Nuts and Bolts of Astrophotography: Hardware Software and Images

This book explores the backyard observatory and the nature of outer space through long exposure astrophotography. The "Nuts and Bolts of Astrophotography Hardware Software and Images" brings long exposure imaging into your own backyard. Utilizing his academic and direct experience the author delivers the basics of deep space photography. A comprehensive array of sections describes cameras, digital processing, optical tubes, mounts and accessories. There are complete lists of hardware and software components used to generate the images in the book, accessible by all levels from beginners to the seasoned Astro photographer. There are over 200 images of space objects including all Messier objects along with prominent Caldwell and NGC objects seen from the northern hemisphere.

The book is an extremely useful reference guide for identifying and locating space objects for viewing or imaging. Included is a rich set of deep space images. Each image is accompanied with a descriptive paragraph which includes description, telescope and camera configurations, exposure times, exposure counts, bandpass filters used, celestial coordinates, and time of year when the object is available for photography. The images are realistic examples of the image quality the reader can expect with the different combinations of cameras, mounts and filters.

In this time of great observatories, we are experiencing an explosion in our understanding of the universe. Astrophotography helps us bring home that experience in a personal way. Whether it's planets, nebula, brilliant star clusters, or far away galaxies, you can capture them all in detailed color with the new technology available today for the small backyard observatory.