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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #251648 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 196 pages

About the Author
Adam Stuart is a medical doctor, and of course an experienced amateur astronomer.

Customer Reviews

Easy as Baking a Cake
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.

Not for beginners
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."

I am a little bit disappointed
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.