You are invited to submit an image to go on national display at the Botanical Gardens, Dublin next February 2016!

Here is an opportunity for astrophotographers in Ireland to showcase their work, presenting the wonders of the Cosmos at the Botanical Gardens in an exclusive exhibit in a collaboration between the Irish Astronomical Society (www.irishastrosoc.org) and the Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies (www.irishastronomy.org), which includes members of its member clubs.


The Details
Irish astrophotographers are invited to submit an image to be showcased to the public as part of a display highlighting the wonders of the Universe for a limited time from February 2nd to 21st 2016. The Botanical Gardens in Dublin has freely allowed the use of their lobby to display 100 images mounted for display, and incorporate additional items like (a limited number of) telescopes, large format poster displays and more.


The Criteria
Your photo can be submitted in digital or printed format. The following are guidelines:

1. Digital prints must be at 300dpi and in its largest format aspect ratio.
2. TIFF format is preferred, or high resolution (300dpi) JPEG is also allowed (RGB or CMYK is allowed).
3. Physical prints must be of a high quality (uncurled or folded) and can have a gloss or matte finish. Do not send mounted prints.
4. All photos will be fitted in an A3 mount and frame, and therefore may be subjected to cropping, if necessary.
5. All images submitted MUST have information about how the image was taken (equipment, location, software and techniques used, etc.), information about the object(s) shown, and the photographer's information.


Interested?
Digital images can be sent via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as an attachment (do not include off-site links to images), while postal images are to be sent to Botanical Exhibition ℅ Seanie Morris, Anstee, Daingean Road, Tullamore, Co. Offaly.


CLOSING DATE
All considerations must be received by Friday January 8th 2016.


Please Note
- If submitting a printed photo, it cannot be returned. Images supplied DO NOT become the property of the Irish Astronomical Society or the Irish Federation of Astronomical Societies, and copies and prints will be discarded after the exhibition (unless otherwise stated, whereupon the photographer will be contacted accordingly).
- Photos submitted may become part of any promotional campaign to be used in print format and in online news sources and social media specific to this exhibition.
- The organisers and their affiliated clubs (IAS, IFAS, or other) are not responsible for lost postal submissions, lost or misdirected emails (an autoresponder will confirm your email's arrival), or incorrect information supplied.


Want to help out?
The exhibition itself will be manned by volunteers from day to day. Do you think you would like to give a day of your time to act as a sort of exhibition administrator and tour guide? Then please let us know!


Good luck, and thank you,


Seanie Morris,
IFAS Chairperson
(and sent on behalf of the Irish Astronomical Society).

Seanie,

This is great!

Can I just quibble one thing in the rules, though: "All photos will be fitted in an A3 mount and frame, and therefore may be subjected to cropping, if necessary".

Now if there's one thing about us (astro)photographers, it's that our final aspect ratios are sacrosanct. We compose per the camera format - or some pre-conceived cropping of that format - and the most common formats are 3:2, 4:3, and 1:1 square. Square cameras in particular are quite common now in astrophotography. None of these formats is an exact match to A3 (1:√2)...4:3 comes closest but it still requires cropping.

And then you have the stitchers and mosaicers...whose work leads to even more diverse and non-standard final aspect ratios.

Can you imagine a gallery owner saying to Ansel Adams - "I love your 'Moon Over Half Dome', but I'm just going to crop 20% off the bottom of it so that it fits the frame I have in stock"?!

So could I request that you allow a selection of frame aspect ratios for the astrophotography exhibition?

Or failing that - if A3 is the only framing possible -, could I suggest that you replace the cropping rule with one along the lines of this:

"If you wish to submit an image in an aspect ratio other than A3 (1:√2) and not have it cropped by us, then pad it out to 1:√2 dimensions by adding a border of black, grey or white pixels as you see fit".

Cheers,
Ray

Nice one! Ill make sure to send something Seanie!

Image sent !

Just submitted 3 images

John

Submitted 2 images just now!

