Customer Reviews

The 100 Best Astrophotography Targets: A Monthly Guide for CCD Imaging with Amateur Telescopes (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series)

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2 star:		(1)
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This book is fantastic. Targets are arranged by date. Each target has a full color full page photograph with the all the information necessary to photograph it. There's a concise discussion of each target including what it is, distance, and why it appears as it does. He includes exposure times, filters used, and processing tips, both simple and advanced. This book should be included with every CCD camera. It tells you exactly what you need to know.

I was extremely impressed with Ruben Kier's new book for multiple reasons. I predict that this will become the "absolutely must have" reference book for everyone who does CCD imaging. It contains valuable imaging and processing information. More than that, it has a tremendous number of truly beautiful astrophotographs all neatly arranged in the monthly order in which the deep sky objects are visible in the night sky. Included are brief descriptions of the objects making this a great reference book for ANYONE who is interested in astronomy.

The book solves a real problem for me in trying to figure out what to image on any given night. As you might expect from the subtitle, the book is organized to show the best targets in each month throughout the year. Every target includes a high quality image to show you what you can expect to achieve given enough patience and experience. There also a second section with a few additional chapters on getting started with CCD Imaging. I would recommend this book for any CCD imager from beginners to experts.

When I first received this book, on Tuesday Sep 15, I immediately turned to September 15. What should appear to my surprise but Caldwell 12 (NGC 6946) and NGC 6939, a pair I had imaged (not too well) two years previous. This immediately drove me to try to reimage these two objects, which I tried to image (unsuccessfully) over the weekend at the CSP.

The book is fabulous. For beginners, it explains the sequence of exposures, stacking and any special processing involved, along with suggestions on other interesting objects to frame along with the primary object. For experts, it provides a year (if not many years!) of astrophotography targets. Just trying to match the scope of astrophotos in this book will result in years of enjoyment. (Or frustration, depending on your results!)

This book is an extremely useful "annual guide" for beginner astrophotographers (like me).

The structure of the description of targets is absolutely the best way to share the most important information with readers (in five small sections: target data, exposure data and verbal description of target features, imaging and processing activities). Additionally, the elementary know-how of astrophotography is efficiently summarized in the last chapters of the book. (If any of us wants to have deeper and more sophisticated knowledge of image-processing, there are a lot of very good books on the market specialized it that topic.)

If you want to take pretty shots about the nicest celestial bodies of the sky, you can do it in any period of the year without time consuming fumbling and testing.

I can feel just one slight "bottle neck" (maybe, it would mean some improvement for the second edition): what a difference can be seen on the same target using different cameras. The author used only two types of cameras during imaging; both of them are from SBIG. In this way, it is not possible to demonstrate the difference in the capabilities of several CCD cameras from low-end types via midrange to high-end types as well as DSLRs. This "CCD-test" was not the goal of this book, it is obvious, but it could have been a secondary but, at the same time, very useful "added value" mainly for beginners who are the vast part of the readers I think... (Maybe CCD producers could sponsor the book...)

All in all, this is a fantastic guide for astrophotography, it is no doubt. I can only recommend it to enthusiastic amateurs without hesitation.

Why another book of lists? As the author states in the introduction "These famous lists are excellent for visual astronomy but can be disappointing for the astrophotographer. For example, a sparse open star cluster sparkles at the eyepiece but can be uninspiring as an image.... on the other hand many nebulae that are faint to the eye have striking texture and hue on long exposures."

Amen, brother. That says it in a nutshell.

This book also includes the two most important bits of information you need on each object: it's brightness, and how large it appears. There are lots of sources for location information, but the size is rarely given. The book also includes some discussion of how these numbers relate to your telescope and imaging device. It's pretty technical but the answers you need are here.

Each object gets a full page color photo as well as detailed technical information on how the image was captured.

This book meets a real need. Excellent!

I bought this book as soon as it came out so I've had it for several months now. It has become a sort of companion and I really don't know of any other book arranged this way, and I have to say it is fantastic!. It is all meat and potatoes, no fluff or filler. And what is that? Extremely useful information stem to stern on a month by month listing of objects hopefully (depending on where you live) above the 2x airmass needed for good imaging.

Gives all the stuff you want to know, scope used, exposure time, imager used, processing techniques - and best of all these are all done at medium exposure times so no 30 minute sub exposures (and the $$ mounts needed to do it) to get similar results. If you are new to imaging and want a fantastic book to get you started, this is a great choice. I think if you get this book, your imaging ability will will be greatly enhanced and you'll see why it's getting these great reviews.

Although calibrating, stacking, SNR, ... 'processing images' is a theater all it's own - too often it's time spent on one object only to find on others a very different proceedure required. Here you have a fantastic array of objects with all that needed processing information in one concise and easily referenced volume. After a few months with this book you'll feel much more at home in this imaging arena and whtever you use, will start to appreciate just what a gem this little book is. Highest recommendation, I think this is a sort of instant classic of this literature.

I am an amateur astrophotographer, and the work for preparation of photos with my setup is a time consuming job (although pleaseant!). This book helps a lot in predicting what you can achieve with a specific setup, proposes targets based on calendar,etc. a big help especially if you are a rookie like me. Highly advise the book for early amateurs wanting for "more" in astrophotography. Thanks Ruben!

Very nice Ruben, wish I would have had this earlier in my imaging hobby.

It looks like it covers most all of the popular targets season by season,

and a few I have somehow missed over the years. I always wished for a book

like this giving a 'schedule' of when objects where at their best.

A great idea book for those nights when there seems to be 'nothing' in the

sky to image or observe. Good imaging pointers and advice along the way

too. Your quick processing tips should be helpful as well.

I would recommend this book, and already have to several people.

Dean

If I had known that the kindle version did not have color photos I would have bought the paperback ones. It seems strange that with kindle apps for color devices and now a color kindle that we don't have color content.