As soon as the moon is out of the picture for early evening (next week), it will mark the beginning of the prime season for looking for the Zodiacal light in the western sky as soon as it's dark enough. Absolutely pristine skies are not essential. I have seen it plainly from the Grantsville area, just off I-80 a few hundred yards. It's probably visible from SPOC if not too many local lights are on at the time. I'll award a prize of my choosing for the best Zodiacal light photo posted to the Gallery. Deadline will be March 30, so everyone has 8 weeks to pull something together. The image must be made during the contest period. Film or digital, both methods encouraged, digital processing or classic darkroom enhancement methods are allowed. In fact, to make it fair, we'll have a professional category and an amateur category, so folks like Rob don't blow the rest of us out of the water. The prizes will be some modest piece of astro hardware or literature from my "archives". Emphasis on "modest". Winners will be determined by jury votes, jurists to be chosen by me. Jurists may enter but may not vote for themselves. Entries will be judged from the posted Gallery submissions, no private submissions to the judges. If you don't want to set up a Gallery page just for your contest entry, I'm sure some of us already there will stick your photo up in one of our sections. Maybe we can have a dedicated page just for this, we'll see. Good luck to everyone! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097
Chuck, you're one of the most generous persons I know. How nice of you to organize this contest from your own resources. I'll be looking out the back window every clear evening for a chance to snap a decent pic. I, too have observed the zodiacal light in less than perfect conditions. My favorite "sighting" was from the knoll just east from Horseshoe Springs in Skull Valley during the Hale-Bopp apparition. It didn't show up photographically, I think because my exposures were relatively short to maximize the comet and not background light, but it was obviously there. Kim -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+kimharch=cut.net@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+kimharch=cut.net@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 9:01 AM To: Utah-Astro Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Zodiacal light observing season -CONTEST- As soon as the moon is out of the picture for early evening (next week), it will mark the beginning of the prime season for looking for the Zodiacal light in the western sky as soon as it's dark enough. Absolutely pristine skies are not essential. I have seen it plainly from the Grantsville area, just off I-80 a few hundred yards. It's probably visible from SPOC if not too many local lights are on at the time. I'll award a prize of my choosing for the best Zodiacal light photo posted to the Gallery. [clip]
Aw, shucks, Kim. Now I'm all embarrassed. Thanks, looking forward to seeing your ZL shots! --- Kim <kimharch@cut.net> wrote:
Chuck, you're one of the most generous persons I know. How nice of you to organize this contest from your own resources. I'll be looking out the back window every clear evening for a chance to snap a decent pic.
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The judges will be Ann House, Rob Ratkowski, Patrick Wiggins, and myself. I still think there should probably be two or three divisions- advanced, intermediate, and novice, maybe? Entrants can choose the category they want to be judged in. Honor system, no ringers, please. Thanks to my fellow judges for agreeing to sit in the hot seat! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss an email again! Yahoo! Toolbar alerts you the instant new Mail arrives. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/
NASA just released info about a huge cloud on Titan, which could be responsible for the rain of hydrocarbons. -- Joe http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
Hi Chuck Looks like a fun contest but if at all possible, I'd like to be a judge and not an entrant. While you all are waiting for the ZL, we've had it for a good 6 weeks already and even some of our pro astronomer friends that have seen it for the 1st time are amazed. Best advise is to find a DARK location w/ some scenic value that will show up in the photo, time exposures of 3 to 7 minutes at ISO 400-800 at F2.8-5.6 have worked for me in the past. I've done guided and tripod only exposures and combos of both. Anyway, it's a good reason to get out and enjoy the early evening and maybe do some beautiful images of the Zodiacal Light. Chuck -- what about a Gegenschein and Kordylewski Cloud photo contest next?? Aloha from grey, cool (66º) and windy Maui Rob
Please feel free to participate in any way you like, Rob. In fact your name is at the top of my judges short-list. Thanks for volunteering! Let's see what kind of response we get from this contest, then go from there. SLAS used to have a photo-of-the-month award, a modest gift certificate, IIRC, but I haven't seen any announcements on that program for a while. --- Rob Ratkowski Photography <ratkwski@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
Hi Chuck
Looks like a fun contest but if at all possible, I'd like to be a judge and not an entrant. While you all are waiting for the ZL, we've had it for a good 6 weeks already and even some of our pro astronomer friends that have seen it for the 1st time are amazed. Best advise is to find a DARK location w/ some scenic value that will show up in the photo, time exposures of 3 to 7 minutes at ISO 400-800 at F2.8-5.6 have worked for me in the past. I've done guided and tripod only exposures and combos of both. Anyway, it's a good reason to get out and enjoy the early evening and maybe do some beautiful images of the Zodiacal Light. Chuck -- what about a Gegenschein and Kordylewski Cloud photo contest next??
Aloha from grey, cool (66º) and windy Maui Rob
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COOL! COOL! We can tell you a thing or two about cool!!! .... jb
Aloha from grey, cool (66º) and windy Maui Rob
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Hey Joe I expect YOU to get a shot of the ZL floating over snow covered rolling hills and mountains, a slight shadow of the aspens from the glow of the ZL maybe even a wolf howling to the sky .................... Aloha Rob ;^)
participants (4)
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Chuck Hards -
Joe Bauman -
Kim -
Rob Ratkowski Photography