Clarification please on March Astronomy Image of the Month Competition

[geoflewis]

Hi everyone,

It may just be me, but I'm stuggling  to understand how the new Image of the Month competition works. When I click on the gallery heading I see a mix of members gallery images and what I presume are competetion images, but to me it's not clear which are which. Also from reading the rules, I understand that only images captured in February or March will count and that images should identify telescope and camera used as well as date taken, but I can't tell from some of the images in the gallery any of that info, as most don't appear to have any details posted at all. Also it asks members to 'rate your fellow members images', but I don't see anywhere to do that, so am I missing something. I also don't see any thread where to post questions, comments, etc., about the competition, hence starting this thread, so my apologies if I shouldn't have done this.

Perhaps an administrator could clarify for me how this all should work please.

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by geoflewis

[Jkulin]

Geof, probably best if you send Nick a message as I genuinely haven't the faintest. I've tagged him in @nickaltair

[geoflewis]

1 minute ago, Jkulin said:

Geof, probably best if you send Nick a message as I genuinely haven't the faintest. I've tagged him in @nickaltair

Thanks John, I'll wait to see if Nick chimes in over the next few days, from you tagging him here, but if not I'll PM him direct.

[Bob-c]

On 2/26/2021 at 2:12 PM, geoflewis said:

Hi everyone,

It may just be me, but I'm stuggling  to understand how the new Image of the Month competition works. When I click on the gallery heading I see a mix of members gallery images and what I presume are competetion images, but to me it's not clear which are which. Also from reading the rules, I understand that only images captured in February or March will count and that images should identify telescope and camera used as well as date taken, but I can't tell from some of the images in the gallery any of that info, as most don't appear to have any details posted at all. Also it asks members to 'rate your fellow members images', but I don't see anywhere to do that, so am I missing something. I also don't see any thread where to post questions, comments, etc., about the competition, hence starting this thread, so my apologies if I shouldn't have done this.

Perhaps an administrator could clarify for me how this all should work please.

 

I don't understand it either Geof.

[nickaltair]

Hi Guys, sorry for the delay in responding I've been swamped with work on some new Altair products this week and finally got a chance to have a look...

 

The gallery interface - when you go to the gallery section, you'll see two galleries at the top (clickable images). If you click on the monthly imaging competition one you'll see the competition images. The other gallery is the general "member" gallery for the whole site which contains many images from all members.

 

 

Commenting and liking gallery images:  Click an image in the Gallery, and you'll see a like button and a comments field pop up, like this:

 

 

Voting - here's how you do it - click on the image you want to vote on, and you should see these stars, click them and they should turn yellow, unless there's a problem with the software or setup:  

 

 

Image info - camera and scope: Most of the images I've seen have pretty comprehensive info visible when you click on them, see the above screenshot - it's on the right under the star rating. If you see one without, it's likely to be an oversight - just ask the author in the comments what they used, and I'm sure if the moderators see one, they'll ask the author.

 

Hope you're all well and enjoying the forum. I much prefer this new software to the previous one - I'd like to thank some astro friends who are long term members at SGL for advising us to use this software, and saving us some time and hassle. It works well! 

Have a great weekend! 

 

PS: Please don't feel neglected if I'm slow to respond - just very busy of late - there's been an explosion in demand for all things astro related thanks to the lockdown I guess. Who could have foreseen that - I certainly didn't!

 

[geoflewis]

Hi Nick, thanks for those clarification pointers - very helpful indeed.

[Gina]

Thank you for that Nick and for all your work on the forum - it's looking very good indeed.  👍👍👍

[Carastro]

Yes I was confused to start with, but it is becoming clearer.  Also it says you can only have one image.  So if you produce an image you want to substitute, is it possible to delete the original and post up another? 

 

Carole  

[geoflewis]

9 hours ago, Carastro said:

Yes I was confused to start with, but it is becoming clearer.  Also it says you can only have one image.  So if you produce an image you want to substitute, is it possible to delete the original and post up another? 

 

Carole  

I see that some folks already posted more than one image, so it would be good to know which one they want votes on.... I'm holding off voting until later in the month when most images are there to be compared.....

[Jkulin]

If anyone has posted more than one, then they only need to visit the image and on the top right where the cog is, select the delete function.

[Stub Mandrel]

Hi!

The rules state: "Moderators, and anyone deriving an income from amateur astronomy cannot join. "

 

I make a small but useful part of my  income from writing books, a few astro related ones on Amazon have brought in a couple of dozen pounds so they never occurred to me as a disqualification. I have a proper book on astronomy projects coming out soon that has a four-figure advance.

 

I assume this rule disqualifies me in future?

 

What about anyone who occasionally sells their images or has sponsored astronomy videos on YouTube, for example? Their income may only be a few pounds a month or less.

 

In other words is there a sort of de-minimus amount per year or is it any income at all from amateur astronomy?

 

Is it possible to enter 'for fun' and waive the right to a prize?

Edited April 19, 2021 by Stub Mandrel

[MarkAR]

Interesting thoughts there Stub.

[Jkulin]

@Stub Mandrel Hi Neil, I have asked Nick to clarify.

[Jkulin]

 

On 4/19/2021 at 6:00 PM, Stub Mandrel said:

Hi!

The rules state: "Moderators, and anyone deriving an income from amateur astronomy cannot join. "

 

I make a small but useful part of my  income from writing books, a few astro related ones on Amazon have brought in a couple of dozen pounds so they never occurred to me as a disqualification. I have a proper book on astronomy projects coming out soon that has a four-figure advance.

 

I assume this rule disqualifies me in future?

 

What about anyone who occasionally sells their images or has sponsored astronomy videos on YouTube, for example? Their income may only be a few pounds a month or less.

 

In other words is there a sort of de-minimus amount per year or is it any income at all from amateur astronomy?

 

Is it possible to enter 'for fun' and waive the right to a prize?

 

Hi Neil, Nick and I had a discussion and he has changed the rules to the following: -
 

Quote

Moderators, Professional and Semi Professional Astronomers, and Astronomy company staff, who derive a significant income from Astronomy are ineligible from being judged, but are welcome to submit their images for the sake of sharing. Please mark image as "For Fun". 

 

So as long as you don't fall into the above criteria, then you should be fine.

 

Hope that helps?

[Stub Mandrel]

That's great, thanks!

 

Just out of curiosity, my mentioning the income from the book was followed by a sarcastic email from someone. If they are reading this I'd just like to assure her that welcome though £1,500 is, it isn't life-changing.