2005/6 Astro-Imaging Competition Rules

1. Entry to the competition is free and is open to all users of the Remote Astronomical Society equipment.

2. All entries must be submitted in the form of gif or jpg files.

3. All entries must be the sole work of the photographer and entries should not have been published for profit at the time of submission to the Competition. They must have been taken solely on the RAS equipment.

4. Images must have been taken between the competition start date of October 16th 2005 and the competition closing date of March 16th 2006.

5. The total exposure time for all components of an image must not exceed 4 hours.

6. Copyright of all images will rest with the photographer. However entry into the Competition will permit unrestricted, credited use of entered images by the Remote Astronomical Society for promotional purposes. The winning entry for each category will be awarded 10 hours of free observing time on the RAS telescopes and will be published on the RAS web site. The image judged "Best in Show" will also receive the Doctor J P Nicholson Memorial Trophy.

7. This year, entrants are required to submit images within one or more of 6 categories:

• Emission nebulae
• Reflection nebulae
• Planetary nebulae
• Globular clusters
• Open clusters
• Galaxies

8. Contestants may enter up to three images for each theme. They should be submitted by email to Martin Nicholson, Director of the RAS Observatory, whose email address is newbinaries@yahoo.co.uk. The Director will not be held responsible for entries that are lost, corrupted, damaged, delayed in transit or wrongly delivered. Proof of sending will not be accepted as proof of receipt. All images need to have the subject, exposure time and filters used clearly stated.

9. Judging will take place during March and winners will be announced on the RAS website.

10. Entries will be judged on technical and artistic merit as well as the creativity shown in addressing the relevant theme. The judges and the organisers of the competition may reject photographs that are not of an astronomical nature and may transfer entries from one category to another.

11. The judges' decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.

12. The judges reserve the right not award a prize in any section where the quality or number of entries is deemed not to be sufficient.

13. Judges and their immediate families are not permitted to enter the competition.

14. Entering the Competition implies acceptance of these rules.