Special Jury Prize at the Haute Maurienne Astronomy Festival 2007
Thierry Legault
The advent of digital sensors marked the beginning of a new era in amateur astronomy; the results obtained today by many amateurs surpass the photographs taken a few decades ago from large observatories.
Richly illustrated and documented (with nearly 300 photos and diagrams), this book is intended for all sky enthusiasts. It explains and describes the essential concepts and general techniques for taking magnificent images, and provides solutions to the minor problems you are sure to encounter as you gain experience, whether on your very first night of astrophotography or your hundredth.
From simple shots without instruments (constellations, shooting stars, comets, eclipses, etc.) to more sophisticated astrophotography for lunar and planetary photography, solar photography and deep sky photography, this book will guide you in choosing your equipment (consumer digital cameras, webcams and video cameras, astronomical CCD cameras, filters, binoculars, telescopes, mounts, specialised software), advise you on instrumental techniques (mounting the camera on an instrument, adjusting the optics, focusing, guiding...) and teach you how to identify and correct defects in your images. The stars are there, within your reach, just waiting to be photographed...
Contents
- Foreword
- Astrophotography without instruments
- Cameras and how they work
- Image defects and correction
- Instrumental techniques
- The planets and the Moon
- The Sun
- The deep sky
- Appendices
