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Agree with orionid. And I recall a previous thread where U-Man] said he tends to have a more open interpretation in his themes, though it would be nice to have that confirmed. Not that it matters to me; I went pretty traditional this theme.

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I will take advantage, Chup I have the scope, I need the mount. Once that’s in place (and it’s been delayed, delayed, delayed), your expertise would be invaluable in making a nice composition.

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Registax, for my experience, sucks. I can 3-point align on three stars and it’s useless. I’m probably doing something wrong, like not having each and every got-dammed pixel in a row, but it doesn’t recognize and adjust anything; it just overlays one pic on another–there’s no alignment process that I can determine to correct for any variables. Result: triple star images, all field rotated. I can overlay in my 1998 Roxio Photosuite at least as well (better–I can rotate the images), and without the processing time, so I’ve given up on that program (and I tried, many times). Plus, the ‘user manual’ is barely spanglish, if even.

I’m hesitant to download new software stuff only to find out it can’t compensate for my lack of know-how or equipment. Basically, I’ve given up. What I want will take the points specified and overlay them correctly, regardless of field rotation (it is TIFF or RAW, for cripes sake–are we living in the days of CRAY-I?!?). If I knew how to do this stuff on my own–I’d be doing it instead of bitching about what I can’t do in a forum. A decent instruction manual that amounts to something like a class would help, but I haven’t seen that in freeware.

Forgive the gripe session; in a pissy mood anyway. Sucks to know one doesn’t have photo skills beyond color saturation and gamma correction, and there’s no freebie software to cover up that lack of knowledge. Must be nice to be an engineer with $thousands of disposable income to spend on toys.

p.s.; good article link; I’ve bookmarked it for reference. But I’m still bitchy.

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color waterfall, pencils (I’m surprised it didn’t do better this week), didn’t care for the dog (he looks like he’s miserable). And I like this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/redletterphoto/4795177046/in/set-72157624496715608/

But don’t take my word for it; if I were a good judge of cool photos, I’d have a better vote/pic ratio.

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Lovely candid shots (well they certainly look candid.) Didn’t have any problems with that? I esp. like the couple embracing by the waterfront and the kid with the camera thereafter.

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I’d sure like to learn the trick of how to make the starry sky stand still for 6 minutes while one composes a picture…that’s quite a feat. So I’ll check back later.

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CISS; I’m inclined to believe it’s pretty much as it was. Mt. Lemmon has fantastically dark skies. The telescopes in the domes have to be very dark to capture decent shots (i.e., light pollution from the inside). Today’s cameras can have fantastic ISOs, and to have the dome lit up like that from the inside tells me that the camera must have been super-sensitive to any light. Since there’s no moon, its easy to have the interior of the dome, however dim, be well-above brighter than the exterior, which would be lit solely by stars. The stars themselves would be phenomenal. A fortunate 10-20 second exposure could have captured that, given a sensitive camera and the right moment. Timing is everything. When they do happen, Perseid meteors often happen in groups of 2-4 at once, and sometimes are followed within seconds by another group. Serendipity happens, I’d say.

But that’s just my opinion. Everyone else’s mile rating may vary.

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Jealous. As. Fuck.

That is sa-weet! From what I can tell, it’s about a 90 degree fisheye lens; it’s 22.5 degrees from the Double Cluster in Perseus (where they seem to originate from) to Andromeda (above and a bit to the left). Can’t be more than a 30 second exposure or we’d see trails (or the dome would, alternately, trail); must have been one hell of a camera setup! Just goes to show you what dark, non polluted skies can do for you.

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Congrats to INBD, with close second congrats to U-Man, and 3rdsies to soosh.

I’m happy with 4th; that pic was taken the morning of the contest, utterly without ideas and just happy I got a nice sunrise to relieve the stress of an unproductive week. Now I’m stuck with a plethora of good shots for ‘Have a seat’ and having to decide what the fickle voters will actually like and the reality that this collective group may likely outdo me in creativity alone regardless.

But I’m getting to where, regardless of contest results, I’m liking my shots on their own and think some of them are comparable to the ‘Farktography’ greats.

I may keep playing. For a few years. Maybe. 😉

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Sure enough I didn’t get anything. I deleted the 72 pics I took as light polluted and a sad commentary on our night skies. I did, however, get some awesome pictures after work in the morning, for Chairs, maybe for some other upcoming contests. All was not lost.

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Pope I’d have taken the opportunity; even if not for this contest. You never know what contest will be coming up that you could use it in.

I, too, went shooting this morning for this contest. Had a particular seat in mind in Downtown Mesa, then wound up walking around for two hours taking pics of other seats and other stuff I thought were good (plenty of fodder for the contest, haven’t even looked yet but they are downloading now.) I happened into the Mesa Arts center, and there was an opportunity there so I was shooting. There’s a large pool/stream/artsy sculpture thing next to me, but it’s dry. As I’m shooting, the water comes on and it starts to fill. Moved the camera to a location to focus on that; took a few dozen pics; I think I’ll have one in ‘waterscapes’. Serendipity, completely! I never pass up a shot if I think it will be a good one.

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I think I got nothin; I didn’t watch every second. I did about 30 minutes, continual 15 second exposure (jpeg only; no point in RAW format for meteors in light pollution anyway.) Won’t know till I get home and upload them.

lol at Kestrana quote.

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P.S.; I’ll be shooting from 1:30am to 2:30 pm, 15 second shots (maybe 10), till my two 4 gig and 1 1gig card are full, or time runs out. Maybe I’ll get one. Or two. Will post in the a.m.

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Damn fisheye aspects; I thought the triangulum was that, but couldn’t make it gibe so I gave up (and I had to go to work.)

Neat app, Causal!

And I’ll check out the Flickr group as well.

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Orionid I would make the bet that even though you set up the date and location, the Meade lost the date and reverted back to some time in 1999 (or whatever) before you slewed. That happened to me a few times; I had to reinput it and realign it and then it would be fine. Don’t know why it would do that, but you might give it a shot.

And…gofer the new mount–it would be sweet. I’ve piggybacked a few on my scope but as it’s alt-az, I’m still limited. Still haven’t gotten the polar mount (I figured why bother in the monsoon season–but that’s ending soon; hope to have by October.)

Cause; those must be pretty short exposures but they’re nice shots. Each features the Pleiades in the lower right, and a piece of sky that isn’t really centered on any constellation I can identify (Aries should be above it, though.)

Maybe I’ll take my camera to work tonight and hope for the best from a light-polluted 5 story garage top.

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