Telescope Live Monthly Picture Contests
Great prizes up for grab every month for the best astrophotography picture!
The February 2024 contests are live. Take part now!
In this page, you will find the rules for Telescope Live Astrophotography Picture Contests and the respective prizes up for grabs.
So, if you are intrigued by the idea to compete (in a friendly way, of course) for the best astrophotography picture, and you want to give it a go trying to win hundreds of credits to use on our platform this is the opportunity you were waiting for.
If you aren't a subscriber yet, you have to sign up to Telescope Live to participate in the contests. We have a one-week free trial where you can enjoy all the features of the Silver plan for free, for one week.
General Rules Of Engagement
There are two contests each month, called One-Click Contest and Bundle Contest.
Each of these two contests has two tiers, Beginner and Expert. The tier depends on your skill level in post-processing. Later below, we will tell how you will be assigned one of the two tiers.
We will award a prize to the winner of each contest and each tier. Therefore, there will be 4 winners each month, 2 in the Beginner tier, and 2 for the Expert tier, in both the One-Click and Bundle contests.
Anyone with a Telescope Live subscription (Bronze, Silver or Gold) can participate in these contests.
RULE #1
Every month we will select the One-Click Observation and Observation Bundle qualifying for the One-Click Contest and Bundle Contest respectively:
- One-Click Observations contain around two images per filter for either the LRGB or HSO filter sets and around 1-hr of observing time in total. They are relatively easy to post-process as you don’t have many images to combine. However, creating a stunning picture will be challenging as you have little integration time and only a few images available.
- Observation Bundles are collections of One-ClickObservations of the same object, obtained with the same telescope and filters. They contain dozens of images and several hours of observations. A bundle allows you to create stunning pictures using advanced techniques to combine the images and highlight weak details in the picture.
You can participate to both contests each month.
Note that for the One-Click Contest we will choose observations da do not qualify for a bundle, so you will have only One-Click Observations available for the chosen object obtained with a given telescope and filter set.
We will provide direct links to the qualifying One-Click Observation and Observation Bundle. We will announce the new contests every month on our Blog, in our newsletter, via dedicated communications, and in our Facebook Community.
RULE #2
Before you can submit your image for the contest and qualify for the contests, you need to have at least 3 pictures in the gallery post-processed by you using data obtained from Telescope Live
This is essential to establish and confirm your skill level, see next rule.
RULE #3
Depending on your skill level, you can participate in the One-Click and Bundle contests in the Beginner or Expert tiers.
To find out your skill level, you should follow this short guide by clicking on the link below:
Our jury (see below) has the authority to move you from one tier to the other if they think you are in the wrong one. To take their decision, they will also check the previous images you posted in the gallery (see RULE # 2).
You can also ask us to review your tier to be reassigned to a new one.
RULE #4
To qualify for the contest of the current month you must upload your astro-picture in our gallery before the end of each month.
If you exceed the terms, your picture won’t qualify.
You must also tag the picture uploaded in our gallery with some specific tags:
- #OneClickContestMMMYY for the One-Click Contest
- #BundleContestMMMYY for the Bundle Contest
Where MMM represents the first three letters of the month (e.g. Sep, Oct, Nov etc), and YY represents the year (e.g. 21), e.g. #OneClickContestDec21 or #BundleContestDec21
You will also need to add the relevant tag related to your skill level (see Rule #3) to the picture you upload:
- #Beginner if you are in the beginner tier
- #Expert if you are in the expert tier
If you don’t apply these tags, you won’t be qualified for the contest.
RULE #5
Anyone who is caught cheating will be permanently banned from our future contests.
The Jury And Their Criteria
The jury is composed of world-renowned astrophotographers that need no introduction if you are part of the astrophotography world and Telescope Live, and include: Adam Block, Nik Szymanek, Peter Jenkin, Stellar xPeriences. Every now and then, we might invite some additional people to be on the judging panel.
Each judge will independently choose two pictures for every contest category, and then during a dedicated meeting, they will discuss among themselves which ones will be the winner.
The judges will decide at the beginning of every month and the winners will be announced shortly after.
One-Click Contest
- This contest is available to all subscribers: Bronze, Silver, and Gold members.
- You have to pick the One-Click Observation featured in the current month. Note that you won't be able to combine more than a One-Click Observation of the same object. We will specifically pick One-Click Observations that have not been repeated.
- If you haven't grabbed it yet, you will need to grab the One-Click Observation using your credit balance
- You cannot include images that you've obtained through Advanced Requests.
- You must post-process the FITS images coming with the One-Click, you can't use the preview image provided with the One-Click Observation. You can check our basic tutorial here or more advanced tutorials here.
- The picture must be posted on the gallery by the end of the current month
- You must upload the picture using the following tag: #OneClickContestMMMYY plus the tier #Expert or #Beginner, e.g. #OneClickContestOct21, #Expert
PRIZES
The winners of the best picture in the One-Click Contest will receive:
- 25 credits prize (value $38) in the Beginner tier
- 50 credits prize (value $76) in the Expert tier
Bundle Contest
- This contest is available to all subscribers: Bronze, Silver, and Gold members.
- You have to pick the Observation Bundle featured in the current month
- If you haven't grabbed it yet, you will need to grab the Observation Bundle using your credit balance
- You are free to grab fewer One-Click Observations contained in the bundle instead of grabbing all of them. Obviously, this will potentially compromise the final image as you have fewer observations to work with.
- You cannot include images that you've obtained through Advanced Requests.
- You must post-process the FITS images coming with the Observation Bundle, you can't use the preview image provided with the One-Click Observation. You can check our basic tutorial here or more advanced tutorials here.
- The picture must be posted on the gallery by the end of the current month
- You must upload the picture using the following tag: #BundleContestMMMYY plus the tier #Expert or #Beginner, e.g. #BundleContestOct21, #Expert
PRIZES
The winners of the best picture in the Bundle Contest will receive:
- 75 credits prize (value $113) in the Beginner tier
- 100 credits prize (value $140) in the Expert tier
Special Contests
From time to time, we launch special one-off contests. The specific rules and prizes for these contests will be explained in the contest announcement post.
Frequently Asked Question
- If I already post-processed the One-Click Observation or Observation Bundle and posted it in the gallery before the contest was announced, does my image qualify?
Yes, your image qualifies. You simply have to Edit your posted image, and add the relevant tags.
Not bad, huh?
Now that you have all the details for the the different contests, the only thing left to do is to start the competition and get your hands dirty with some crazy observations and post-processing!
Let's have a clean fight, touch hands and go back to your corners! 😉
