RASC Halifax Centre Astroimaging Contest & People's Choice Award

Want to shine like a star? Gain galactic bragging rights? Burst with pride like a bolide? Enter your hard-won astro-images in the Astroimaging Contest! Here’s all the info you need to generate your own solar radiance.
 
As of April 2019, the Astroimaging Contest, formerly only within the purview of Nova East, is now a Halifax Centre contest thereby opening it to more than Nova East registrants. Astrophoto submissions from past years are available for viewing below. 

Who Can Submit to the Contest:

Submissions will be accepted from any RASC Halifax Centre member and any person currently residing in Nova Scotia.

Important Note:

By submitting a photo to the Nova East Astroimaging Contest, the photographer has given permission for use on the Nova East Star Party website, the RASC Halifax Centre publication Nova Notes, and display at Halifax Members’ Meetings, and on the prize sponsor’s website and social media. If the photo is to be used for any other purpose, the photographer’s permission will be requested specifically for that purpose.

Deadline for Submission to the Contest:

Submissions will be accepted August 21, 2020 - September 11, 2020. This would allow for distribution to the adjudicators and for any arrangements that would be necessary regarding the awards presentations at NE. 
 
For 2020, the deadline for submission will be midnight Friday, September 11, 2020.

Contest Categories:

The Nova East Astroimaging Contest has three categories:
1.     Wide Field (WF)
2.     Solar System (SS)
3.     Deep-Sky/Prime Focus (DS)

Image Description Guidelines:

Provide a single text file with the image description(s) separate from the images. The information provided will be used when posting the photos (except the photographer’s name prior to the winners being announced).  Each description should be a single text block with:
·      Photographer’s name
·      Image Title
·      What the object is
·      Pertinent details 
·      Capture details: location, time, camera make, camera settings, lens, mount, total exposure time, focal ratio, processing steps, etc.

Image Guidelines & Submission:

The photo submitted may be in colour or black and white. No composite photos are allowed; however, stacked photographs are allowed. Each person may submit two entries per category. However, each person may win only once per category for which they submitted photos, i.e., they cannot win both 1st and 2nd prize in a category.
 
Images should be in JPEG format, 2,400 pixels wide, and should not have text (such as labels, copyright notices or other information) imprinted on them. Images should not be embedded in a presentation format.
Some composites (for example, those with foregrounds shot from a different location and/or date than the sky portion) are not eligible, however, nightscape images and photos consisting of stitched mosaics and panoramas are allowed.
 
All images must be captured using equipment you personally set up and operated.
 
The File Name format: category + image Title + file extension. Please do not include your name or initials in the naming of the file. For example:
·      WF Yarmouth Milky Way.jpg
·      SS Moon crater Plato.jpg
·      DS M101.jpg
 
Images are to be emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Include your full name and address in your email with the JPEG of your photo. Use the naming format and the image description cited above.

People's Choice Award

Thanks to the work of Melody Hamilton, the People's Choice Award was established as part of the Nova East astroimaging contest in 2018. The winner was determined by fellow Nova East registrants voting for their favourite photo of all those submitted to the contest. Fellow astronomers and their families got to acknowledge amateur photographers and their work. 

Given Nova East 2020 is a speaker series utilizing Zoom for attendance, the mechanism for voting for this award during COVID-19 restrictions has changed. A method will be determined over the summer and announced on the Nova East and Halifax Centre sites in mid-September.

Prizes:

The Astroimaging Contest prizes will be determined each year in conjunction with the contest sponsors. The People's Choice Award is a gift certificate to Atlantic Photo Supply.

Announcement of Winners

Astroimaging Contest : All photos submitted will be judged for their technical merit as well as their composition, visual interest, and artistic merit.

People's Choice Award: Voting of members and contest participants will determine the winner of this award. The 2020 mechanism for voting will be determined before the closure of the Astroimaging Contest.
 
Winners will be announced at Nova East each year, or on another date determined by the Board of Directors. The 2020 winners will be announced at the October 3, 2020 Members' Meeting.

Those winners not in attendance will be notified by phone or email regarding their win. Once all winners have been notified, the winners will be announced on the Nova East website, through the RASC Halifax Centre Announce List, at a Members' Meeting, and on the sponsor’s website and social media.

2019 Astroimaging Contest Entries

(Photos are the copyrighted property of the photographers. Permission to use any of their photos for other purposes must be obtained from the photographer.)

These photos (1 - 30) are this years entries. Registrants may vote for their People's Choice favourite. See the Registrar for details when you arrive.  Note: with some internet browsers, hovering over the photo with your cursor, will display the photo details.

8 M27 Narrowband (DS) Winner of the DS category - Jeff Donaldson

25 Mare Nubium’s Straight Wall (SS) Winner of the SS category - David Hoskin

13 I feel like a spot of tea. Where's the teapot? (WF) Winner of the WF category - Jerry Black

29 Balancing Rock and Milky Way (WF) Winner of the People's Choice Award - Barry Burgess

1 Fireball Meteor (WF)

2 Quinan Milky Way (WF)

3 Bubble Nebula in Hydrogen-alpha (DS)

4 Triangulum Galaxy (DS)

5 Spirit Road (WF)

6 One Hundred Thousand Light Years (WF)

7 Milky Way Rosé (WF)

9 Bubble and Friends (DS)

10 The Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) (DS)

11 Sagittarius Star Cloud and beyond (DS)

12 Shadows from the center of the Galaxy (WF)

14 10.8-day-old-moon (SS)

15 Comet meets the Pleiades (WF)

16 Winter sky with comet (WF)

17 The Flaming Star Nebula (DS)

18 The Tadpoles Nebula (DS)

19 Life‘s Good (WF)

20 Blue Moon (SS)

21 Half Moon (SS)

22 Contrast (WF)

23 The Trifid Nebula (Messier 20) (DS)

24 The Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27) (DS)

26 Sunspot Pair (SS)

27 Northumberland Strait Milky Way (WF)

28 New Moon and the Bull’s Eye (WF)

30 Rocks and Stars (WF)

Examples of previous entries from 2017 and 2018...  

(Photos are the copyrighted property of the photographers. Permission to use any of their photos for other purposes must be obtained from the photographer.)

Gibbous Moon	Zodiacal Light	Turret Arch, Arches National Park, Utah
Milky Way at Keji	Starman	Iris Nebula, NGC 7025
M13 Hercules Cluster	M101 Pinwheel Galaxy	Facing Inward, San Pedro de Atacama Chile
Earth Shadow	M13 Hercules Cluster	M42 Orion Nebula
Southern Milky Way	Harvest Moon