‘Rajasthan Astrophotography Competition’

The Public Outreach and Education Committee (POEC) of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI) is happy to announce the 'Rajasthan Astrophotography Competition'. This contest is an effort to popularise the beauty of the sky as well as the natural and manmade heritage of Rajasthan. Each entry for the contest must have elements of the night (or twilight) sky with celestial objects, e.g. stars, planets, Moon, Milky Way etc, as well as typical elements of Rajasthan’s heritage, e.g. historic forts, palaces, havelis, natural landscape etc. The contest entries should be new images taken since July 1, 2016. The entries will be judged by a panel of renowned astrophotographers.

We have exciting prizes for you thanks to ISRO, PRL, IIA and ASI. These include a trip to a rocket launch, a trip to the Mt Abu Infrared Observatory, and amateur telescopes ! The winners will be announced at the ASI meeting in Jaipur on 9th March 2017.

Eligibility:

The contest is open for submission from all Indian citizens or Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) or Person of Indian Origin (PIO) of any age.

Submission categories:

Images can be submitted in the following categories and there will be three winners in each category.

1. Glory of Rajasthan (forts, palaces, monuments, Jantar Mantar etc. with the sky)
2. Natural beauty of Rajasthan (deserts, mountains, lakes etc with the sky)
3. A child's view (all images taken by contestants of age below 15 years as of 9 March, 2017) in any of the above categories

Each contestant can submit any number of images (though each image can be submitted in only one category).

Competition Rules:

• The photographs must be your own work and must have been taken after 1st July, 2016.
• The photographs must have been clicked within the borders of the state of Rajasthan.
• Only digital images (JPEGs) will be accepted. Images submitted may be captured using any camera such as mobile phone, compact digital, SLR or any other camera.
• Images must have elements of the earth and sky. The foreground can be of man-made monuments or natural landscapes, that are typical of Rajasthan. The background portion must have a prominent astronomical object such as the Moon, planets, stars, the Milky Way (Akash Ganga) or embellishes like star trails etc.
• We encourage minimal post-processing. Composites are not allowed although combined images that are a result of continuous shooting viz. star trails and panoramas, are allowed.
• The contestant must be in possession of all raw or unedited images for all entries, which will be demanded from the shortlisted candidates by the judges.
• Judges' decision will be considered final.

Submission process :

1. Only jpegs images will be accepted. Minimum number of pixels on the longer side should be 2000 and a maximum of 3000. The image should have been saved in the highest quality JPEG.
2. Images should not have any watermark with your name.
3. Steps to submit your images
   1. Get your jpeg file ready with proper file name
   2. The file should have the exif data intact within
   3. Download the Entry Form doc file from http://astron-soc.in/outreach/contests, and fill it up fully
   4. Attach and email the jpeg file and the filled up form to contest.asi@gmail.com
4. A separate email must be sent for each image if you are submitting more than one entry.
5. Your email must be sent before the midnight of Sunday, 5th March, 2017.

Deadlines:

NOTE: By participating, ALL ENTRANTS grant the organisers or affiliates, a non-exclusive usage under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. to reproduce, distribute, display in exhibitions, educational resource materials, websites, social media etc. The organisers will duly acknowledge the owner of the image as and when used in any of the media mentioned above.