BoBfest - The Regional Gathering of Amateur Astronomers
THE ANNUAL BARRE SPENCER ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST
To honor our long time friend and Astronomy Club Member, Barre Spencer, and to continue his life long love of
photography and astrophotography, it is our pleasure to introduce the ANNUAL BARRE SPENCER
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST. The contest will be held at the annual BoBfest, or Regional Gathering of
Amateur Astronomers in January of each year. This year the contest will be held at the Hickory Science Center
on Saturday, January 24th, 2026.
The contest will be open to all attendees at the annual event and contestants must be present at the event to win
an award.
Only Printed Entries Will Be Accepted. No Digital Files.
There will be three categories of entries, as follows:
● CATEGORY 1: DEEP SPACE OBJECTS
Nebulae, Galaxies, Planetaries, Clusters, Open Clusters
● CATEGORY 2: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS
Comets, Planets, Sun, Moon, Satellites
● CATEGORY 3: ASTRO-LANDSCAPE
Aurora, STEVE, Sun, Moon, Eclipses, Sun Dogs, Moon
Dogs, Rainbows, Moonbows, Solar and/or Lunar Halos,
Clouds. Basically any atmospheric or astronomical event
with terrestrial foreground in the image.
Participants can submit as many photos as they like in each category and will be eligible to win a First, Second
and/or Third Place Award, as well as a Participant award. Additionally, there will be one JUDGES CHOICE
AWARD selected by the Judges from all the above categories.
To enter the contest simply bring your image along to the annual BoBfest meeting. We will have an area setup
in Room #7 for your images to be displayed throughout the day. As the day progresses you and other BoBfest
participants can visit the display and place the 3 contest tickets you were given in your BoBfest packet, into the
container for the image in each category that you choose.
At the end of the day we will count the tickets and a First, Second and
Third Place winner will be selected in each category by the number of
tickets received.
This way each award winner will be selected by BoBfest attendees, your
peers.
The JUDGES Choice Award will be selected by the panel of Judges
overseeing the contest after the other awards are finalized based on the
Judges unanimous choice of photographic merit.
Thank you.
Brian Hissom, BoBfest Coordinator
Tim Slay, 2025 BoBfest Photo Contest Chairman
Barre Spencer Memorial
Astrophotography Contest
