AP Sig Revs Up!

by Don Selle

If you take pictures of the night sky, even if it is only occasionally, you might want to join the HAS Astrophotography Special interest group or APSig for short. The APSig is an email listserv and currently boasts over 60 members. The experience of APSig members span the gamut of experience, from those who are just starting out, to some of our most accomplished astrophotographers.

Have a question about the pros and cons about equipment? Need some help with autoguiding, or processing your latest image capture? The APSig is the place to ask it.

Show off your latest image. APSig members are always supportive and will share their experience with you.

Though the APSig is loosely organized, moderators Chris Ober and Don Selle are there to help organize activities that will be of interest to the group. As an example, we recently had an image processing challenge where a single dataset was shared and individual members worked on the same data and shared their results with the group. This led to spinoff discussions of image processing software and workflows that were of benefit to APSig members.

The APSig has also just started holding a monthly HAS Image of the Month competition, which is open to APSig members. Submit one of your finished images for consideration, and your fellow APSig members as well as interested HAS members will vote to select what they think should be the Image of the Month.

Images chosen for this honor will be featured on the cover of the GuideStar, the HAS monthly newsletter.  They will also be added to a special photo gallery displaying the best of HAS! You can see the gallery here: https://www.astronomyhouston.org/members/public/galleries/donald-selle/1612041991

At some point in the near future, we will also begin holding periodic Zoom meetings. There has also been some discussion about organizing a group imaging project, or a meet-up at the HAS Dark Site. If you have an idea for a meeting topic, an experience you would like to share or an activity which might be of interest to other APSig members (or even the HAS membership at large), lets us know!

There are plenty of other astrophotography groups and forums out there, we know that, but the HAS APSig has one thing the others don’t. You will meet other APSig members face to face any time you travel to the HAS dark site and point your camera up.

How to join? From the account you would like to have APSig emails delivered to, send an email to info@astronomyhouston.org, and we will get you set up!