The Submillimeter Array (SMA) announces its first Image Contest. Much like the annual NRAO "Radio Astronomy Imaging Contest", the purpose of this contest is to gather visually compelling images based on SMA data from the SMA user community to be used for a variety of purposes, including public outreach. While submitted images should showcase SMA data, multi-wavelength data from other facilities in the public domain and original artwork may be included for astrophysical context and aesthetics. All submitted images will be added to the on-line SMA Image Gallery for general use. A committee appointed by the SMA director will evaluate the submissions to determine the best image and up to several honorable mentions. The prize for the best image will be an invited talk on the science behind the image (and related topics) to be given at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei, Taiwan or at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA USA.

Submission Instructions

Submissions may be made by e-mail only to smasci09@cfa.harvard.edu by the deadline of April 30, 2009. Images must be submitted by individuals, although collaborations should be acknowledged as required. Individuals may submit more than one image. Acceptable image formats are JPEG (.jpg) or PostScript (.ps or .eps) files. A minimum density of 300 dpi is requested to enable enlargement. Please do not attach images directly to the e-mail but instead provide a URL from which the image may be downloaded, together with a caption of no more than 300 words. The caption must include the names of the astronomical objects in the image and brief descriptions of the objects, discussion of any notable features of the image, the angular resolution, a description of the color scale or contours, any sources of data not from the SMA, and any additional technical details of interest. If the data have been included in a published paper, then please also provide the journal reference.

To summarize, each e-mail submission must include the following five items:

1. image creator name and affiliation
2. image title
3. URL of image for download
4. image caption of no more than 300 words (see details above)
5. journal reference, if applicable

Questions? Please send e-mail to smasci09@cfa.harvard.edu