SGL Imaging Challenges

[admin]

The SGL POTM (picture of the month) is back and to make it as inclusive, social and as fun as possible we have made some changes  

This new POM will be based on a series of monthly ‘Astro Challenges’. Most will last three months so people will have plenty of time to enter (go away clouds!) but others might be shorter and tied to specific events (i.e. eclipses, meteor showers, etc). They will also over-lap so one will start while another (different challenge) finishes each month.

To enter please start a new topic with your image in the ‘Astro Challenge’ forum (each challenge will have it’s own). 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.

A team of mods, admin plus occasional guests will judge the entries. Only the first post containing the submitted image will be considered (not the discussions, feedback or number of likes generated in the topic).

The winner of each challenge will receive a prize and a virtual medal-of-honour for their SGL signature.

We will also compile and keep a showcase of all the challenges and winners.

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The theme for the first Challenge - March 2017 - is Satellite(s)!

Start Date: 1st March 2017
End Date: 31st May 2017

Any image that fits the theme ‘Satellite(s)’ will be accepted. We will use NASAs definition of a Satellite but are not looking for anything specific. It might be an artistic single frame, a ‘lucky shot’ or a highly planned, multi-night epic! The winning image will be whichever one the judges like best!

Prize: A copy of the superb Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas Desk Edition kindly provided by our sponsors FLO  and a virtual trophy for your signature.

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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 start a new topic for each entry. 
Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted.

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This is a new format so we may need to tweak it as we go - we look forward to your feedback

[Cozzy]

Nice to see it's back, 'let the games begin' 

good luck every one, lets get out there!.

 

[michaelmorris]

Nice idea.  I'm looking forward to this.

[Stub Mandrel]

If we had started with 'cloud' it might have been a bit easier

Just to confirm natural satellites count as per NASA.

[Helen]

1 minute ago, Stub Mandrel said:

If we had started with 'cloud' it might have been a bit easier

Just to confirm natural satellites count as per NASA.

Yep 

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

If you want the theme to be "Clouds", get these guys on the job!  

https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/

John

[johnfosteruk]

Great idea. Do sketches count?

Edited March 1, 2017 by johnfosteruk

[Helen]

1 minute ago, johnfosteruk said:

Great idea. Do sketches count?

Yep! 

[Ant]

Yes, unless specifically forbidden by the challenge (i.e. we might have a dSLR challenge), sketches would be great to see. 

 

[Davey-T]

Soooo I am in the process of capturing an animated GIF of Vesta, this is ongoing and started last December and will finish when I get bored waiting for clear skies.

Will it be OK  if some of it is within the dates ?

Dave

[Robp]

This is such a good idea!

I have never imaged a satellite before so challenge accepted.

Does the challenge come with some free clear skies?

[PESKYWAABBIT]

This is such a great idea but unless the clouds don't sort themselves out soon, nobody will have any entries!

[JOC]

I'm sure they don't mean any image ;-) 

Well she did orbit around the earth!!

Edited March 1, 2017 by JOC

[Ant]

If she had still be flying around the earth when you took the image, it would have been fine. 

This image, however, I think is pushing the definition a little far

[barkis]

Yeah!, allowing that through, would precipitate a whole  raft of strange entries.
Nice to see a picture of the Shuttle again though. They have their place history cemented forever.
They did a fine job of work. The two that didn't survive, didn't through no fault of their own.
Tragic human safety measures failings.

[JOC]

I had a chance to visit Washington DC a couple of years ago for a holiday and it was either queue for all day to see a panda (which I could visit a zoo in other places to see one day), or take the once in a lifetime chance to see an actual space shuttle that had been up.  No contest, the shuttle was as much a design classic as Concorde.  She was at the Udvar Hazy air and space museum.  They had loads of cool stuff there, not only the shuttle, but loads of satellites, bits of the ISS and skylab, demos of the mars landers, a blackbird (though not the first I'd seen), a Concorde (again not the first I'd seen), that capsule that Baumgartner jumped out of at the edge of space a few years ago (well cool!), an exhibit dedicated to my top film ever - Top Gun, the actual space craft prop from Close encounters of the third kind, and the one exhibit I wasn't expecting to see and had an unusual emotional reaction to - Enola Gay - I wasn't quite sure what to make of her, but she impacted me quite profoundly.  The Space shuttle was the highlight though :-D

[SilverAstro]

3 hours ago, JOC said:

 No contest,

had an unusual emotional reaction to - Enola Gay - I wasn't quite sure what to make of her,

Very interesting, thanks.

Yep I'd have done the same, no contest.

I didnt realise she was preserved ! Hmmm, not sure about that ,, and the person I really feel sorry for is Enola Gay herself, dont think she would want to be remembered this way / in this context

back to the challange : according to the NASA def. then  just about everything is in orbit about something ! Except I suppose things that are attached (like the shuttle?) to other orbiting things !!

I'd better get back to work on my time-lapse of Vesta > > >

 

Edited March 2, 2017 by SilverAstro

[Scott]

23 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Soooo I am in the process of capturing an animated GIF of Vesta, this is ongoing and started last December and will finish when I get bored waiting for clear skies.

Will it be OK  if some of it is within the dates ?

Dave

nope. gotta be ALL taken within the specified time slot I'm afraid. otherwise we'd be seeing 100hrs taken last yr with an adittional 10 min sub taken within the time slot.

 

[Scott]

23 hours ago, Robp said:

This is such a good idea!

I have never imaged a satellite before so challenge accepted.

Does the challenge come with some free clear skies?

The moons a satellite

 

[JOC]

Scott, yup I'd already zoned in on that option as about the only thing that I'll stand a chance of taking a photo of.  :-D

Edited March 2, 2017 by JOC

[Ant]

*technically every planet is a satellite of the Sun. M110 is a satellite of M31. 

Happy for everyone to think out of the box on this first one! 

 

[PESKYWAABBIT]

17 hours ago, JOC said:

Scott, yup I'd already zoned in on that option as about the only thing that I'll stand a chance of taking a photo of.  :-D

I think I'm in the same boat mate, I look forward to seeing the moon pictures! XD

17 hours ago, Ant said:

*technically every planet is a satellite of the Sun

If the clouds don't go away. I may have to construct one of these balloons to even get an entry! 

 

[Ant]

I think if you did that you'd be in with a pretty good chance

[Gina]

Looks the like moon has it

[ultranova]

I hope to capture the very low orbit satellite's,

well under cloud level anyway.