Competition for Astro clubs

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 12:06 am

During my time (10 years ago as well) the aim was to make astronomy more aware among students, a whole new world that is not mentioned at all in textbooks but nevertheless important. I managed to convert the "unofficial bridge & dai-di club" back to a bonded unit involved a lot in star-gazing and bbqs. We started to take part in quizzes and NTU astro camp and organised our own off-campus sessions too.

I agree with zong in that astro clubs generally struggle to survive. I heard that my club has recently closed down... which is truly heart-breaking.

(wonder what they did to the C8 and refractor)

Astrophotography was virtually non-existent for the club during the not-so-digital age of my time. The closest we came was when Junwei borrowed an SLR and did some film exposure of star trails and the lunar eclipse of '97.

However I think Meng Lee's suggestion about taking digital pics using DSCs is quite a neat idea. With a bit of creativity I reckon there can be nice pictures without crazy equipment. With high res digicams and optical zoom easily accessible, even a picture of a rising or setting moon behind a tree could be a winner!

Meng Lee · Post by **Meng Lee** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:22 am

At the bottommost-line, my intention is that, when students can engage into it, they will have a sense of belonging to the club and hobby and strive to find out more.

cantaresg · Post by **cantaresg** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:17 pm

It is true that this is an engaging activity for students to get involved. When I was with NUSAS, I had in mind to start an astrophotography section as well. However, I'm not familiar with how the astro clubs are working now, and how the logistics of various clubs are doing. Perhaps one way is to tie the astro clubs together with photography clubs of the schools?

Meng Lee · Post by **Meng Lee** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 10:42 pm

Hmmm, i thought about that also. But I think photography club and astrophotography emphasizes on very different aspects.

cantaresg · Post by **cantaresg** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 6:55 pm

That is true. But most people join astronomy clubs without any knowledge in both photography and astronomy. Unless you are targeting the minority who has prior knowledge in either, you will be killing the interest in the people who wanted to join the club to find that they need to learn both photography and astronomy.

Meng Lee · Post by **Meng Lee** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 7:10 pm

I mean, "learn by exploring and trial and error". Take a camera and point at the eyepiece or sky doesn't need that much skills. Soon they will slowly learn what it takes to have a good photo. And when they see the image, they will ask questions and try to find out more about it.

annechan · Post by **annechan** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:17 pm

cantaresg wrote:Unless you are targeting the minority who has prior knowledge in either, you will be killing the interest in the people who wanted to join the club to find that they need to learn both photography and astronomy.

That is also true if we have only pure astronomy with the current competitions for sec schools and JCs. Maybe by having more variety, people will find astro clubs more refreshing to join

Anyway, if there's going to be an astrophotography competition, it'll be better if the info is released soon, like, now

Some astro clubs, although quite well established, are still not very familiar with astrophotography either.

Meng Lee · Post by **Meng Lee** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:53 am

The astrophotography I meant was not the level at what Remus is doing. Students use their digital cameras and do point and shoot photography.

1) Point and shoot through the telescope
2) Wide field

then they can also learn basic processing to improve their pics, like "Levels", "unsharp mask" and they can submit their pics.

The competition can have many categories to give out many prizes for encouragement. The different categories can also cater for astro clubs who wants to meddle with higher levels of astrophotography.

I stress again that the whole intention is to have an activity that many members can be involved so that they get the sense of belonging and they can have something to call their own.