Astrophotography: The Essential Guide To Photographing The Night Sky Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Today's amateur and professional astronomers take images of the stars using affordable digital cameras known as CCD (charge coupled devices). This improved technology has made astrophotography possible for everyone; however CCD cameras have features exclusive to astronomy and so there is a learning curve. Astrophotography: The Essential Guide to Photographing the Night Sky features practical guidance from an astrophotographer with years of experience explaining astronomy to hobbyists. Mark Thompson, known as "the people's astronomer" in the UK, guides readers through the entire process, beginning with buying equipment and ending with processing images on a home computer using free software. From the humble mobile phone to high-end specialist cameras, Thompson brings it all to life with his experiences, and many of his own astronomical images. The book includes: Choosing the right equipment: Digital SLR cameras and lenses, guide camera, webcams, tripods, telescopes (reflecting and refracting, tracker imaging) and mounts (altazimuth, equatorial, fork, drive camera), dew protection and heaters, color filter wheels, solar filters, electronic focuser. Getting images without a telescope: The "300" rule, ISO speed noise reduction, exposure times, star trails, constellations, Space Station and satellite photography, meteor showers, auroras, noctilucent clouds, combined exposures, "live view", the Sun, eclipses. Solar System photography: Smartphones, webcams, using free RegiStax software, infrared blocking filters. Deep-Sky Images: Balancing a telescope, polar alignment, connecting camera to telescope, setting up guide cameras, camera cooling technology, focus, image calibration, fat fields and dark frames, image composition, true color, mosaic images. Astronomical Image Processing: Calibration, linear and log scaling, adjusting curves, combining images, processing filters, combining LRGB (Luminance, Red, Green and Blue), narrowband processing, one-shot color images, advanced techniques A Typical Imaging Run: Following the author step by step, equipment storage, start-up procedures. Fully illustrated and clearly presented, Astrophotography: The Essential Guide to Photographing the Night Sky puts great astronomical images within the reach of even the most novice stargazer.
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Firefly Books (November 11, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1770855750
ISBN-13: 978-1770855755
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 0.4 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #666,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #178 in Books > Science & Math > Astronomy & Space Science > Star-Gazing #661 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy & Astrophysics #796 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Equipment, Techniques & Reference > Reference
I hate to knock someone's hard work, but this was a big let down. Maybe a good rank beginners book, but maybe not. Astrophotography is a hard endeavor. It is not simple and easy. I immediately skimmed through the book and put it down. I doubt that I will pick it back up. When the first few pages show that the author doesn't know the difference between a CCD sensor and a CMOS sensor it sort of takes the steam out. I liked the quote that a CCD sensor is made of many solar cells? Well not really.If you are past holding your iPhone up to the eyepiece, you probably ought to pass on this book.
I am a photographer and wanted to learn about the night sky, so I was given this as a gift. Right off, it seemed to me the author did not understand digital sensors. Not only is the introductory information on sensors wrong, but there is equal time wasted discussing film. Additional wasted time wrongly describing how Nikon sensors intentionally blur the image while Canon sensors do not, thus the use of Nikon cameras is not recommended! I understand the attempted reference to anti-aliasing filters, although misguided by the author, but this information is wrong and, more importantly to me, further waste of my time. Completely lost my confidence in getting value from this book. I skimmed a little more. Unfortunately, not wanting to waste my time starting down the wrong trail, or reading more wrong or useless information, I have sent this book to our local used book store. I hope someone can pull a little value from it.
Don't waste your money or time on this. Only talks in concepts, no details. I was hoping for more detailed "how to" instructions, not here. Talks about different items of equipment but gives no names or details on use. Wasted read!
This was a gift for my husband. He loves it.
great book
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