Rules

Contest participants may enter up to five images per category. Each image stands alone within each category.

Contest participants must complete a registration form for each image which will indicate the following information:

• Their name and contact information. (Contest officials will keep this information confidential.)

• The equipment and processing software used, and the time, date, and location the image was captured. (This information will be displayed with their image.) Images must be received by the contest officials no later than Friday, August 14 at 1:00pm.

No images captured by professional-level telescopes may be submitted.

Images may be entered as “exhibit only” if the participant does not want too many images competing against one another in a given category. (Note that Zipf’s Law greatly reduces this self-competition effect if there are 3 images or less in a category.)

Winners will receive only the highest medal earned in each category, but they may win a medal in more than one category.

Although not required, it is strongly recommended that:

• Digital images should be cropped as little as possible.

• Digital images are printed in a size ranging from 8”x10” to 12”x18” in the highest resolution format possible.

• In order to help with planning for the contest space, please let the Astro Imaging contest committee know how many images you will be submitting at alcon2026@cinastro.org.