Astrophotography

by Thierry Legault

Today's photographic equipment allows amateurs to take pictures of the stars that far surpass images taken just a few decades ago by even the largest observatories-and this book will teach you how.Author and world-renowned astrophotographer Thierry Legault teaches the art and techniques of from simple camera-on-tripod night-scene imaging of constellations, star trails, eclipses, artificial satellites, and polar auroras to more intensive astrophotography using specialized equipment for lunar, planetary, solar, and deep-sky imaging. Legault shares advice on equipment and guides you through techniques to capture and process your images to achieve spectacular results.Astrophotography provides the most thorough treatment of the topic available. This large-format, richly illustrated book is intended for all sky enthusiasts-newcomers and veterans alike.Learn how

Select the most useful cameras, adapters, filters, focal reducers/extenders, field correctors, and guide telescopes Set up your camera (digital, video, or CCD) and your lens or telescope for optimal resultsPlan your observing sessionsMount the camera on your telescope and focus it for razor-sharp imagesPolar-align your equatorial mount and improve tracking for pin-point star imagesMake celestial time-lapse videosCalculate the shooting focal length and ratio, field of view, exposure time, etc.Combine multiples exposures to reveal faint galaxies, nebulae details, elusive planetary structures, and tiny lunar craters Adjust contrast, brightness, light curves, and colorsPostprocess your images to fix defects such as vignetting, dust shadows, hot pixels, uneven background, and noiseIdentify problems with your images and improve your results

Genres: Astronomy, Photography, Space, Reference, Nonfiction, Ebooks

584 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Ramakanth Domada · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book I found in our library while I was searching for some other book on this topic. I would highly recommend you to read the hard copy version for the great colour images. There is a good amount of text on shooting the Sun, the Moon, Planets, Nebulae, telescopes and image processing etc. Even if you don't own a telescope or SLR this book is good start for amateur and wanna-be night sky photographers.

[Brendan Forward · Rating 4 out of 5]

The project that Thierry Legault attempts to tackle in this 240 page primer on Astrophotography is truly impressive. Whether you are an experienced wide field astrophotographer or a newcomer to astronomy this book is a priceless companion to the subject.

One thing I will say against the content is that it is a technically challenging, and dense summary of many of the core terms and best practices. It may take several reads to internalize the chapters and it is by no means a replacement of user manuals or specific knowledge of a given set-up. Nonetheless, it establishes an excellent road map for how to progress and tackle many projects within Wide-field, planetary, solar and deep-field astrophotography.

Wonderfully done and much appreciated

[Rajiv Chopra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book and, is indispensable for any one who is serious about astro photography. This goes way beyond merely photographing the night sky. that too, is an art.

However, what I like about the book, is that he has combined the science and the art in a manner that is extremely approachable.

It is an excellent book, and is something that anyone who is serious about this realm of photography must read.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference book even if you want to focus on a narrow segment of this vast topic
(I, personally, don't care much about trying deep space photography. Yet.)
I see parts of it getting outdated (apps, camera features, etc.), but the underlying concepts are still timeless.c

[Austin Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind blown. Incredible pictures and tremendous technical resource.

[Dr Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to do astrophotography, you must have this book at least.

[MAZEAU Loïc · Rating 5 out of 5]

La Bible de l'astrophotographie, extrêmement complet !

[John (JP) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever looked at the night time sky and wanted to take a picture of the moon the planets and the stars? Then this book is for you. It is not a simple subject and the book tires valiantly to explain the hows and the whys of this process. In my case the level of understanding of photography I brought to the book only allowed me to benefit from the 1st 3 chapters of this book. The book is requires more than a basic understanding of photography. While it has a more than adequate table of contents which I found very helpful and is chock full of color pictures and detailed instructions on how to take pictures of a variety of celestial objects its indexing was subpar. This is why I gave it a reduced rating. Its like getting an expensive car only to discover the company gave you cheap tires. If you have a good knowledge of photography, a good DSLR camera and a decent telescope then you will benefit from this book. If you don't then I advise you to get the basic knowledge first and then try this book. For the rest of us with cellphone cameras then I suggest you go this website (from Wired.com) and learn how to photograph the moon. http://www.wired.com/2014/08/wtf-just...