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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Easy as Baking a Cake, July 13, 2006
I found Adam's book provides a clear, proven recipe for obtaining high quality astrophotographs from your backyard with modern technology and equipment readily available to the hobbyist. I am returning to the hobby after 35 years. When I left, I was taking picures on 35mm film and processing it in my own darkroom. It seemed that no matter how hard you worked at it, there was a finite limit to the quality of photos you could obtain. The draw on my return to backyard astronomy and astrophotography is the technology leap in the interim. Mr. Stuart cuts to the chase and has helped bridged that gap for me.
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Not for beginners, May 21, 2007
The first word that comes to mind regarding Adam Stuarts book is disappointing. Perhaps If he did not proclaim it was a beginners book...
I have no doubt someone can find some value perhaps so, but I could not. I have been looking for some time for a book that would address the questions a beginner would have in astro imaging. I have purchased an LX200 8 inch I have been an avid amateur astronomer for 40 years when I purchased this scope the dealer had an offer on astro imaging equipment that I took advantage of.
Unfortunately the instructions were not helpful. Some theory was in order, which I had hoped this book would address. Perhaps with some basics addressed in plain English I could then go back and better utilize the equipment.
It seems that there are people who can adapt quickly to this kind of photography with little or no help but I belong to a different group I need to know why things are done and in what order. For instance how do you determine how long to provide for each image when you need to take perhaps hundreds of images. And when using color how long for each filter how many images per filter and how many images in total. Of course, I have other questions but I am still looking for that "beginners book."
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
I am a little bit disappointed, April 23, 2008
I could hardly wait for this book because I live next to a more than 2 million-city (Budapest) in Hungary and half of the night sky is terrible from my backyard; so the main reason behind my ordering this book was its subtitle.
But the truth is that only the very first section (seven pages incl. pictures and PC screenshots) of this book deals with this problem and that is just a kind of approach from bird's eye view; the rest of the text is a "normal" and elementary level astro-photo book. (And I have much better astro photography and image processing sources as Wodarski or Berry&Burnell...)
At the same time, there are too many pictures (roughly 1/3 of the book!!!) as sample image collection. Some of them are really very nice shots and some others are poor but without any explanations regarding the features of their capture and/or image processing.
So this book is not bad at all but I can recommend it for beginners only as another overview about new technology of astro-photography and there is nothing special in it.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
High Quality Imaging For The Beginner, June 24, 2006
I am brand-new to astrophotography and I found Dr. Stuart's book easy to understand. It made me want to pursue this hobby even more. And his photos were unbelievable considering they're from an observatory in his backyard!
G.E.
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Getting Better, August 18, 2008
At first I did not like the book much and it sat on my shelve. I revisited it recently and have changed my mind. There is a lot of information contained within its pages. It may not be the best laid out book for beginners and the Observatory section needs to be dropped, never the less if you read through it you can learn a lot. It is with out doubt an improvement on some of the astrophotography books in the Practical Astronomy series, some of which should never have been printed but there is still room for a good intro book in this area.
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Great first book, April 20, 2008
Very down to earth information that was helpful to someone like me who is just getting started. He was very gracious when I contacted him with further questions! How many authors can you do that with.... I recommend this book as a great read.
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Informative but absolutely not for casual imagers, April 3, 2007
If you are considering this book in order to learn how to image with basic astronomical equipment and CCD imaging gear.
I was disappointed with it since it comes from the "Practical Astronomy" series. Mr. Stuart's set up is anything but practical. I know of few people who get into this hobby and instantly purchase their own dome, establish a network, and run their equipment from the convenience of their home. The cost of his endeavor must have been in the tens of thousands, not my idea of amateur nor practical.
Chapters 3 and 4 provide the most pertinent information on image collecting and processing. This is the meat of the subject and what most everyone starting out in astrophotography needs to know. Mr. Stuart, unfortunately, spends relatively little time describing the nuts-and-bolts of imaging with a CCD device, instead relying upon the Santa Barbara Imaging Group to handle the rough spots. WebCAM's have become the tool of choice for many backyard astronomers and the author devotes nothing more than a few pages describing them. He does, however, describe the processing stages and that is the strength of the book. Chapter 5 shows some of his best deep space images and some of the solar system objects he has photographed. Fine work, but with the amount of cash he tossed at them, they should be.
If you are interested in finding a quick solution, this book is not it. If you are established and want to learn how to shoot like the big boys, then Mr. Stuart's book is just fine.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Guide to CCD Astrophotography, July 9, 2006
This book provides both the aspiring and seasoned astrophotographer with a concise yet practical overview to the art of CCD astrophotgraphy. Of major import, is the way the author presents the subject from a practical hands-on perspective. I consider this work an excellent guide on this subject with the author's experience and suggestions helping to forging the reader's path to a very exciting and fulfilling hobby.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Don't buy this book, May 27, 2009
What a disappointment... this book was not useful to me for any purpose other than to read about the equipment & software used by the author. It's nothing more than a chronology and documentary on the equipment HE owns and uses, but there is absolutely no information on HOW to use it. I was expecting and/or hoping for "reference" type information, but the book is essentially useless for this purpose. The author will tell you everything you want to know about HIS equipment and setup (in a manner that goes over the head of nearly all beginners) but does absolutely nothing to educate you on how to effectively take "high quality astrophotography from the suburbs". Even worse, half of the book contains nothing more than photos that he took, but there is no information on technique. If you want a "guided tour" of the author's setup, then you'll love the book, but if you want to know anything at all about how to use it, or even better... how to use your own or other equipment, absolutely positively 100% stay away from this book. I think the book is a scam-- to get you to buy and use equipment owned by the author. I wonder if the different equipment manufacturers and vendors pay the guy to name-drop and "advertise" in his book. What a disappointment.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
CCD Astrophotography Book, March 10, 2008
Not bad really. This book is not AT ALL intended for the routine person who is interested in astronomy, and wishes to use his digital SLR camera in combination with his telescope to do astrophotography.
I find the title to be a bit unclear. This book would be useful for someone who is interested in doing CCD astrophotography, but not to the more common use of a digital camera to do astrophotography.
This is not a bad book, but it certainly is not the correct book for someone with an upscale SLR digital camera who also owns a telescope who wishes to combine the two hobbies.
NOTE: At the request of the author I have modified my previous comments to make them clearer.
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