Some assistance would be appreciated

[leon]

Hi Guys, I am having a lovely time here in Carnarvon WA taking morning and evening pictures of everything Celestial.

It is my intention to enter the David Malin competition in the open section covering the Australian Theme,as described below.

The Open Themed Section is open to all astrophotographers. They are invited to compete together to see who can be the most creative in evoking the theme, which this year will be "Australia Beneath the Stars" that are readily identifiable as 'made in Australia'. The intention is to encourage people with vision and imagination, using simple equipment, such as a tripod and ordinary camera, to make attractive images that evoke the emotion and experience of the Australian night sky.

I have ticked all the boxes as described above, and think i have a great entry, however there is one thing that concerns me and that is this.

With out giving to much away, I have taken an image with an Australian Icon in the foreground just before sunrise, and have the Planet Conjunction in the background.

We all know that one cannot focus on both together, therefore
The Planets are slightly out of focus, however they are perfectly round small spheres, with no trailing at all.

Would this be a major setback if it were to be judged, aesthetically it is spot on.

Some feed back would be appreciated, thank you.

Leon

[iceman (Mike)]

If you set the focal ratio long enough (eg: f11 or greater), you should be able to get both in focus.

I think there'll be a lot of entries with the conjunction Nicely timed in May, with the deadline for entries in June.

Anyway if the planets are still round, being slightly out of focus may actually help because they'll be more visible.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Picture composition is the focus of the competition (most creative in evoking the theme) and (readily identifiable as 'made in Australia') , not necessarily an astrographically perfect picture. Stopping down, longer exposure, higher ISO etc can minimise the effect but I certainly wouldn't let a wee bit of unfocussed image stop me from entering.

Now you've got me intrigued, I want to see the pic when you let it out. And good luck with it as well.

Go fer it ...

[leon]

Thanks Mike and Brent, as said earlier the planets are perfectly round and absolutely no trailing.
I understand that F8-11 would help, but the time would be to long and trailing would occur, I think.

To be honest it looks quite good, and to the untrained eye they would not know the difference, but Mr Malin is trained, LOL.

Many thanks

Leon