The Deep-Sky Imaging Primer

by Charles Bracken

The book that taught thousands of people about astrophotography has been completely revised and updated in this second edition. It covers everything you need to know to capture stunning images of deep-sky objects with a DSLR or CCD camera:

The fundamental concepts of imaging and their impact on the final image How to pick a telescope and camera How to get set up and take the images Where and when to find the best objects in the night sky How to process images using Adobe Photoshop(R) and PixInsight(R) Start-to-finish examples of image processing Full-color with over 300 illustrations.

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

238 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2013

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been interested in photographing the night sky. But, roadblocks kept getting in my way. The primary one was the equipment I had was not well suited to the task. So I put it aside for years. Now, technology has taken it from very difficult to merely difficult. I think I can handle difficult.

This book gives a good overview of the required equipment and techniques to get started. It is readable and it covers all the required ground.

The only drawbacks are that the screenshots are a bit on the small side and that some of the computer related material, like in all such books that reference computer software, can become dated very quickly. Fortunately this material is still relevant and I didn't see any glaring places where information was out of date.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone who thinks astrophotography might be an interesting challenge.

[Danijel Bosnjak]

Along with the Chris Woodhouse book, this is a nice astrophotography process overview as well. A lot of technical detail as well as practical advice, methods and tips & tricks that will be always relevant.

[Clive F · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazingly comprehensive introduction to using your telescope with either a DSLR camera or a specialist astronomy camera for taking pictures of the night sky - specifically stars, galaxies and nebulae, rather than planets. It gives a thorough grounding on the theory, and follows it up with very helpful walkthroughs of processing the images you have taken with either Photoshop or PixInsight (with much of the advice probably working for other photography packages out there). Although the theory can get quite deep, even with my limited understanding it works pretty well, with each chapter starting with the straightforward stuff, and then diving pretty deep. I found myself skipping a few sections the first time through, and returning to them later when I needed their advice, and when I knew a little more to make them understandable!

I've been working my way through it for a few weeks now, and have succeeded in using its advice to produce some quite acceptable (for me!) photos of a few of the familiar objects out there. So I couldn't be more pleased. Five (very beautifully imaged) stars.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This new edition has a lot of new material, particularly on image processing using PixInsight that the first edition didn’t cover. Unlike many of this style of book, this one is actually quite good, managing to convey useful information while maintaining readability.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in deep sky astrophotography. This should be on your short list for introductory material.

[Brian Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully comprehensive book on astrophotography. Takes the novice through the basicsof telescopes and camera to image reduction and processing with Pixinsight and Photoshop. Packed with detailed information, yet easy to read with clear "recipes" for all steps of the raw frames to final photo for colour DSLRs to monochrome CCDs. Highly recommended.