Yep me too, I emailed a few off. Out of curiosity, did any of you get a confirmation email? I did for my first submission, but none of the others?

Keith..

Keith wrote:

Yep me too, I emailed a few off. Out of curiosity, did any of you get a confirmation email? I did for my first submission, but none of the others?

Keith..

Only sent one email and got some form of autoreply

yohan wrote:

Keith wrote:

Yep me too, I emailed a few off. Out of curiosity, did any of you get a confirmation email? I did for my first submission, but none of the others?

Keith..

Only sent one email and got some form of autoreply

No problem guys, we received all of your submissions. Thank You.

John

Thank you John

Keith..

Hello,

What is the limit on the number of images, It states one but people are submitting multiple images. Will more than one per person be displayed?

There also seems to be 'limited' number or other exhibition items e.g telescopes. Can we submit sketches?

Thanks

Kevin

I see no reply since you posted......I would venture, that since it is not a competition, you can send in as many as you like. Whether the organisers use them all or not will be up to them....

I have submitted 3 to date.....and intend to submit more.

Yes, there is no limit to the number of images you can send in. The only limits will be the available wall space, avoiding too much repetition of the same object and putting on the best presentation of good images for the public. All images will be carefully reviewed and presented as per its original submitted aspect in an A3 frame. Any variation from this will be in consultation with the photographer.

With just over two weeks left there is still time to send images. Those already submitted are excellent and will form the basis of a good show. A press release will be issued after Christmas and we expect a lot of interest from the media at the launch event and over the three weeks of the exhibition.

I note there could be more images of Galaxies, Planets and sky events such as comets etc. so keep them coming.

Send all images to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and please remember to send in the following details:

Image Title:
Location:
Date captured:
Telescope or lens used:
Cameras used:
Exposure(s):
Techniques and software:


John Dolan
Exhibition project team

All

What is the maximum size email your address will accept. I have A3 TIFF images 80 & 230mb respectively at 300 DPI and don't really want to reduce this but if I have to I want to keep it to a minimum.

Is there not a location we can upload images too? Maybe with the printer.

Regards

Kevin

Hi Kevin,
You can share the file on Dropbox with This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

John

Less than one week left to get your images in! Send all images to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and please remember to send in the following details:

Image Title:
Location:
Date captured:
Telescope or lens used:
Cameras used:
Exposure(s):
Techniques and software:


John Dolan
Exhibition project team

Thanks

John what is the maximum email size limit?

Regards

Kevin

Hi Kevin,
Max size through Gmail is 25MB. You can share through google drive also.
See this link: support.google.com/mail/answer/6584?hl=en

Rgds
John

FINAL NOTICE Closing date for entries is this Friday 8th. This gives us a chance to review, print and frame your images before February. All images to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and please remember to send in the following details:

Image Title:
Location:
Date captured:
Telescope or lens used:
Cameras used:
Exposure(s):
Techniques and software:


John Dolan
Exhibition project team

4 images + their descriptions sent via shared Onedrive link.

Last minute or what!

Ray

same here, last minute,

I've sent on a few, if the deadline is extended and you need a few more, I can probabily do a bit more digging and find some more.

Onthing I noticed about my images doing this is that they're all a few years old, I must get back into some more astrophotography again. thats if I ever get a clear sky on a weekend. ..

Entries are now closed. Thanks to all who sent images. The standard is excellent and we now have more than enough to put on a spectacular exhibition.

John

Excellent article I just spotted tonight from Irish Tech News ahead of the exhibition:

irishtechnews.net/ITN3/out-of-this-world...source=socialnetwork

I see there is mention in the Irish Times (online) today (Jan 25th). I don't have a subscription - so can't say anything about the content that is not on the header. However - great to see the exhibition is starting to get more coverage.
www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-ne...y-at-night-1.2508659

Hi Brendan,

The links below should allow you see the full content.

www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-ne...y-at-night-1.2508659

www.irishtimes.com/news/science/images-of-starlight-1.2509399

Brilliant image of the Elephant's Trunk nebula btw,

John