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Digital Astrophotography: A Guide to Capturing the Cosmos

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Author: Stefan Seip
Publisher: Rocky Nook
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$29.95~~
Buy New: $19.77
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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

11 reviews
Sales Rank: 20570

Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Pages: 162
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.6

ISBN: 1933952164
Dewey Decimal Number: 522.63
EAN: 9781933952161
ASIN: 1933952164

Publication Date: December 15, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
At first glance, the challenge of astrophotography may appear daunting. But not only are spectacular results possible, they are easy to learn with the step-by-step instructions provided in Stephan Seip's Digital Astrophotography: A Guide to Capturing the Cosmos. Today, amateurs can produce images that only twenty years ago a large professional observatory would have been proud of; and this book shows you how.

Learn how to:

Set up your camera for optimum results

Focus your camera for razor-sharp images

Take beautiful night shots with a simple compact digital camera, a tripod, and a telescope

Use a DSLR camera to shoot the Sun, Moon, stars, star clusters, and nebulae through your telescope

Get brilliant images of planets with a Webcam

Capture remote galaxies with a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera just like a pro

Also included are lessons on the processing that is done in the "studio" after your shoot, including how to:

Shoot RAW format images and improve them with calibration frames

Take short exposures of faint deep-sky objects and combine them into a longer exposure

Perform brightness, contrast, and color correction

Make corrections to correct for vignetting and uneven field illumination

Process your images for stunning results

Equipment requirements for astrophotography range from nothing but a simple camera and tripod to a multi-thousand dollar computer controlled telescope equipped with a CCD auto-guider and separate guide-scope. Researching the best equipment for your needs is a task in itself. Seip helps you to sort out which cameras are best for the various celestial objects, what to look for when buying a camera, and what accessories you really need.

The rewards of this fascinating hobby, as the author says, "Grants you unforgettable hours under the night sky; it allows you to produce aesthetically rewarding and lasting results. Astrophotography is a love-match between physics, photography, art, and digital image processing. It is exciting!"

Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A great primer for astrophotography January 18, 2008
Ivan W. Ong (Charlotte, North Carolina United States)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Astrophotography is an area in the hobby where most beginners feel a measure of intimidation- from the high cost of equipment, the myriad jargon tossed around in amateur astronomy forums on the web, and a seemingly confusing and endless selection of knobs, plates, adapters, scopes, mounts, tripods, cameras, etc. available in the market place. But most folks are hooked the moment they take a photo of the moon or a planet through a small digital camera or even a cell phone cam.

Seip's book is concise, highly readable and an up-to-date book on amateur astrophotography. It is clear and well written and perhaps the best primer to read when one is contemplating delving into this area of the hobby.

I would have liked to see a little more elaboration on guiding (manual and auto), on focusing a DSLR (that's what most people start dabbling in), and on the importance of a good mount-perhaps an appendix guide on mount recommendations, stability considerations, the concept of PEC and maybe on drift alignment (a proper mount is the biggest success factor in astrophotography), but this information can be easily found elsewhere on the web and in books (Ron Wodaski has an excellent section on telescope and mount selection and considerations in his book that bears reading). All in all, an excellent book. I enjoyed reading it very much.

Lastly, if you see Seip's astrophotography photos on the web, you will realize how spectacular his photos (and skills) are. Perhaps it is a reflection of his humility that he avoids showcasing his jaw-dropping photos in his own book!

5 out of 5 stars

An Ideal Intro and Much More March 2, 2008
John A. Cheng (Pennsylvania, USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Many of us have been impressed by the images made by Stefan Seip, an astro-photographer based in Stuttgart Germany. His shots of Comet Machholz against the Pleiades and Venus at inferior conjunction framed by wispy clouds are stunning examples of what digital imaging technology can produce when directed by a discerning eye.

So, even though I'm a committed visual observer, when Seip's "Digital Astrophotography: A Guide to Capturing the Universe" became available (It was first published in German under the title "Astrofotografie digital") I thought what better photographer to acquaint me with what's become such a huge part of the astronomy hobby. And I was right. As an intro, it's superb.

His book is an attractive soft cover volume, profusely illustrated in color and printed on a heavy weight glossy paper with lots of open margins for notes. It enjoys two clear advantages over some other digital astrophotography texts. First, it does not limit itself to one particular type of digital tool/photography and two, being published this year, its camera and software references should be up to date.

A short introductory chapter, "Before You Start" addresses some basics and presents some terms and concepts which will figure in later discussions.

Then comes the heart of the book: four chapters, each treating a type of camera available to today's digital astro-imager:

- Compact Digital Cameras
- Webcams
- Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras (DSLR)
- Charged Coupled Device Cameras (CCD)

Within each chapter, Seip

- explains the characteristics of the specific camera type and
mentions its advantages and disadvantages

- mentions the types of photographs suited to it, e.g., only
webcams are recommended for planetary imaging while CCD cameras
are unsurpassed for deep sky objects.

- gives tips on purchasing, e.g., webcams with a CCD sensor are
better than those with a CMOS sensor for astrophotography

- recommends accessories, e.g., his chapter on CCD cameras
mentions software, autoguider connections, filter wheels, focal
reducers, portable power supplies, etc.

