The 2020 Astrophotography Contest
RASC Mississauga CentreThe contest is divided into Master Class and General divisions.
Master Class Division:
Master Class Division is open to members who have won a category in a contest previously.
Master Class Category: Solar System
Winner:
Photo by: Shakeel Anwar
Object: Comet NEOWISE
Date Taken: JUL 17, 2020
Location: Kingscote, Ontario
Equipment: Canon 6D, Rokinon 135mm f2 lens, iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Processing: Stack of 15, 45 sec exposures @ ISO 1600. Stacking done in Sequator. Colour, contrast and additional post-processing done in Photoshop
Second Place
Photo by: Shakeel Anwar
Object: Cresent Moon with Cresent Venus
Date Taken: JUN 19, 2020
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Equipment: 8inch LX-90, Meade f/6.3 focal reducer, Canon 6D
Processing: Single exposure ISO 100, 1 second – contrast, brightness and sharpness adjusted in Photoshop
Honourable Mention
Photo by: Shakeel Anwar
Object: Jupiter & Saturn with their Moons
Date Taken: DEC 18, 2020
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Equipment: 8inch LX-90, Canon 6D at prime focus
Processing: The image is an HDR composite of at 4 different exposures to bring out the moons and planetary surface details. Registax wavelets were applied to each image which were then manually combined and processed in Photoshop to produce the final HDR image. In the image, 5 Saturnian moons and 4 Jovian moons are visible. The main cloud belts and the Great Red Spot can also be seen on Jupiter. On Saturn the planet and rings are clearly defined.
Master Class Category: Deep Sky
Winner:
Photo by: Dennis Gasparotto
Object: Wizard Nebula – NGC 7380
Date Taken: JUN 23, 2020
Location: Lake of Bays near Baysville, Ontario
Equipment: AT 102ED with 0.8 reducer and ASI294mc pro camera using L-enhance filter
Processing: Pixinsight, DBE, colour calibration, star reduction, curves, Geometric rotation, histogram stretch
Second Place
Photo by: Dennis Gasparotto
Object: The Eagle Nebula – M16
Date Taken: JUN 8, 2020
Location: Oakville, Ontario
Equipment: AT 102ED with 0.8 reducer and ASI294mc pro camera using L-enhance filter
Processing: Stacked images with Deep Sky stacker. Histogram stretch. Colour calibration. Star reduction using star mask and morphological transformation. Curve transformation. Linear mask Local histogram. Multiscale Linear transform to remove noise.
Honourable Mention
Photo by: Dennis Gasparotto
Object: Tulip Nebula – Sh2-101
Date Taken: JUN 23, 2020
Location: Lake of Bays near Baysville, Ontario.
Equipment: William Optics 80mm ED with 0.8 reducer and ASI294mc pro camera using L-enhance filter
Processing: Pixinsight, DBE, colour calibration, star reduction, curves, histogram stretch
Master Class Category: Nightscape
Winner:
Photo by: Shakeel Anwar
Object: Comet NEOWISE
Date Taken: JUL 17, 2020
Location: Kingscote, Ontario
Equipment: Canon 6D, 50mm f2 lens, iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Processing: Comet and sky – Stack of 6, 20 sec exposures @ ISO 1600; Land – Stack of 2, 20 sec exposures @ ISO 1600
General Division:
The General Division is open to members who have not won a category previously.
General Category: Solar System
Winner:
Photo by: Gary Crawford
Object: Sunspot
Date Taken: JUN 5 – JUN 6, 2020
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Equipment: Meade 115 mm APO refractor, ASI174mm-c, Quark Chromosphere, EQ6R Pro
Processing: Sharpcap, Autostakkert!: sharpened in RegiStax 6, Photoshop: additional high pass filter for sharpening, histogram adjustment, curves for prominence, cropping, colour added, composite preparation
Second Place
Photo by: Gary Crawford
Object: Mars & Moon Conjunction
Date Taken: SEP 5, 2020
Location: Mississauga, Ontario.
