Astrophotography

Today's photographic equipment allows amateurs to take pictures of the stars that far surpass images taken just a few decades ago by even the largest observatories-and this book will teach you how.

Author and world-renowned astrophotographer Thierry Legault teaches the art and techniques of astrophotography: from simple camera-on-tripod night-scene imaging of constellations, star trails, eclipses, artificial satellites, and polar auroras to more intensive astrophotography using specialized equipment for lunar, planetary, solar, and deep-sky imaging. Legault shares advice on equipment and guides you through techniques to capture and process your images to achieve spectacular results.

Astrophotography provides the most thorough treatment of the topic available. This large-format, richly illustrated book is intended for all sky enthusiasts-newcomers and veterans alike.

Learn how to:

• Select the most useful equipment: cameras, adapters, filters, focal reducers/extenders, field correctors, and guide telescopes
• Set up your camera (digital, video, or CCD) and your lens or telescope for optimal results
• Plan your observing sessions
• Mount the camera on your telescope and focus it for razor-sharp images
• Polar-align your equatorial mount and improve tracking for pin-point star images
• Make celestial time-lapse videos
• Calculate the shooting parameters: focal length and ratio, field of view, exposure time, etc.
• Combine multiples exposures to reveal faint galaxies, nebulae details, elusive planetary structures, and tiny lunar craters
• Adjust contrast, brightness, light curves, and colors
• Postprocess your images to fix defects such as vignetting, dust shadows, hot pixels, uneven background, and noise
• Identify problems with your images and improve your results

Thierry Legault is a world-renowned astrophotographer. In 1999, Legault received the prestigious Marius Jacquemetton prize from the Societe Astronomique de France for his astronomical photographs. He is so highly regarded in this industry that the International Astronomical Union officially bestowed the name Legault on asteroid #19458. Legault co-authored the book New Atlas of the Moon (Firefly, 2006) and has written numerous articles about astrophotography for French and American magazines. He regularly presents courses and gives astrophotography lectures in Europe, America, and Asia. Legault's images, most notably those of the International Space Station, have been published and broadcast worldwide (including NASA publications, Nature, Scientific American, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Aviation Week, Discovery Channel, BBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox, CBC, and MSNBC).

Thierry earns his living as an engineer and is currently living in the suburbs of Paris, France. For more information see www.astrophoto.fr.