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Old 14-07-2019, 04:21 PM
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andyc (Andy)
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Join Date: Dec 2011
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Interesting points everyone. The 'category blur' is tricky, with widefield this year crossing over with deep sky, last year it seemed to be Solar System, Nightscapes and wide field. And yeah, there's a huge difference between the tech/effort across some categories. The pretty snapshots (like APY) are disproportionately represented, but probably understandably for what's ultimately a pretty photo comp! In Deep sky, it seems clear that David like sumptuous nebula shots as his favourites, with very few galaxies. I guess in the long run I think they perhaps could look at broadening their judging pool?

Paul, though you've had a fair few finalists and wins over the years, it's still the case that the narrowband Sun and 'colours of the Moon' have dominated recent finalists (>40% of all finalists in past 5 years, all winners since 2015, and 6/8 winners since 2011). It's most notable in the past 5 years when hi-res Solar System imaging has moved to another level of quality and accessibility over the same time period, with quite a number of superb imagers around Aus now. In that time, just a few Saturns and one superb Mars from Stefan made it through.

Much as David's preference in deep sky is nebulae (maybe not surprising!), I think his strong preference in the Solar System is Sun and Moon, and with Apollo 50, it seems it was hardly worth entering a non-Moon shot. All Solar System finalists can be related closely to a theme of 'journey to the Moon', rather than the very best images of the Solar System - otherwise yours should be there as well. [My humble entries were comparable to yours - though the Saturn wasn't my very best possible in terms of processing, it was a good look at the big storm, and a couple of decent Jupiters. I threw the Saturn in because I'd seen his preferences, but as you show, he was not looking at all in that direction this year! Maybe I'll put in a 'colours of the Moon' next year for fun ].

That 'Lunar generations' shot is tremendous - great inventiveness and opportunism.
Anyway, it's all good in the end, and best of luck to everyone this week!

Last edited by andyc; 14-07-2019 at 04:37 PM.
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