CCD Astrophotography: High-Quality Imaging from the Suburbs (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series) (Paperback)

~ Adam Stuart (Author) "Light pollution is the bane of amateur astronomers, whether your interest is in observing or imaging..." (more)
Key Phrases: imaging train, many imagers, declination drift, Stellarvue Nighthawk, High Quality Imaging, Collection of Astrophotos (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"In this book, US amateur Adam Stuart struts his stuff by turning his personal experiences … into a full-length book. What I especially liked is that the author goes to great lengths to show what a variety of instruments can do … . Stuart does a really nice job presenting astrophotography … I for one found many of his tips and suggestions to be invaluable. The best feature of this book is … high-quality colour images … . the author must truly be congratulated!" (Neil English, Astronomy Now, March, 2007)

"Adam Stuart’s book is a practical, enthusiastic, hands-on tale of the numerous challenges he faced and overcame during the construction of a home observatory under the light-polluted skies of southern Florida." (David Malin, Australian Physics, Vol. 43 (5), 2006)

Product Description

Not all amateur astronomers who live in a suburban location realize just how very effective a ‘chilled-chip’ astronomical CCD-camera and software can be at cutting through seemingly impenetrable light-pollution. CCD Astrophotography from the Suburbs details one man’s approach to the problem of getting high-quality astronomical images under light-polluted conditions. Adam Stuart has written this reference book for all amateur astronomers who are interested in CCD imaging, especially those who have to work under suburban conditions. The book outlines the materials and (commercially-available) equipment used for high-quality imaging. The many wonderful images Dr. Stuart has produced allow the reader to see the product of – initially – a fellow beginner’s efforts. The glorious images found in numerous books, and especially those seen in Sky and Telescope magazine – might seem out of reach. But this is not really the case. Respectable images are attainable with modest equipment. This book outlines a complete and thoroughly tested working program for every beginner to achieve high-quality digital imaging.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (June 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387262415
• ISBN-13: 978-0387262413
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #533,004 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy as Baking a Cake, July 13, 2006

By	James L. Werle (Henderson, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I am a little bit disappointed, April 23, 2008

By	Attila Madai - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for beginners, May 21, 2007

By	John chase - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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."