Quote:
Originally Posted by mental4astro
If voting happens, it will get ugly.
Two sections according to gear cost, like Rob-K suggests, might be as far as a distinction that should be made. <$2k, and > $2k. It could well give the boys with toys the space they would like, and remove some of the angst.
An 'official entry form' like DavidTrap suggests is good, I said it earlier. Just to give the challenge a standard to go by. 
Give it a go? |
Agreed. Voting simply to choose a winner would probably get ugly and also be a PITA extra task to administer.
I personally don't mind the idea of an "x out of 10" score that members could award to individual images. The intent being to provide some level of objectivity to a contributor's image, with both quality and eqpt cost being factors. If members think that would incur too much embarrassment for some contributors, so be it, but adding a little flavour to the mix may be more enjoyable than plain vanilla every time, and it does give contributors their own personal benchmark from which to try and improve as the months go by.
On the cost sections, I would suggest three; <2K, 2-5K, and >5K. My reasoning being that a lot of potential cheap and cheerfuls ( me included) will almost exceed the $2K just by buying a cheap cooled CCD, whereas budget DSLR-based eqpt setups could probably still scrape into the <2K category.
My EQ6, used C8 and a QHY8 would probably fit the description of many members' setups. This would be firmly in the 2-5K section. The Taks and Losmandy owners would mostly then come into the >5K, and one would hope this extra cost would be reflected for members in the overall quality (or not) of their images.....
Keep in mind that I'm trying to describe this cost aspect from the viewpoint of bang for the buck info for members, not from a 'how much did that image cost' standpoint, if that makes sense..
I'm a little wary of how much actual administration involvement this type of forum would entail, never having done such before, and being inherently lazy. For this reason, I feel it would require at least 2-3 members to participate in running it. All suggestions on this aspect gratefully received.
So to summarise; Seems quite a few members would like to see and participate in such a forum, but without any pure competitive structure. Supporting info should be entry-form-based, with defined eqpt cost sections and based on imaging a specific Messier-type object on a monthly basis.
Any further inputs before we decide the next step?