New Challenge Ideas Needed!

[uhb1966]

It's June and no challenge in sight ?!😭

[Hallingskies]

How about astroimaging when there’s no astronomical darkness?  It’s certainly a challenge for me...

[uhb1966]

1 hour ago, Hallingskies said:

How about astroimaging when there’s no astronomical darkness?  It’s certainly a challenge for me...

Great idea, and perfect for the time of the year! 👍

[dark knight]

How about a quiz based tour of the heavens, clues could be given for us to identify targets to view

[Marvin Jenkins]

I have been following a thread in imaging about how bad the effect of Star Link has become for imaging.

I suggested we highlight the problem instead of getting rid of the trails. Perhaps a challenge to produce the most stunning image utterly ruined by sat trails and aircraft?

Marvin

[DirkSteele]

How about a sketching challenge? Most have been competitions that require some level of imaging equipment, and while many of us have cameras, they are often not specialist Astro cameras. A sketching challenge will really open up the competition to those of us who consider ourselves dedicated visual astronomers, and it has the added benefit of improving visual skill when taking the time to draw what we see.

Edited July 7, 2020 by DirkSteele
Typo

[Hallingskies]

On 01/07/2020 at 07:16, Marvin Jenkins said:

I have been following a thread in imaging about how bad the effect of Star Link has become for imaging.

I suggested we highlight the problem instead of getting rid of the trails. Perhaps a challenge to produce the most stunning image utterly ruined by sat trails and aircraft?

Marvin

Not saying that anyone here would cheat but it would be too easy (or tempting) to add a few trails in PaintShop, just to make a point! 🤣🤣🤣

[Marvin Jenkins]

19 hours ago, Hallingskies said:

Not saying that anyone here would cheat but it would be too easy (or tempting) to add a few trails in PaintShop, just to make a point! 🤣🤣🤣

Everyone in this community is far too honest for that kind of nonsense. 🤔

[Snooze]

How about some budget astrophotography for us people who have modest equipment  

[Hallingskies]

An obvious competition subject for now is best photo or sketch of Comet NEOWISE.  There's loads of good ones coming in at the moment, why not make it a competition theme?

[fwm891]

How about boob of the day / month?

I'll kick off with this one...

Forgot to rotate the camera!

 

[Davey-T]

26 minutes ago, fwm891 said:

How about boob of the day / month?

Last night after using a small subframe to focus in Maxim I forgot to untick it so got three very small 600sec's O3 subs of IC1396, bit of an oversite on the Maxim folks part as you'd think their sequencer thingy would be smart enough to turn it off as it overrides all the other capture settings.

Dave

[Marvin Jenkins]

2 hours ago, fwm891 said:

How about boob of the day / month?

I'll kick off with this one...

Forgot to rotate the camera!

 

Thing is I love the picture but how do you get it framed.😁

[WestCoastCannuck]

Small aperture lunar......   (5 inch and under?)   😸

[james_screech]

Something a bit different but still using a CCD/CMOS/DSLR camera, photometry of a variable star. Possibly a time series or an eclipsing binary, or short period pulsating star.

[Pryce]

What about something a little bit different that would include those that don't do astrophotography or potentially someone just starting out?
"The stargazer"

Basically it would be to take a artsy photo of yourself using your equipment?

Something like this(Pulled off google)

Edited August 16, 2020 by Pryce

[mikeDnight]

On 07/07/2020 at 07:38, DirkSteele said:

How about a sketching challenge? Most have been competitions that require some level of imaging equipment, and while many of us have cameras, they are often not specialist Astro cameras. A sketching challenge will really open up the competition to those of us who consider ourselves dedicated visual astronomers, and it has the added benefit of improving visual skill when taking the time to draw what we see.

The late Richard Baum was a great visual planetary observer and author. In his book The Haunted Observatory, he makes a profound statement - "Many look - Few Observe"!   So for anyone looking for a challenge that will significantly improve observing skill and the detail seen at the eyepiece, Matthew's suggestion of a Sketching challenge is definitely the way to go. Even with limited artistic skill, the act of putting pencil to paper greatly enhances concentration, and although the image in the eyepiece may suggest limited detail due to the earths atmosphere, the accumulated detail recorded in the sketch can be similar to stacking images, revealing a surprisingly high level of detail. A couple of pencils, a putty eraser, cotton buds for blending and a sharpener cost pennies. A Good quality sketch book less than £10 = an impressive visual and historical record to look back on.

[DirkSteele]

Amazing!! @mikeDnight

[Slingshot]

Hi, How about something that engages new joiners and complete beginners (like me) that we should try to complete in a given time frame? For example i was out last night, lying on my back in the cold grass, looking at the stars above me. No telescope. I know where Polaris is since i was a kid ( 6 thumbs past the last star on the top of the plough saucepan in a straight line). But it dawned on me there and then, where do i start and how?. I have been looking up like this for a while and have no idea of what objects are what.

Thanks

S

[Adam J]

Capture the largest number of satalite trails in a single sub frame.

[Nigella Bryant]

On 20/08/2020 at 22:15, Adam J said:

Capture the largest number of satalite trails in a single sub frame.

That's way to easy with starlink🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️🛰️lol.

[maxchess]

How about M1 Crab Nebula “my way”. It would be interesting to see the many different scope/camera/processing approaches to this small but beautifully textured object. Will the big aperture SCT/newt guys get the best images or can a well processed dithered/drizzled refractor give sharper images?

announcing now gives time to plan.

[MylesGibson]

I quite like the idea of sketching. I've been doing astrophotography for a short amount of time (still a beginner!) but still enjoy visual sessions. One thing I have never done is sketching. I have always been poor at any sort of artistic thing, so I would use this as an opportunity to have a go at something new!

[Astrid]

What about astrophotography w/very short exposures or astrophotography with a very basic setup (without guiding scopes and other expensive equipment) so beginners can see that you don't need 10s of thousands of dollars to get some decent views of let's say M42 or M31 .

Edited October 16, 2020 by Astrid

[Shaun_Astro]

Crappy achromat challenge!