In Astrophotography from Rocky Nook, author and world-renowned astrophotographer Thierry Legault teaches the art and techniques of astrophotography. In the most thorough treatment of the topic available, this book covers everything from night-scene imaging of constellations, star trails, eclipses, artificial satellites, and polar auroras, to more complicated astrophotography requiring specialized equipment for lunar, planetary, solar, and deep-sky imaging. Additionally, Legault shares advice on equipment and guides you through techniques to capture and process your images to achieve spectacular results. 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 show you how.
- Select the most useful equipment: 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 results
- Plan your observing sessions
- Mount the camera on your telescope and focus it for razor-sharp images
- Polar-align your equatorial mount and improve tracking for pin-point star images
- Make celestial time-lapse videos
- Calculate the shooting parameters: 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 colors
- Postprocess your images to fix defects such as vignetting, dust shadows, hot pixels, uneven background, and noise
- Identify problems with your images and improve your results