TheSkySearchers

TSS EAA Messier Contest:

TSS (The Sky Searchers) has seen a rapid increase in the use of EAA (electronically assisted astronomy) in the past couple of years. So we have decided to create a new category for the Messier110 contest.
The new contest will be very similar to the regular Messier110 contest with the exception of using EAA for capturing your images.
Below is the definition criteria that we will be using when we review the images for the awards.

EAA Messier110 contest criteria:

1. Images must be captured using one of the following methods.
a. Specialized equipment such as the SeeStar, Unistellar Odessy, Vaonis VE50 Vespera, DWARF II Smart Telescope, Celestron Origin or similar system that captures and stacks images during capture. Please contact one of the TSS TEAM members if you are in doubt.
b. In addition, we will allow the use of software to do “Live Stacking” such as Sharpcap, ASI Studio, AstroToaster, or any software that allows you to 'stack' images while capturing them. (again contact a TEAM member if you have questions).
2. No secondary processing is allowed. What we want are images that are only captured using true EAA methods.
3. We will have 3 levels of submissions. 1 to 39, 40 to 80 and 80 to 110. Each level will have a certificate and award icon.
4. You may post your images in a number of different methods.
a. post them in a TSS gallery or a personal gallery and create a link to the images.
b. you may post them on the submissions page but we prefer to have them all in one thread to make it easier for the TEAM to validate them.
5. Once you have completed a level just create a new topic, select the level and post your link / images.


And that's it!

Any Questions just ask a member of the TEAM!

EAA is exciting and fast evolving branch of armature astronomy. Looking forward new submissions. Winter is great time to start, so many beautiful Messier targets.

This is very exciting. I'm glad us old school SharpCapPro users will be allowed to participate in this new contest too!
Once my observatory is finally finished, I hope to be doing a lot more LiveStreaming and that's what I normally do, using SharpCap, I hop around to many different targets in an evening.

Question. There are quite a few Messier targets that are able to be captured in a single frame. Do we have to shoot the target multiple times or can a single shot count for multiple targets?
M31,32,110 come to mind but also M65,M66 are a pair, also, M97, M108 together and of course M81 & M82.

AstroBee wrote: ↑Fri Feb 02, 2024 7:50 pm Question. There are quite a few Messier targets that are able to be captured in a single frame. Do we have to shoot the target multiple times or can a single shot count for multiple targets?
M31,32,110 come to mind but also M65,M66 are a pair, also, M97, M108 together and of course M81 & M82.

As long as there is no 'post processing' a single image is fine.

Nice idea Gordon, thanks for the opportunity!