Photo Contest - When You Wish Upon A Star (7/6 - 7/16)

[ZapperZ]

When You Wish Upon A Star

The Space Shuttle is back in space. To mark that occasion, the photo contest theme this time will be on anything and everything related to NASA, Astronomy, the Heavens, Space Travel/Exploration, etc.

You will have a few extra days to submit a photo since I will be gone all of next week running a workshop.

Contest Rules:

1. Any digital photo or digitally-scanned photo relevant to the theme will be accepted within the contest period. In case there's a grey area, or you're not sure if the picture is suitable, check with me first.

2. Please resize your digital photo to no more than 650 x 490 pixels. You may also crop your picture if you wish. But other than that, any form of picture editing or modification is not allowed. This is a photo contest, not a picture editing/special effect contest. You may add a watermark or your name/nickname to the photo for identification purposes.

3. Upload your photos to any of the photo servers such as imageshack. Then post it the relevant contest thread and link your picture using the img command. PM me if you do not know how.

4. Only ONE picture per member per contest.

5. At the end of the contest period, I will open a poll and every PF member can vote for the picture they like best.

6. Note that in case we have a large number of entries, I will do the polling in more than one thread. If that's the case, you can vote in each of the polling threads. The photos will be assigned in the the polling threads in the order they were submitted.

7. These pictures must be something that you took, not something taken off someone else's photo albums or taken by someone else. I have no way of checking if you did this, so we'll go by the honor system.

8. You can use a picture only once. Once it is used in a contest, it cannot be reused in another contest.

9. Please post only pictures meant for submission in this thread.

Zz.

 

[Gokul43201]

Zz, I've got a question. Is there a reason the size limit is 650X490 and not 650X650? The former requirement favors landscape over portrait (orientations), while the latter is unbiased.

 

[ZapperZ]

Zz, I've got a question. Is there a reason the size limit is 650X490 and not 650X650? The former requirement favors landscape over portrait (orientations), while the latter is unbiased.

You could have it 490x650. While having the protrait picture going all the way out to 650 in width would not cause any webpage misallignment, I thought I'd be fair in terms of restricting overall size (people tend to have an unconsciously favor towards bigger pictures).

Besides, it loads faster and if you're reading the last page posted on that page, it doesn't get pushed out by that much with smaller pictures.

Zz.

 

[Gokul43201]

You could have it 490x650.

That would work just fine. Could you make that explicit from the next time?

This round's theme looks like a tough one...unless you live in Florida!

 

[larkspur]

The Milky Way
http://home.comcast.net/~larkspur2020/Milkyway.jpg

 

[Evo]

The Milky Way
http://home.comcast.net/~larkspur2020/Milkyway.jpg

Oh,[/URL] very nice, I haven't seen anything like that since I lived in upstate NY.

Where was that taken?

 

[Cyrus]

The Milky Way
http://home.comcast.net/~larkspur2020/Milkyway.jpg

[/URL]

Nice picture. There is too much city light here to see anything that nice.

 

[larkspur]

Oh, very nice, I haven't seen anything like that since I lived in upstate NY.

Where was that taken?

Las Vegas, New Mexico

 

[ZapperZ]

Las Vegas, New Mexico

Er... Isn't Las Vegas in Nevada? Or is there another Las Vegas in NM?

Zz.

 

[chroot]

Er... Isn't Las Vegas in Nevada? Or is there another Las Vegas in NM?

Zz.

There is indeed a Las Vegas, NM, in the middle of nowhere east of Santa Fe.

I don't think Las Vegas, NV would be a particularly good locale for astrophotography... :rofl:

- Warren

 

[scorpa]

I don't think I'm going to be able to get a good pic for this one. I wish I could get a pic of the Northern Lights but that won't happen as long as I'm in the city.

 

[larkspur]

Er... Isn't Las Vegas in Nevada? Or is there another Las Vegas in NM?

Zz.

Here it is on a map:
http://home.comcast.net/~larkspur2020/mapoflasvegasnm.gif

 

[ZapperZ]

I don't think I'm going to be able to get a good pic for this one. I wish I could get a pic of the Northern Lights but that won't happen as long as I'm in the city.

Now don't give up so easily. Use your imagination. Remember, anything related to NASA, Astronomy, etc... You don't need just pictures of the heavens to keep up with the theme.

Zz.

 

[scorpa]

Now don't give up so easily. Use your imagination. Remember, anything related to NASA, Astronomy, etc... You don't need just pictures of the heavens to keep up with the theme.

