Astrophoto contest shooting the skies

Mare Crisium from the Celestron photo contest

A reminder: the Discover Magazine/Celestron "Capture the Universe" astrophotography contest is off to a great start. As I write this almost 100 photos have been submitted (including this one shown here of Mare Crisium on the Moon, selected randomly from the ones online).

I’m judging the contest, and I can already tell picking 10 will be difficult; there are a lot of very cool and very beautiful images up already. But don’t let that stop you! If you have Celestron equipment, haul it out, take some shots, and send them in! I’m looking for beauty, I’m looking for interest, I’m looking for odd, unusual, clever. Surprise me! I’m not saying that’ll win, but I am saying that you’ll want to stand out from the crowd. I expect there will be a lot of really terrific images to choose from.

June 10th, 2009 12:15 PM by Phil Plait in About this blog, Astronomy, Cool stuff | 8 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

8 Responses to “Astrophoto contest shooting the skies”

1. Some Canadian Skeptic Says:
June 10th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

You forgot to mention “If you’re ‘merican, you can enter”

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll weep into my coffee mug.

I don’t even have any coffee!
2. Christopher Ambler Says:
June 10th, 2009 at 1:10 pm

I don’t own Celestron equipment. That kinda kills the “no purchase necessary” part for me.
3. Bipedal Tetrapod Says:
June 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pm

I have Celestron optics.
But I’m a resident of that faraway foreign land – Canada.
Sigh.
4. LinzeeBinzee Says:
June 10th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

I wish there was a contest for us non-fancy equipment owners so we could win some…and then we could enter Celestron contests.

Not that it would matter because I am also Canadian.
5. Evolving Squid Says:
June 10th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

Celestron Nextar 8i… but in Canada.
6. Thanny Says:
June 10th, 2009 at 5:11 pm

So if I put a Celestron barlow in my Meade LX-90, does that count?

Or what about snapping a shot at the end of a Celestron EP through the LX-90 with a TV Powermate?

The rules don’t say you need a Celestron telescope, but it somehow I don’t think the above configurations are what they had in mind.
7. Bipedal Tetrapod Says:
June 10th, 2009 at 7:33 pm

So far it looks like we canucks have a majority.
Of course, the irony is that Celestron is owned by Synta, a Chinese company…
8. Just me Says:
June 11th, 2009 at 12:51 pm

Poopy. So if you’re too poor to own a telescope (like me), then you’re outta luck.

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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.

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