The Deep-sky Imaging Primer

The Deep-sky Imaging Primer covers almost everything you need to know to create beautiful deep-sky images with a DSLR or an astronomical CCD camera. This textbook is printed in full-color, with over 90,000 words and nearly 200 images and illustrations. The book does not shy away from the technical details where they are important, but the focus is on practical advice for the amateur. Both narrowband and standard color imaging techniques are covered. Exercise questions are provided to reinforce the material being covered, and the final chapters contain two start-to-finish image processing examples.

The book is structured in three sections:

1. The first section, Understanding Images, covers with the fundamentals of signal and noise and how electronic imaging sensors work, laying the foundation for understanding the “whys” behind many equipment and processing choices.
2. The second section, Acquiring Images, reviews all of the equipment involved in imaging--cameras, mounts, and optics--and how to use them. Focusing and autoguiding are covered in detail, as are the critical concepts of image scale and sampling.
3. The third section is about Processing Images. Calibration and post-processing are explained with numerous examples. The chapters break the image processing workflow into phases, with the tools and techniques for each thoroughly covered.

If you’ve ever looked at beautiful deep-sky images and thought, “I wish I could do that,” then this book is for you!