Zz.

Haha ok I'll try and see what I can come up with

 

[ZapperZ]

This photo was taken by my advisor with my camera. I'm at a NASA contest at Johnson Space Center in Houston. At the time, I ( The redhead in the grey NASA t-shirt) was in the mock shuttle building (I forget what number) explaining why quantum teleportation would not be a viable method of space travel in the next 10 years to a teamate of mine.

Unfortunately, I can't accept that photo, per our contest rules

7. These pictures must be something that you took, not something taken off someone else's photo albums or taken by someone else. I have no way of checking if you did this, so we'll go by the honor system.

Zz.

 

[DarkEternal]

Here is a picture of a sunset with a jet contrail that I took atop Las Campanas Observatory, in Chile.
http://web.mit.edu/deternal/Public/Chile/LCO1PF.jpg

 

[JamesU]

Would planes count...?

 

[neutrino]

Having posted a picture of an iridium flare in an earlier contest, this is the photo that best suits the topic from what I have.

 

[ZapperZ]

Would planes count...?

Planes in general do not count, unless it has a direct connection to either NASA, or any astronomy/astrophysics experiments, or space flights.

Zz.

 

[turbo]

Here's my entry - M42, the stellar nursery in Orion. Astro-Physics 6" f:8 APO refractor, OM-1 camera at prime focus loaded with Konica ASA 3200 color negative film. 20 minute hand-guided exposure.

http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/9174/pforion7cm.jpg

 

[larkspur]

Here's my entry - M42, the stellar nursery in Orion. Astro-Physics 6" f:8 APO refractor, OM-1 camera at prime focus loaded with Konica ASA 3200 color negative film. 20 minute hand-guided exposure.

That's beautiful!

 

[turbo]

Thanks! There's a lot more fine detail in the print, including loops of faint nebulosity to the south, but my cheesy digital cam won't pick it up. After I build an observatory for my 'scope, I'll start saving for a nice digital camera. I have a copy of this that I made using some traditional-style unsharp masking (a la David Malin), but the rules preclude the use of that image.

By the way, your milky way pic is really nice. I've got some piggy-backed images of the North America nebula, Veil, etc that I did with my Bronicas, but I like the visual impact of M42. If it's up, that's the first thing I show people at a star party. I hear "wow" a lot.

 

[larkspur]

Thanks! There's a lot more fine detail in the print, including loops of faint nebulosity to the south, but my cheesy digital cam won't pick it up. After I build an observatory for my 'scope, I'll start saving for a nice digital camera. I have a copy of this that I did some traditional-style unsharp masking (a la David Malin), but the rules preclude the use of that image.

I am still working on focusing when taking shots through the telescope. I was extremely impressed that it was taken with a film camera!

 

[turbo]

I am still working on focusing when taking shots through the telescope. I was extremely impressed that it was taken with a film camera!

Thanks! I've got a lot more of them tucked away. I attacked the focus problem by replacing the focusing screen with a Beatty Intenscreen, and using an Olympus Vari-magnifier to give me a magnified view of the screen. As you might imagine, using ASA 3200 film limits resolution due to grain in the emulsion, so I was fighting that a lot. Film astrophotography is one of the most demanding things I have ever had to learn. Piggybacking was fairly easy, but prime-focus photography has its demands...accuracy of polar alignment, accuracy of hand-guiding, elimination of flexure between guidescope and main instrument, and many, many more. For every really nice image I have on negatives, there are lots of duds. Sometimes the duds were great in every respect, but for the space-junk or airplanes crossing the field. I generally will not print those.

Edit: for those of you that are unfamiliar with long-exposure film photography, Larkspur's comment regarding "film" photography may seem a bit odd. Conventional film suffers from reciprocity failure, which makes it tough to get well-balance color images of astronomical bodies. The lower the EM flux, the higher the level of failure, and with many films, the failure is quite pronounced at specific wavelengths, due to the sensitivity of the emulsion in each layer and the characteristics of the masks between the layers. Fuji and Konika produced some pretty decent films through the 1980s, although many Kodak fans might have said that they were "too red".

Many amateur astrophotographers latched onto these films because they seemed to do a good job at replicating the color-balances achieved by the pros.

 

[Janus]

Okay, I don't have a telescope, I live in a metropolitan area, so sky shots are out, and I don't live or been anywhere near Florida, Houston or JPL.

