Astrophotography: The Essential Guide to Photographing the Night Sky

<p> 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. </p><p> <i>Astrophotography: The Essential Guide to Photographing the Night Sky</i> features practical guidance from an astrophotographer with years of experience explaining astronomy to hobbyists. Mark Thompson, known as &quot;the people's astronomer&quot; 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 &quot;300&quot; rule, ISO speed noise reduction, exposure times, star trails, constellations, Space Station and satellite photography, meteor showers, auroras, noctilucent clouds, combined exposures, &quot;live view&quot;, 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. </p><p> Fully illustrated and clearly presented, <i>Astrophotography: The Essential Guide to Photographing the Night Sky</i> puts great astronomical images within the reach of even the most novice stargazer. </p>