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Robertshaw – 2018 – Macclesfield Retain the Trophy

By Awards, Competitions, News No Comments

Well it’s been an hectic start to the season, so this is the first news item I’ve managed to post, but a good one to post none the less. On Thursday last (11th October) we were defending the Robertshaw Trophy at Leek Photographic Club. As ever there were the 5 clubs represented: Macclesfield Camera Club; Leek Photographic Club; Holmes Chapel Photographic Society; Blythe Bridge Camera Club and Crewe Photographic Society. The trophy was judged by Mike Sharples ARPS MPAGB AFIAP from Smethwick Photographic Society.  

This was also the 50th year of the running of the competition so some honour was there to be defended. 

The trophy is an Open PDI competition requiring 12 images with at most 3 images per author per club making 60 images in total. The standard of images as ever was very high which was reflected in the fact that the judge held back 38 images after the first round. Due to the range of subjects and the quality of the images judging was not an easy task. Macclesfield were well represented by 7 members (details below). It was a very tight scoring evening with only 10 points separating the clubs. Macclesfield had a very good number held back but we were slightly behind going into the final judging, but I am please to say we were able to claw back our deficit in the final round. In the end we tied with Leek on 206 points with 2 top scoring (20 point) images from Paul Scott -Alter Ego and Steve Gresty – Velocipede. The final 20 point image going to Paul Matthews of Leek.  The full set of scores can be found here: 50th Robertshaw Trophy 11th October 2018 Results

Alter Ego - Paul Scott

Alter Ego – Paul Scott

Velocipede - Steve Gresty

Velocipede – Steve Gresty

The remaining images are below

Macclesfield win the Robertshaw Trophy

By Awards, Competitions, Members Successes, News No Comments

An excellent night in Holmes Chapel saw our Camera Club lift the Robertshaw trophy for the first time in 15 years. Five clubs complete for this trophy and the overall scores on the night were :  Macclesfield 180 points, Crewe 172, Leek 171, Blythe Bridge 159 and Holmes Chapel 159. The event was well attended by all clubs with Macc being represented by Paul Scott, Anthony Gosling, Keith Parker, Kevin Blake, Peter Thomasson and Conor Molloy. Thank you to our new External Competition secretary Chris Aggersbury for co-ordinating the submission and selection of our 10 images. Our individual image scores were :

Kissing Beeeaters by Conor Molloy (19 points) ,  Focus by Steve Gresty (18 points) ,  Quarter inch Jack by Antony Gosling (19 points),  Mia by Paul Scott (20 points)

Battle of the Hurdles by Alison Lomax (16 points),  Nature Red in Tooth and claw by Leonie Sellars (16 points),  Polo player by David Tolliday (18 points), One Angel Square, Manchester by Anthony Gosling (16 points)

Arctic Tern Feeding Time by David Tolliday (18 points), Hunting Great Grey Owl by Conor Molloy (20 points).

All of the images can be viewed under the Competitions tab on the website. The judge was Robert Millin from Stockport. Well done to everyone.

Mia by Paul Scott

Mia by Paul Scott

 

 

David Tolliday Wins The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer in Astrophotography

By Astro photography, Awards, Members Successes, News

Longstanding Macclesfield Camera Club member, David Tolliday, has won The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015 competition organised by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.  The results were announced on 17th September.  David’s image had already been included in a book of winning and shortlisted images.

The image was taken during David’s first serious attempt at astrophotography from a dark sky site in mid-Wales in November 2014.

Chris Bramley, one of the judges, commented ‘To capture such a delicate image of this region in Orion is impressive, but to do it on a first night imaging under the stars is remarkable! A worthy winner’.

More details of the image and award can be found here.

 

Camera club member shortlisted for major award

By Astro photography, Awards, News

The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer

A photograph of the Orion Nebula and the neighbouring Running Man Nebula taken by longstanding Macclesfield Camera Club member David Tolliday has been shortlisted for The Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Best Newcomer in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015 competition organised by the Royal Observatory Greenwich. The results will be announced at an awards ceremony on 17 September 2015 and the image will be included in a book of award winning and shortlisted images. The image was taken during David’s first serious attempt at astrophotography from a dark sky site in Mid Wales in November 2014 using a Canon 5D MkIII camera and 500mm lens set on an Astrotrac borrowed from fellow Camera Club member Kevin Blake (Thank you Kevin). The time was well after midnight, the temperature was below freezing and there was ice on the tripod and frost covered the camera bag.

The image is a stack of five separate exposures taken at different settings ranging from 5 to 180 seconds at f4 to record detail the different parts of the nebula which have very different brightness levels. The images were edited and combined in Photoshop.

Orion Nebula and the neighbouring Running Man Nebula

David Tolliday’s Orion Nebula and the neighbouring Running Man Nebula