With that in mind, here's my entry, lame as it is. It is a photo of NASA mission patches that I've picked up over the years.

http://home.earthlink.net/~parvey/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/patches.jpg

 

[ZapperZ]

Can't compete with the gorgeous pictures of the heavens, but I'm posting this anyway. This is the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, WI. I'm attending a workshop all of next week that we are organizing, and this is where we will be having our Banquet. This picture was taken when I was scouting for a location to hold that event.

Zz.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm sitting here, patiently waiting for the moon to make it's appearance tonight. I caught a glimpse as I was driving home, and it's nearly full tonight, so should make a nice photo (it's the only chance I have). But, it's a cloudy night, so I have to contend with both the mountain and trees that the moon is still hiding behind, and the clouds. I was going to walk up the hill and see if I could get a photo from a higher elevation while it's still low in the sky, but then I heard some animals making quite a ruckus up there, and decided I'd just stay down here on my deck. At least I think I'm looking in the right direction. I guess it could be behind the houses rather than the trees. Darn clouds! :grumpy: I think tonight's the only night I'm going to have all week to just sit out and relax on the deck and wait to see what I can photograph, and of course it's all cloudy. Can't even see the pretty constellations I can usually see. Maybe I should photograph some lightning bugs and say they're stars...there's way more lightning bugs than stars visible tonight. :rofl:

Ooh, ooh, oooh, I must be watching the right direction...in the time it's taken to write this, I see it getting brighter between the trees. I think I see the tippy top of the moon too. Yay! Soon, I will have just the photo I'm waiting for (if I figured out enough of my camera settings that is ).

Edit: Curses! :grumpy: It's going more sideways than up. It showed up in the first opening in the trees, but I was still fiddling with camera settings, and now it's hiding behind the next set of trees. I don't think I'm going to be able to get this shot without a tripod anyway. I'm trying to steady my arms on a lawn chair, but I'm still getting a big blur.

 

[Moonbear]

Okay, I think this is the best I'm going to get. I learned a lot about how to use my camera tonight, but without a tripod, I'm going to pass out from holding my breath if I make any more attempts to get a steadier shot. It's not quite what I was hoping for, but at least it's something.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/6250/mooniesmoon0sn.jpg

 

[Evo]

Okay, I think this is the best I'm going to get. I learned a lot about how to use my camera tonight, but without a tripod, I'm going to pass out from holding my breath if I make any more attempts to get a steadier shot. It's not quite what I was hoping for, but at least it's something.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/6250/mooniesmoon0sn.jpg

Oh,[/URL] I love that!

If I wasn't afraid of getinmg run over, I'd go to the bottom of the hill. When the full moon rises, from the angle at the bottom of the hill, the moon covers a large portion of the sky, it's awesome.

 

[neutrino]

Can't compete with the gorgeous pictures of the heavens, but I'm posting this anyway. This is the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, WI. I'm attending a workshop all of next week that we are organizing, and this is where we will be having our Banquet. This picture was taken when I was scouting for a location to hold that event.
Zz.

Nice picture. You might want to get some more pictures of the surrounding area as well. It seems they won't remain the same for long.
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1738_1.asp

 

[ZapperZ]

Nice picture. You might want to get some more pictures of the surrounding area as well. It seems they won't remain the same for long.
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1738_1.asp

Yeah, I know about that, which is too bad.

And yes, I did take a lot of pictures of the surrounding, and will take more during the banquet.

Zz.

 

[larkspur]

Okay, I think this is the best I'm going to get. I learned a lot about how to use my camera tonight, but without a tripod, I'm going to pass out from holding my breath if I make any more attempts to get a steadier shot. It's not quite what I was hoping for, but at least it's something.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/6250/mooniesmoon0sn.jpg

[/URL]

I like the clouds and the colors!

 

[ZapperZ]

This contest is still on-going. You have a few days left to submit a photo.

Zz.

 

[Janus]

#$%&#*

I just got back from visiting the Evergreen Aviation Museum today, and they had added a couple of new exhibits which fit right in with the theme of this constest. I got photos, but I've already submitted a photo for this contest! (and a lame one at that!)

 

[ZapperZ]

#$%&#*

I just got back from visiting the Evergreen Aviation Museum today, and they had added a couple of new exhibits which fit right in with the theme of this constest. I got photos, but I've already submitted a photo for this contest! (and a lame one at that!)

You're telling me!

We had our banquet at Yerkes last Thursday, and we had perfect weather for viewing, etc. So I also have more pictures of the historic facility, especially on that refracting telescope, that are a lot more interesting than the one I submitted.

Zz.