Equipment: Meade 115 mm APO refractor, ASI2600, 2,5x Barlow EQ6R
Processing: Autostakkert!: 10 percent of 500 frames, Photoshop: sharpening, tone adjustment with curves, increased saturation
Honourable Mention
Photo by: Kirby Alguire
Object: Comet NEOWISE
Date Taken: JUL 20, 2020
Location: Charleston Lake, Ontario
Equipment: Canon 6D with 400mm L-Series Telephoto
Processing: Tracked on a Skywatcher Adventurer Mount. 18 – 15 second subs for 4.5 min total exposure at ISO 3200 and F5.6. Stacked in DSS. Processed in Photoshop PSE: Histogram stretching, Dust and Spec removal, Sharpening and noise reduction.
General Category: Deep Sky
Winner:
Object: Wizard Nebula.
Date Taken: SEP 4 – OCT 17, 2020
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Equipment: Meade 115 mm APO refractor, ASI2600, 0.8x field flattener, L-Enhance Filter, EQ6R
Processing: Meade 115 mm APO refractor, ASI2600, 0.8x field flattener, L-Enhance Filter, EQ6R
Second Place
Object: Owl Cluster
Date Taken: OCT 14, 2021
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Equipment: Meade 115 mm APO refractor, ASI2600, 0.8x field flattener, IDAS filter, EQ6R
Processing: Stacked 100 x 120 sec. images in APP, light pollution removal, background calibration, and star colour correction; minor curves adjustments, star reduction, star colour enhancement in Photoshop CC.
Honourable Mention
Object: Double Cluster
Date Taken: OCT 10, 2020
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Equipment: Meade 115 mm APO refractor, ASI2600, 0.8x field flattener, IDAS filter, EQ6R
Processing: Stacked 90 x 90 sec. images in APP, light pollution removal, background calibration, and star colour correction; minor curves adjustments, star reduction, star colour enhancement and star diagonals added in Photoshop CC.
General Category: Nightscape
Winner:
Photo by: Kirby Alguire
Object: Moon & Venus Conjunction
Date Taken: JUN 19, 2020
Location: Carding Mill Trail – Oakville, Ontario
Equipment: Canon 70D with 400mm L-Series Telephoto
Processing: Single 1.5sec frame at F11 and ISO 400. Processed in Photoshop CC: Brightness/Contrast, Selective Colour to bring up tangerine sky and darken the trees .
Second Place
Photo by: Kirby Alguire
Object: Saturn and Jupiter Conjunction
Date Taken: DEC 18, 2020
Location: Sixth Mile north of Oakville
Equipment: Canon 6D with 66mm Lens
Processing: Single 4.0 sec frame at F4.5 and ISO 800. Processed from RAW in Photoshop CC: Lens Correction with RAW Filer; Cropped from landscape to portrait; Masking of ground from sky; Brightness/Contrast on ground; and sky; Selective Colour on ground and sky.
Honourable Mention
Photo by: Kirby Alguire
Object: Saturn and Jupiter Conjunction
Date Taken: DEC 17, 2020
Location: Sixth Mile north of Oakville
Equipment: Canon 6D with 42mm Lens
Processing: Single 6.0 sec frame at F4.5 and ISO 1600. Processed from RAW in Photoshop CC: Lens Correction with RAW Filer; Cropped slightly (retained landscape); Masking of ground from sky; Brightness/Contrast on ground and sky; Selective Colour on ground and sky.
General Category: Smartphone
Winner:
Photo by: Anika Shrivastava Garrioch
Object: Luna
Date Taken: MAY 6, 2020
Location: Oakville, Ontario
Equipment: iPhone SE 2020 and Vixen RF130, 25 mm eyepiece
Processing: Default Processing
Second Place
Photo by: Bhavishyaa Vignesh
Object: Moon, Venus, Mercury & Spica
Date Taken: NOV 13, 2020
Location: Oakville, Ontario.
Equipment: Iphone 11 pro, Binocular 10×42
Processing: light pollution removal; Sharpening and noise reduction
Honourable Mention
Photo by: Jo VandenDool
Object: Milky Way
Date Taken: SEP 19, 2020
Location: Caledon, Ontario
Equipment: Motorola One Action phone on Tripod.
Processing: 15 x 30sec Light Frames, Processed with Adobe Lightroom Mobile, Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker