The Astrophotography Manual ─ A Practical and Scientific Approach to Deep Space Imaging

Capturing the serene beauty of planets, stars, and celestial bodies is both fine art and scientific discovery. Fascinating, challenging, and extremely rewarding, astrophotography is a pursuit that is greatly enhanced by gaining access to the type of detailed instruction this book offers, with charts, tables, over (number of TK) images, and real-life troubleshooting advice in detailed case studies. The Astrophotography Manual is for those astrophotographers who wish to swiftly move beyond using standard SLR cameras and Photoshop, and who are ready to create beautiful images of nebulas, galaxies, clusters, and the solar system.

Beginning with a brief astronomy primer, this book takes readers through the full astrophotography process, from equipment choice and set-up, through image acquisition, image calibration, and processing. Along the way it explains how sensor performance and light pollution relate to image quality and exposure planning. This book will satisfy the technical and practical reader and uses case studies to illustrate the entire process, using a range of equipment (including tablets and smartphones), exploring deep sky and planetary objects, and utilizing a variety of software, including Maxim, Nebulosity, Photoshop, RegiStax and PixInsight.

Chris Woodhouse was born in England, and during his teenage years was a keen amateur photographer. After receiving an M.Eng. in Electronics at Bath University, he designed communication and optical gauging equipment before joining an automotive company. As a member of the Royal Photographic Society, he gained an Associate distinction in 2002. During the last thirty years, he has pursued his passion for all forms of photography, mostly in monochrome. This, coupled with his design experience, led him to invent and patent several unique darkroom timers and meters, which are sold throughout the world. After the success of his first book,Way Beyond Monochrome, he turned his attention to digital monochrome and astrophotography. He quickly found the technical challenges of astrophotography responded well to methodical and scientific methods; together with his photographic eye and experience, he produces beautiful and fascinating images.