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The Deep-sky Imaging Primer

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Description

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: 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. 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. 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! Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Charles Bracken; 1st edition (January 1, 2013)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 202 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 148180491X


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 12


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.14 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8 x 0.48 x 10 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #1,066,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)


Customer Reviews: 4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 359 ratings


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • DEFINITELY a title to start out with: A "must have" book.
I agree with the other 5-star reviewers in recommending this book, but have a couple of additional points to make. I purchased two books on this subject together: This one, "The Deep-Sky Imaging Guide" and the second title "Getting Started: Long Exposure Astrophotography" by Allan Hall (which I also plan on reviewing). I do not regret getting the two titles together. Charles Bracken has created a wonderful, and a BEAUTIFUL, book. For one thing, he uses a lot of COLOR photos and illustrations (where some do not). It may seem a little thin to some at 202 pages, but the type is smaller than "normal" and so this book could have easily been 300 pages if set at a different type size. He has used a two-column per page text layout, making it very readable. This means many of the illustrations, like software screenshots, are also one column wide which seems a little small but is still readable. Helpful tips and supplemental information are set off in darker boxes within the text. The first section of this book (through page 36) covers fundamental concepts of how electronic imaging works "with special attention given to the concepts of signal and noise. This will help you make informed decisions about equipment and processing". This information applies regardless of whether you are using a digital camera or a CCD device. I believe that too many people rush out to buy equipment before understanding these important concepts, and so often regret some of the purchases that they have made. The next section of the of the book (through page 98) covers concepts that it is necessary to understand in the Image Acquisition side of things. The 2nd half of the book (section 3) deals with processing those images to get the most out of the information you have captured. Post-processing sections of this book employ Photoshop. As the book itself says, "Version CS3 is used for the processing illustrations and examples, but the tools are nearly the same from CS3 on. In subsequent versions the interface has changed slightly and some new tools were added, but everything shown is possible in the newer versions. While expensive, Photoshop is the de facto image processing standard for other kinds of photography, and it currently appears to be the most popular choice for astronomical image processing as well." He also employs several Photoshop plug-ins. The end of the post-processing section concludes with two very helpful chapters covering start-to-finish walk-through examples of the concepts previously covered: "DSLR Processing Example: The Witch's Broom Nebula" and "CCD Processing Example: The Rosette Nebula in Narrowband". I have a hard time seeing how anyone would be disappointed by this wonderful book. If you are looking for specific equipment recommendations you will have to look elsewhere. In my opinion, Bracken has, for the most part, wisely avoided this thus making his information a little more "timeless" than those that spend a lot of time on specific equipment and tools. But you will feel far better informed in understanding the various trade-offs between different approaches and in order to choose which pieces are right for you and your pocketbook. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2013 by Darren Addy
    • CCD Imaging for the non-PHDs in Math/Statistics/Engineering
Here's the "I'm too Lazy to Read the Whole Review Summary" Overall, this is an excellent reference and will provide a foundation to the beginning and intermediate imager. Excellent discussion of signal, noise, CCD operation, etc. There is information in this book even for the advanced imager. Review I purchased this book based on the other reviews and a desire to better understand CCDs, noise, signal and image calibration/processing as these topics relate to astronomical imaging. Charles Bracken delivers on all these subjects (and more) in a concise, understandable way. The first two chapters of the book deal with how a CCD sensors actually works, types of noise and signal to noise ratio. I think these chapters are so good they're worth the price of the book alone. Don't think if you're an imaging veteran these two chapters are too elementary - I would guess most people who read this book/chapter will walk away saying "I didn't know that..." or "So that's what ___ is". Bracken supports the topic with a small amount of math, but explains virtually all the math terms along the way; i.e. Standard Deviation, mean, etc. Other texts I've read quickly devolve into the mathematics without adequately preparing the reader. These initial chapters (chapters 1 and 2) are the best I've read on these subjects and will allow you to answer questions like "Do I need bias frames if I'm not scaling my darks?", "What is my true signal to noise ratio?", "Why does imaging under a dark sky matter?", "What is noise in a mathematical sense?". You may know these answers already, but after reading this book, I can say with confidence you'll have a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts. The other chapters are equally well written and applicable to both CCD and DSLR users. The chapters on image calibration are particularly good and there are detailed image processing examples to demonstrate the concepts. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2013 by Michael S Franzyshen
    • I wish I had this book when I started with Astrophotography!
This is a great guide for the basics of astrophotography. There is a good balance between theory and application - and the theory is presented clearly and simply so it is understandable! Chapters are on the shorter side and don't overwhelm with information, nor are they so short they leave more questions than they answer. All aspects of deep space imaging are covered, and at the end of the book are two examples of image processing (including one for DSLR cameras!) Even though this is written for beginning imagers, I think anyone will benefit from the book. Reviewing the basics and creating a solid foundation go hand in hand. Like many other books being published on imaging, the information is out there already. In this case, you don't have to hunt the internet or get conflicting advice from well-meaning friends. Charles Bracken has brought together what you need to know and presents it in a format that makes it easy to grasp and apply. Well worth the money, you'll come back to this book again and again. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2014 by Fred

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