- takes the reader, step by step, through the process of capturing
an image and processing it. Understandably, to do this, Seip
necessarily uses specific equipment and software in his
explanations, e.g., his webcam chapter is geared to the Celestron
NexImage camera and Registax software. The CCD chapter utilizes
MSB's Astroart software. Adobe Photoshop is used throughout the book.

As Seip progresses from simpler to more complex cameras, the discussion of digital imaging itself becomes more sophisticated and the reader's grasp of the whole topic becomes deeper. Later chapters discuss topics that definitely would be of concern to intermediate level imagers, e.g., thermal noise, spectral sensitivity, format conversion, field flatteners, coma correctors, etc.

I was impressed that the book was able to educate me about a seemingly complicated subject in a painless way. Plus, I kept thinking should I ever decide to take the plunge into digital imaging, I'll have what amounts to a "cookbook" reference.

The book has an internet tie-in to Stefan Seip's web site. The actual images used to illustrate software photo processing techniques can be downloaded, so the reader can duplicate the steps shown in the book. Also three documents, one on how to treat dust and pixel defects, another telling how to remove a satellite trail from an image and the last listing selection criteria for a CCD camera are available as PDF's.

There is an appendix containing some useful information, a glossary (which comes in handy for a visual observer when a term such as "resolution", for example, takes on a definition which differs from the one that applies to telescope optics alone), a list of resources and reading suggestions and last, but not least, entries giving the exposure info and equipment used for each of the images used to illustrate the book.

2 out of 5 stars

Disjointed with only very general information. May 9, 2008
steveeb
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I am relatively new to the hobby of astrophotography, however, I've done a lot of research online through astrophoto websites and by joining forums dedicated to the subject. Wanting to increase my knowledge, I bought this book for two reasons: First of all it's a newly published book, so I figured it would have information pertaining to the latest cameras, devices, and software available. Secondly, I read all the 5 star reviews here on Amazon which sealed the deal for me.

I'm sorry I ever bought it. The book felt very disjointed. It felt like every paragraph introduced you to a new topic, but never really explained anything. By the end of the paragraph you would be wanting more, only for the book to go on about something new.

To make things worse, the book is filled with sentences that will leave you scratching your head. Here's a perfect example from page 27. And I quote:

"If your camera does not allow the complete manual setting of the exposure, you may be able to use the camera's exposure compensation. For example, if the automatic mode produces over exposures, you can try a manual correction selecting shorter exposures."

What was that he said?? Ok, maybe he'll explain it clearer in the next paragraph... Not.

On the subject of processing your photos, telling me to open Photoshop and click and drag on the curve to adjust the colors doesn't quite cut it. Can we be a little more specific?? Here's the quote:

"In order to create an impressive nighttime image, the following menu item is more helpful: Image->Adjustments->Curves...
As shown in the curves dialog box, you can click and drag on the straight line with the mouse to change the shape of the curve. The result (image 3) more closely resembles a nightime shot"

I need a little more why's and how's than this book offers. The majority of the book is pictures, and even the pictures lack the information normally found in photography books. I'm used to seeing photos where the photographer explains the equipment and settings - you won't find any of that here.

If you already have a general knowledge of astrophotography, I would suggest that you pass on this book.

5 out of 5 stars

Astrophotography - The Basics January 15, 2008
John Jacobson (Riverside CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Have you admired the Hubble images of deep space objects, of the planets? Did you ever think you could create images that would rival the Hubble images? Well, you can't. But you can certainly create images that will amaze your friends and family. You may even create images that can be published in an astronomy magazine. This book is a concise introduction to astrophotography.

Many books on astrophotography are large, ponderous tomes that contain so much information that they overwhelm the casual reader. This book sticks to the basics, but has an amazing amount of information for such a small book. If you have the slightest interest in the equipment and techniques that produce the stunning images in Astronomy or Sky & Telescope, this book is an excellent place to start.

The author points out that astrophotography can be pursued on a very limited budget, often with surprising results. He lists cameras and webcams that work for planetary and deep sky imaging, and proceeds to discuss more complicated (read expensive) equipment that can image nebula and distant galaxies. He also introduces post-processing where with the use of programs such as Adobe Elements or Photoshop, you can enhance contrast and bring out details in digital images that were not apparent in the original image.

So if you have any interest in the hobby of astrophotography, or if you know someone who is thinking of getting into the hobby, this book is a good place to start. Clear skies.

5 out of 5 stars

Finally! An Understable Book on Astrophotography February 17, 2008
C. Reich (Innisfree)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I've quite a few books on astrophotography in my astronomy library and they've all followed the same course: They start with extreme basics and then jump into using a $[...] camera to gather 800 6 hour exposures and how to stack and process the singles into an image better than the Hubble could capture. You'll need a $[...] mount.

Since I am an observer, my interest in astrophotograhy is not deep enough to entice me into spending the time to do all the work that most books teach. This book covers the middle ground nicely. If you want to go beyond holding a camera to the eyepiece but don't care to build an observatory dedicated to electronics, this guide book will have you producing beautiful images---on any budget. And if you want to go "all the way" there is plenty of material for that too.

I was very pleased when I got the book and am more pleased every time I open it.

Chris Reich,
TeachU.com
EtnaAstros.com

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