Since the first edition of the CEDIC opened it's doors in 2009, the time for a new edition has come in 2011: For the second time, the pan-European conference on astrophotography took place in Linz, Austria. Similar to the successful start in 2009, the CEDIC was opened with a public event in the Deep Space of the Ars Electronica Center. Beside photographs from the TWAN project and from the Hubble Space Telescope, the best images taken by the participants of the conference were presented. Like two years before, the visitors were impressed by the breathtaking technical possibilities of the Deep Space.

On Saturday and Sunday, there was a densely packed schedule with simultaneous lectures and workshops. The presentations were on a very high level and covered a wide range of subjects in astrophotography, so there was something for everyone. Needless to say, technical subjects like mosaic creation, optimization of DSLRs and DSLR images, image processing of narrow-band images, remote imaging and lucky imaging of deepsky objects played an important role in the lectures. But also the nature of the celestial objects like reflection nebula or stellar streams and their detection was not missed out. Professional astronomers gave an interesting insights into the issues of professional astrophotography and the selection of perfect observatory sites. Beside that, the photography of landscapes in combination with the starry sky, questions regarding light pollution, curious mishaps in professional astronomy and the ethics of astrophotography were treated.

The workshops also covered many topics and participants were able to work out the new knowledge on their own laptops. The topics ranged from the workflow to process narrow-band images, the acquisition of deep images to hands-on training in special software such as Theli or PixInsight. Furthermore, participants gained insight in the composition of TWAN-style images and the art of coloring deepsky objects.

The conference dinner on Saturday clearly showed that the CEDIC has now grown beyond the borders of Europe and should be considered as an international conference. Approximately 150 participants from 20 nations were present, and beside attendees from Central, Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern Europe, participants from North and South America, as well as from Asia found their way to Linz. Thus the slogan of CEDIC, communication across the borders, was fully put into practice.

We now look forward to the next edition of CEDIC in 2013 (planned date: March 1st to 3rd) and we are looking foreward to meet many old and new friends at the CEDIC'13.

Yours,

CEDIC Spotlight Team