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Astrophotography Workshop - thoughts?
- johnflannery
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- carlobeirnes
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- dmcdona
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15 years 6 months ago #81111
by dmcdona
Replied by dmcdona on topic Re:Astrophotography Workshop - thoughts?
So far, so good - this is good feedback.
Myself and Michael went over to the UK a couple of years back to an excellent workshop. We then tried to do the same here but found that getting the lads over from the UK was difficult and expensive - so we canned it.
This time round, we beilieve we have the "in-house" expertise to do this. That'll make it both easier and cheaper to organise and the cost of attending would be very good value for money.
So, we're currently working the programme, speakers etc *and* taking all this feedback on board. So here's some thoughts and further feedback.
1. A workshop is the basic idea, not a series of lectures. That said, I'm not sure exactly what precisely the "hands-on" part would be. Would we bring in a few imaging setups and talk through them? Would we try some daylight imaging? Or would it be limited to a bit of processing shown via overhead projector? What would you like?
2. I think the audience is going to be limited to probably 20 at most. Any more than that and quality would suffer to the detriment of the participants
3. Given the geographical diversity of astronomers around the country, there are a few choices available that would make sure it was as available as possible to all:
a) Have it in a central location (Athlone)
b) Have it in or close to Dublin (good public transport)
c) Run it in two or even three major cities (Dublin, Galway, Cork, Belfast - take your pick)
d) Run it anywhere we like and do a Webcast/Webinar (what a horrible word...)
e) Have it a Seanie's house (I'll be unavailable - tied to a balloon
)
Each has advantages/disadvantages that would need to be detailed in order to make a final decision but we can thrash that out as we progress the basic idea.
4. The duration be a day. Sure, multiple events would be nice but its hard for folks to commit to multiple dates, especially when working. The best choice would be a Saturday - people are free from work (mostly) and you can get better deals on rooms (no business meeting etc)
5. Venue - Hotels are desperate to fill rooms. You can get good deals at the moment. Even the tea and coffee is cheap as chips... If its a school/college, that saves a lot of money and car parking is free. But its a bit harder to find such an establishment that's on a major transport route. There are other options that I can explore with some of my contacts. But for now, let's keep the feedback coming. And thanks for the offer John! It'd be a worthy consideration.
6. As regards doing actual imaging, we'd be at the mercy of the weather. With such a (potentially) complicated workshop I think it should focus on classroom based practicals. If it just so happened there was a clear sky (day or night) that would be a bonus. Of course, it would also depend on the venue - some hotels mightn;t like the idea from a safety point of view etc.
7. For the actual running order, I think we need to have a much bigger poll (there are only six respondees so far) of what people want. But Carl's list covers most of the typical items - though I would rather not include sketching. No offense to the sketchers, that's another workshop in its own right. Perhaps others on these boards would like to promulgate the idea of a sketching workshop? The one in Galway went down a bomb.
8. I think the fundamental subjects that need to be covered would be:
a) Mount and optics
b) Imaging devices
c) Calibration
d) Webcams, solar and planetary imaging
e) DSO imaging
f) DSLR imaging - including non-telescope imaging
I think that'll do for now.
Let me know what ye all think.
Cheers
Dave
Myself and Michael went over to the UK a couple of years back to an excellent workshop. We then tried to do the same here but found that getting the lads over from the UK was difficult and expensive - so we canned it.
This time round, we beilieve we have the "in-house" expertise to do this. That'll make it both easier and cheaper to organise and the cost of attending would be very good value for money.
So, we're currently working the programme, speakers etc *and* taking all this feedback on board. So here's some thoughts and further feedback.
1. A workshop is the basic idea, not a series of lectures. That said, I'm not sure exactly what precisely the "hands-on" part would be. Would we bring in a few imaging setups and talk through them? Would we try some daylight imaging? Or would it be limited to a bit of processing shown via overhead projector? What would you like?
2. I think the audience is going to be limited to probably 20 at most. Any more than that and quality would suffer to the detriment of the participants
3. Given the geographical diversity of astronomers around the country, there are a few choices available that would make sure it was as available as possible to all:
a) Have it in a central location (Athlone)
b) Have it in or close to Dublin (good public transport)
c) Run it in two or even three major cities (Dublin, Galway, Cork, Belfast - take your pick)
d) Run it anywhere we like and do a Webcast/Webinar (what a horrible word...)
e) Have it a Seanie's house (I'll be unavailable - tied to a balloon
)Each has advantages/disadvantages that would need to be detailed in order to make a final decision but we can thrash that out as we progress the basic idea.
4. The duration be a day. Sure, multiple events would be nice but its hard for folks to commit to multiple dates, especially when working. The best choice would be a Saturday - people are free from work (mostly) and you can get better deals on rooms (no business meeting etc)
5. Venue - Hotels are desperate to fill rooms. You can get good deals at the moment. Even the tea and coffee is cheap as chips... If its a school/college, that saves a lot of money and car parking is free. But its a bit harder to find such an establishment that's on a major transport route. There are other options that I can explore with some of my contacts. But for now, let's keep the feedback coming. And thanks for the offer John! It'd be a worthy consideration.
6. As regards doing actual imaging, we'd be at the mercy of the weather. With such a (potentially) complicated workshop I think it should focus on classroom based practicals. If it just so happened there was a clear sky (day or night) that would be a bonus. Of course, it would also depend on the venue - some hotels mightn;t like the idea from a safety point of view etc.
7. For the actual running order, I think we need to have a much bigger poll (there are only six respondees so far) of what people want. But Carl's list covers most of the typical items - though I would rather not include sketching. No offense to the sketchers, that's another workshop in its own right. Perhaps others on these boards would like to promulgate the idea of a sketching workshop? The one in Galway went down a bomb.
8. I think the fundamental subjects that need to be covered would be:
a) Mount and optics
b) Imaging devices
c) Calibration
d) Webcams, solar and planetary imaging
e) DSO imaging
f) DSLR imaging - including non-telescope imaging
I think that'll do for now.
Let me know what ye all think.
Cheers
Dave
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