Digital Astrophotography: A Guide to Capturing the Cosmos - Softcover

Stefan Seip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933952164 ISBN 13: 9781933952161

Publisher: Rocky Nook, 2007

Synopsis

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!"

About this title

About the Author:

Currently living in Stuttgart,Germany, Stefan Seip works as a professional fine art photographer, an IT consultant, and a science writer. His enthusiasm for the activities and objects of the cosmos dates back to his early adolescence. Driven by his innate desire to capture beauty in images, it was only natural to combine his two loves; astronomy and photography.It is only recently--decades later--that Stefan started to grasp what he had gotten himself into. Although, he still enjoys visual astronomy, astrophotography has gained the upper hand, requiring his full commitment. He said, "Had I foreseen the amount of time, perseverance, technology, know-how, and (in the end) money would be necessary in order to produce first-class images, I would have had second thoughts about it--only to pursue the same path again!"Astrophotography grants him many unforgettable hours under the night sky, while it allows him to produce aesthetically rewarding and lasting results. His love for this challenging craft is evident in his many spectacular images.To learn more about Stefan Seip, and to see his stunning astrophotos and fine art images, visit his website at http://www.photomeeting.de.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rocky Nook
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1933952164
• ISBN 13: 9781933952161
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 162