Malin Awards Shortlisted finalists- see below...

[Andy01]

http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/astrofest/DMA/2018_shortlist/

Check out the amazing images above - Thrilled & honoured to be amongst such talented IIS & ASV company.

Goid luck to all :)

[leon]

Certainly some brilliant images there Andy

Leon

[LewisM]

That Andrew Campbell guy produced a magnificent shot - is he a member here? :P

Bratislav's eclipse is something else too!

[rustigsmed]

very nice images (of course), but shouldn't the rules between nightscape and widefield be tightened up? they just about appear the one and the same thing here ... with the exception of the two widefield deep sky objects in the widefield category.

the contest does appear quite widefield heavy - would be nice if they showcased more of the deep space stuff, i'm sure David gets a bunch of very high quality deep sky images - 'tis a shame not to showcase them.

of the 38 images short listed only 15 are terrestrial free... a bit low for an astrophotography competition? - don't get me wrong they are all fantastic images, but the widefield stuff gets such a look in most other competitions it's a shame to have so few deep sky or high resolution planetary/solar images - in one of the most well respected astrophotography comps. just my 2cents.

cheers

[Peter Ward]

I agree. One would have thought if there are landacapes etc. in an image, then it should be by definition a nightscspe. I find the category crossover disturbing.

That is not to say nightscapes are not wortiy...they are often simply beautiful images (I am a very big TWAN fan) but I would have thought the whole point of categories is not compare apples with oranges.

[AndyG]

I've wanted to get into AP for nearly a year now, and this thread without doubt, further inspires. Not ever having owned an EQ mount, my options are currently limited.

So, I show these wonderful pics to my Wife, and share with her what I'm keen to pursue in future (get the Minister of finance on side, etc).

Her replies:
Space Balloon - "yeah... that's a jellyfish?"
Omega Centauri - "someone swallowed glitter, and threw up?"
A Mountain of Gas in Puppis - "Neverending story intro credits?"
E lucevan le stelle - "Yeah... again?"
Silver Dollar Galaxy - "dirty stove - better clean it!".

At this point, it was evident she was... less inspired than I. My hopes for saving for a good EQ mount faltered... I had no words.

What can I say to this? Help a brother out... :confused2:

[rustigsmed]

:thumbsup:



hi andy, looks like you have an uphill battle there. however you can still take great shots on an alt-az which is what i believe you are using - particularly on the brighter objects. just take a look at cometcatcher's setup, yes while it is equatorial the subs are no longer than 30 seconds. you just need to remember to take a lot more of them to iron out noise (think hours not minutes...). i used to also take 20 sec shots on my goto dob when starting out, yes you get a bit of field rotation on the outside of the frame after stacking but it is fine after a small crop. you can definitely squeeze more out of your existing setup while you start hiding away some $ every pay ;)

[Peter Ward]

Make clean and amicable.

Keep your Superannuation, but you might have to give her the house.

[AndyG]

Now what can I possibly do in the face of such well reasoned, considerate, intelligent advice?? It's almost like a solution is apparent... I just gotta look a bit... harder...



Ah, now there's the ticket!


P.S. Sorry to bend your thread Andy01

[diegocolonnello]

10 minutes laughing HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA i love the remarks...... someone said choose your battles, this is not something you espect to win, find something to keep her distracted........
"someone swallowed glitter, and threw up?" HAHAHAHAHQAHAHAHAHAHA

It is an honor to be on this list, i am surprised this photo made it this far....

Good luck to everyone...... by being shortlisted i am a winner already, can't ask for more.... really....

[gregbradley]

Yes some lovely images there. I agree widefield needs to be better defined as its all over the shop. Mostly nightscapes.

I have been a bit confused in the past about what to enter into that category as an FSQ type wide image I though would go there but it also could be deep sky.

Greg.

[EddieT]

Firstly, congratulations all!

Secondly...

David judges images in the category they are submitted to.

I remember one year, someone asked him about an image they submitted into a questionable category that didn't win. And David said, yes it might have one in the other category.

I can understand that images with a terrestrial component are nightscapes, but does that exclude them from being widefield? I'm not so sure...

[gregbradley]

I think it just needs some clarification as its a competition and the rules should be crystal clear otherwise we'll get House Rules!

Also its an astro competition not a landscape image competition. A grey area for sure.

Greg.

[clive milne]

Being as Canon pays the piper, it is realistic to expect the shekels to fall to those who showcase what is achievable with a DSLR
in preference to a 100 hour, cryogenic E2V deep depletion data mine, even if the image is worthy of a nobel prize.

Sadly, the Malin awards are bleeding credibility to my eyes.

~2c

[Peter Ward]

I’d go for the stuff up over the conspiracy every time. I don’t believe David Malin is swayed one iota by Canon’s sponsorship.

That said, I’d bet London to a brick that the number of nightscape images has grown from a ripple to a tsunami...as consumer equipment (Canon/Nikon/Pentax etc.) has improved by an order of magnitude in the last few years with a corresponding fall in price.

Deep Sky, while popular, is hard to do well AND put a fresh face to....plus the gear required to grab an A-list image has been at a technological plateau for a number of years now....and is not getting significantly cheaper... new 4k sensor sCMOS pricing is daunting...and as for emCCDs..fantastic tech...but eye watering $$

Sure, the Malins are not perfect. Nor is Greenwich...and I am not aware of anything even similar in the USA....so perhaps they deserve more cred than some give them.

[gregbradley]

I have thought though that deep sky should really be broken down into a few categories just like astrophotographers tend to do with their gallery.

To have a shot that took a few minutes to take up against an image that took several days to capture and many hours to process has always struck me as odd.

Nightscapes, whilst I love them, are not really even astrophotography by the usual common meaning.

If you were too loose in your definition any image could be called astrophotography as after all any daytime image has part of the sun in it either directly or through illumination of the scene. Taking the argument to the extreme.

Greg.

[EddieT]

Hi Peter


Agreed. And there hasn't always been a Nightscapes category.

Back in 2005, there wasn't and the winner of the solar system category was a picture of climbers on the Harbour Bridge in front of the Sun.

Can't remember if there was a brouhaha about that at the time. I think everyone just accepted it.
It was just a great photo...

[gregbradley]

My point. Hard to see the astro in that.

Here is the definition of astro- ;

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/astro-

And just to be clear the definition of celestial body:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=define+celestial+bodies&form=EDNTHN&mkt=en-au&httpsmsn=1&refig=551ae7970f774871ae9118f089006 2aa&sp=-1&ghc=1&pq=define+celestial+bodies&sc=1-22&qs=n&sk=&cvid=551ae7970f774871ae9118f0890062 aa

Greg.

[EddieT]

Hi Greg,

I think using any definitions other than those listed on the contest website is not that useful..

I've said it before, the Malin Awards are not just a strictly defined astrophotography contest with David's name on it. Everything about it is defined by him and what he looks for in an image.

People have been trying to redefine it for years but the fact is, agree or disagree with David's choices, they are the only ones that matter in this context.

If someone were to create another strictly-defined astrophotography contest, then we could argue the finer points, but the Malin awards are not that contest.

[gregbradley]

Yes I see what you mean.

Greg.