And the winners are

[davidpretorius]

Congratulations to our winner:

astro_south

and the runner up

sheap

astro_south will be pm'd to see whether he chooses the toucam or the lpi and then sheap will receive the remaining one.

It was very difficult to balance scope, experience, learning during the comp etc and come up with the winners, but after many hours, asi and I made our decision.

Honourable mentions to all that entered, but in particuliar Robs film entries and Brett's huge improvement with the wobbletronic.

Thanks to Asimov for doubling the prize pool and I would like to think that this type of comp can be repeated next year with a few more prizes donated.

So thanks again all for entering and well done to our winners

Asi and Dave

[Chrissyo]

Hooray, congrats astro_south and sheap, well deserved :D And of course, a big thankyou to dave and asi for the comp and prizes :)

I must say, a comp is a good source of motivation to practise processing and experiment with different types of captuing. Perhaps we could have monthly comps with no prizes, but a hall of fame like the general photography challenges?

Once again, great job everyone :D

[janoskiss]

Well done guys! Great effort from everyone. I personally liked Jeanette's moon transit sequence the best. :)

... and great job Davo, on organising this and the prizes. :thumbsup:

[Sheap]

im honoured, i really am. Thankyou very much to those who donated the prizes, and a great effort by everybody. I looked at all the other entries, and they were all very good images. Well done to astro_south, your pictures were very good and you well deserved to win.
Thankyou again to all those involved.
Monthly competitions is a good idea, as Chrissyo said, it was the challenge of chasing something down and imaging it that i enjoyed, and something to go for each month would be a great motivation.
Again, i cant thank those who donated the prizes enough, im very new to the hobby, and this should keep me imaging at every opportunity for a long time now.

[gaa_ian]

Good on you Andrew, for a "visual observer" you have done very well !

[davidpretorius]

yes, JJJ and chryssio were great images in their own right, then how do you throw experience, equipment etc etc into the mix. Very hard, but it was great t have asi with me to bounce all factors around.

It would be good to have a comp on the site, but again finding the time to administer it etc is always hard

[davidpretorius]

Ok, andrew has gone the toucam, so sheap gets the LPI,

Sheap, can you please PM (private message) asimov and let him know your address details.

thanks mate

[astro_south]

I thanked you guys in the PM, but I would like to publicly thank you guys for the generous prizes, and Dave for coming up with the competition idea. Of course this will just ruin my 'visual only' status ;) :P ....hopefully I can get somewhere close to the images produced by the talented guys kicking around here. Stay tuned for my first ToUCam image :thumbsup:

Also...glad I was in this side of the fence - some great entries in the comp...you guys must have had a hard time choosing! Congrats to the other entrants for some great images

[davidpretorius]

Arrrggghh, it is so easy getting them over to the dark side....first a toucam, then tracking, then a 5x powermate, then a.........

wife finds out the cost of tracking, husband quickly offloads premium ep's...... arrrghhh yes, the cost oops i mean fun of imaging!!!

[asimov]

My congratulations to the winners. Sheap thanks for the PM. I'll try to get the LPI off to you tomorrow or at the latest, wendesday.

Well done to all contestants. A really great job by all!

A big thanks to Dave for organising it.

[iceman]

Well done Dave for organising it, and Dave and John for the prizes. Very generous and a great way to kickstart an imaging career/obsession in this hobby :)

Andrew, are you going to get tracking on your dob? You're in for some pain if you start using that ToUcam without tracking :)

Excellent images everyone.

[[1ponders]]

Congratualtion to the winners and to everyone who participated. It was great fun to watch you battle the various imaging demons.

Ang congratulations to Dave and John for their support of amateur astronomy and imaging. Fantastic guys, thanks.

Top effort one and all.

[ving]

congrats to the winners of this great comp :D
we are expecting great things of yas :P

congrats and thanks to dave and john for a great idea and a great comp. thumbs up to both of you :
:thumbsup:

[asimov]

I just wish we had prizes for the rest of you guys N' gals that entered, but your all winners in my eyes for just getting out there & having a go!

Great stuff!:thumbsup:

[ving]

you are going to have to change your signature now asi :)

[asimov]

Thats true Ving! :)

[Robert_T]

Congrats Astro_South and Sheap, well done!

DP and Asi, you guys are an inspiration:thumbsup:

cheers,

[jjjnettie]

Congratulations Guys!!
It was a great contest and I really enjoyed particapating. You gave us great incentive to get out and practice and persist. Look forward to following Andrew and Sheaps progress in this particular field. When will we see the first pics?

[acropolite]

Congratulations Andrew and Sheap, a fantastic effort. Thanks to Dave & Asi for their generosity. IMO the best thing about this comp, is that it has encouraged members, who would ordinarily not attempt imaging, to have a go.

[davidpretorius]

next comp asi and i are running will be a moderators imaging comp :D

[ving]

we have to take pictures of moderators? :confused:
i dont get it :P
;)

[Astroman]

geez now they want us to damage our cameras, lucky I dont have one yet :P

[iceman]

I agree with Acropolite.. a great success getting people into astrophotography.

I'll speak with Dave in the future about running more comps similar to this, and see if I can arrange sponsorship in terms of a NexImage or ToUcam or similar.

[Portmac]

Congrats to both winners :)

[Bmanners]

Congratulations to the winners, your images were indeed impressive, and thank you to the organisers and donators. I certainly had fun and learnt a lot in the process.

Cheers
Brett