captured using the RAW setting in Procam 5, afocal with the little 102 Mak, and a Hyperion 8mm with the adjustment ring to make it 4mm. Cropped, sharpened and levels adjusted using PS express.

Drum him out, he's taking this far too seriously ?

[Helen]

Ok, so back to a wonky, handheld, no scope or processing image... 

I present Orion on a cloud in the moonlight....

(I was actually surprised at how my mobile captured my first view of Orion this season ?)

Helen

[Davey-T]

That's more like it Helen, I had to clean the laptop screen so I could tell the clouds from the muck on the screen 

Dave

[adyj1]

5 hours ago, Davey-T said:

That's more like it Helen, I had to clean the laptop screen so I could tell the clouds from the muck on the screen 

Dave

That's clouds? Dammit I just ordered a barrel of screen cleaner... ? 

Helen, I don't want to be picky and certainly wouldn't want to try to influence the esteemed and inscrutable judging panel, but how much of Orion do you need to see for it not just to be a poorly-framed  picture of the moon ? ? ? 

[Stu]

So, to catch up on latest winners, we have:

For Wednesday 24th, we have Neil's wonder Lunar X

Thursday 25th, I thought hard about disqualifying this one for being too good, but Ady's wonderful submission gets the prize. Ha regions in mobile images, whatever next!

John takes Friday 26th's prize with a super sharp, high power moon shot.

Well done all!

Mentions in dispatches to Helen, lovely moody Orion, and to Neil......what can I say? I polished my phone screen and could just make out a blurry star or two, top notch StuPODing, this is the stuff that keeps us real

I'm going to set the bar high for today with my entry, don't be disheartened by it and please do still post your entries

 

[R26 oldtimer]

Last night's Orion nebula. Ingredients are sw ed80, Hyperion zoom, huawei p9lite, single shot / handheld / 8 sec.

Enjoy!

[johnfosteruk]

And they said I'm taking it too seriously
Cracking image.

[adyj1]

4 hours ago, Stu said:

 

I'm going to set the bar high for today with my entry, don't be disheartened by it and please do still post your entries

Stu, I don't want to appear picky, and I certainly don't want to put the kibosh on my smartphone snap of the pillars of creation winning a future StuPOD award, but I suspect you've used a  "tracking or decent imaging mount" (from post 1) on that last masterpiece...

#justsaying

?

Ady

 

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

I have a secret weapon, a 12x Mobile Telephone Lens ?

 

[Stu]

1 hour ago, R26 oldtimer said:

Last night's Orion nebula. Ingredients are sw ed80, Hyperion zoom, huawei p9lite, single shot / handheld / 8 sec.

Enjoy!

They call him r26 ‘steady hand’ oldtimer  cracking shot there, and one which shows just how fast sensors are progressing. You definitely win today’s (27th) award, well done!!

[Stu]

58 minutes ago, adyj1 said:

Stu, I don't want to appear picky, and I certainly don't want to put the kibosh on my smartphone snap of the pillars of creation winning a future StuPOD award, but I suspect you've used a  "tracking or decent imaging mount" (from post 1) on that last masterpiece...

#justsaying

?

Ady

 

 

 

I cannot tell a lie, no mount but the phone has digital image stabilisation on it. Still within the rules . In fact, you could mount a phone on an EQ8 if you want, just don’t connect it to a PC!!

 

 

[Littleguy80]

Tonight I present the conjunction of Saturn and the Moon. Inspired by a suggestion by @Davey-T to use Photoshop to combine two images to get the best of both objects. To keep within the rules of StuPOD, I used Pixelmator for iOS to take the better Saturn image and replace the a dimmer version capture of Saturn in the other image. Not a bad result if I do say so myself!

The original two images can be seen on this thread: 

 

[Stu]

Excellent shot Neil, and a worthy winner. I believe yours is the first example of merging two images, so despite some misgivings amongst the panel, the award is yours. The Judge's citation is below:

'The panel considered this entry for some time, concerned that the use of new-fangled mosaic techniques might show a competence which would undermine the spirit of the competition. It was decided however, that the egg-shaped, and slightly vignetted moon was sufficient ying to pixelmator's yang, and in the end the vote was unanimous' 

[Stu]

A couple of my own taken last night, considered and dismissed by the judge on the basis that Saturn is a blob rather than being recognisable

Taken through the 72mm with 24mm Panoptic and S9, could have used some higher mag but the NeXYZ is not yet operational.

[Littleguy80]

31 minutes ago, Stu said:

Excellent shot Neil, and a worthy winner. I believe yours is the first example of merging two images, so despite some misgivings amongst the panel, the award is yours. The Judge's citation is below:

'The panel considered this entry for some time, concerned that the use of new-fangled mosaic techniques might show a competence which would undermine the spirit of the competition. It was decided however, that the egg-shaped, and slightly vignetted moon was sufficient ying to pixelmator's yang, and in the end the vote was unanimous' 

I thank the judges for their wise decision. Any indication of competence on my part is purely incidental. The competition was tight on this occasion and consider myself fortunate to have fought off so many other great entries. I will be printing the image off to blue tak it in my trophy cabinet alongside my other StuPOD winning images. Surely this now cements my place in the StuPOD hall of fame!

[oobydooby]

4 hours ago, Stu said:

'The panel considered this entry for some time, concerned that the use of new-fangled mosaic techniques might show a competence which would undermine the spirit of the competition. It was decided however, that the egg-shaped, and slightly vignetted moon was sufficient ying to pixelmator's yang, and in the end the vote was unanimous' 

Surely the moon is "egg shaped" due to distortion caused by the gravitational influence of Jupiter's close proximity.  I believe this negates the judges reasoning and thus should disqualify the entry.  I demand a re-count!  (even though I have not taken part in this excellent and highly contested contest.)

[GavStar]

Unprocessed image of the moon this evening

[Stub Mandrel]

Took this one with my phone last night ? Hand held, steadied against a scope.

[Stu]

An exciting announcement, smartphone imaging has a new home on SGL!

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/279-imaging-smartphone-tablets/

I will move this thread there now, leaving a link in the Astro lounge.

Please do feel free to start creating your own thread in this new section ?

[Stu]

Let’s kick this off again as there are some fantastic phone images floating around.

First entry, and self declared winner is a superb image of M42, by….. ME! 🤣🤣

You’ve got to be in it, to win it, so post away! Rules in the first post of the thread, no prizes, and I reserve the right to change them at any time 😉

[Littleguy80]

Yay for StuPODs! That’s an amazing image! The standard has improved dramatically since my last entry.