The "Malins", Australia's most prestigious Astrophotography event, have been judged for another year.
From a personal perspective it was nice to be invited back into the judging scrum. What also struck me was the consistent convergence by the panel individuals, before group deliberations, on which entries made a great image...yes, just a bunch of hacks... who all have degrees in Science, Astronomy or Engineering and have dozens of national and international awards Meh!. Then there is some bloke called Dr David Malin who sticks his bib in at the end.
. What would they know?
However when judging entries, simple truth is, the cream naturally rises to the top.
The contest has not been without criticism, but this has typically been from those who simply didn't make the cut.
While the standard varied considerably across the various sections it was clear which entries showed mastery of their craft.
In under two weeks the winners will be announced at the CWAS astrofest, which apart from the awards, will also have a number Astro related talks and presentations as part of the festivities (I'm keen to discover how Phil Hart managed a vast array of cameras during a mere minute of totality at Exmouth).
As usual the subsequent exhibition...which has been seen by over 2 million visitors since its inception (as such, it is by far the largest photographic exhibition in the country) will launch at some old radio dish at Parkes.....All jokes aside, a trip to Parkes is always a great weekend away from the "big smoke".
Hopefully we'll see a few IIS'ers there.
