Product Description
This remarkable 12" by 12" wall calendar features beautiful images of planets, stars, gaseous nebulae, and galaxies captured by NASA's orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, one of the most important scientific instruments of our time. The images have been digitally processed to reveal the elegant and subtle beauty of the most distant realms of the Universe. Includes accurate and informative descriptions by a professional astronomer, and Astrographics' exclusive Sky Watching Guide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Breath-taking photos
This calendar has awe-inspiring photographs of outer space.I never tire of gazing at this calendar's pages.The colors and patterns of the universe are nature's most imaginative.

Beautiful but "too much information"
Serious eye candy -- this is a beautiful calendar with the spectacular HST images we've come to expect -- perfect as long as you don't need to use the calendar to keep track of appointments and events. Many of the individual day blocks are so crammed full of astronomical info that there is no room for a busy family to make note of doctor's appointments, school events and such. I give it four stars for the sheer beauty of the thing, and because the information provided is extremely accurate; if only there were room to write on it, it would get all five stars from me! ... Read more

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14¼"x22. Deep space images of galaxies. A different galaxy shown each month. ... Read more

Product Description

This book is based around the author’s beautiful and sometimes awe-inspiring color images and mosaics of deep-sky objects.

The images were used as the basis of a public exhibition held at the University of Southampton (Summer 2006), attended by the press, local radio and TV interviewers as well as the public. The book describes how similar images can be created by amateur astronomers, using commercially available telescopes and CCD cameras. Subsequent processing and image enhancement in the “electronic darkroom” is covered in detail as well.

Not everybody can afford the biggest and best telescopes and CCD cameras, so a range of telescopes and equipment is considered, from the author’s 11-inch with Hyperstar camera, down to more affordable instruments.

Appendices provide links to free software – not available from a single source – and are themselves an invaluable resource.

Customer Reviews (3)

Fortunately I bought it cheaply
This book meanders around, often repetitively without coming to grips with any real detail.I also found the author's writing style quite irritating.He loves exclamation marks!Often two or three stacked together!! Even when he makes the most bland statements!!! Such as "thank you Noel!!!"

The author clearly does not understand the relationship between noise and the number of subexposures. On page 33 he states (correctly) that the noise goes down as "something like" the square root of the number of subs. In other words 100 subs of equal exposure stacked together will have one tenth of the noise of one sub. However this is not an absolute: the length of the exposure is also important. The author states that a disadvantage of longer exposures is that you will have fewer of them and hence more noise than lots of shorter exposures.This is nonsense. Twenty exposures of 5 minutes will have a lot less noise than 100 exposures of 1 minute. Shot noise in both will be approximately the same, since the total exposure is the same (100 minutes).However, read noise for the 100 exposures will be greater, since there are 100 reads as opposed to 20.One would expect the total noise in the stack of 100 to be sqrt(5) times more than in the stack of 20. The subject of noise is well discussed in the book "Astronomical Image Processing" by Berry and Burnell

The author is also a little confused about "fast" and "slow" telescopes.On Page 21 he states that "Light grabbing power is all about aperture.."On Page 25, after discussing the fact that a large aperture refractor probably needs a permanent setup, he goes on to state that "Of course you can use smaller aperture refractors for imaging, but you will by necessity be using a 'slow' system..."To me this suggests that he is implying that speed is a function of aperture.He then contradicts this on page 35 where he states that "..the Hubble space telescope with a 2-metre diameter mirror..is very much slower than my Sky 90 3.5" refractor..."The problem is that when astroimaging, the whole system must be considered.It makes no sense to talk of a "fast" telescope in isolation.It does make sense to say that one telescope/camera combination is faster than another telescope/camera combination.For instance an f10 telescope matched with a camera whose pixel size delivers 2 arc sec per pixel will be 4 x faster than an f5 telescope of the same aperture matched with a camera whose pixel size delivers 1 arc sec per pixel, because in the second case, each pixel receives only a quarter of the light than in the first case. This is why we can speed up exposures by binning.Binning 2 x 2 effectively halves the focal ratio of a telescope.You get the same image scale, speed and resolution that you would get from a telescope of half the focal ratio and the same aperture.Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch.You also get half the field of view, but since most DSOs occupy only the central field, this is often not important.

The book is really about "My trials and errors in astroimaging".While some personal reflections are often of interest, it is my opinion that the author overdoes the personal reflections aspect.

The pictures in Chapter 11 are the best part of the book, but in themselves do not make the purchase of the book worthwhile.Chapter 12 ("Differentiating your work") also contains some good advice.All in all, I cannot recommend purchasing this book.

Saved me a pile of money.
I was all set on purchasing a CCD camera for my Celestron C14. After much research I was going to go with the Hyper-Star camera. After reading this book I saw that this choice would be fraught with technical problems more suited to a professional or highly neurotic astro-photographer. Just contemplating trying to focus the Hyper Star camera with a tolerance of microns made my choice plain. I wasn't going to spend thousands on a camera only useable on one telescope. This book more than paid for itself.

As far as the other data in the book, I glossed over the author's pet products. I also appreciated the fine photos even being in such a small format book.

I made the wrong decision
This book does contain some very beautiful DSO images, but other than that it is a unfortunate disappointment to me. Not only because the 'Affordable' here in this book seems not too affordable - at least to me I'd consider a Stellarvue 80ED is much more affordable than Tak Sky90. Some impression I got from this book was unless you have a Tak 90 otherwise you won't get DSO pictures even close to the author had produced.
Maybe you found this book is good for you, but I did not. Sorry.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fantastic product
I've owned this book now for almost a year and keep going back to it.It has taught me so much and brought my processing skills to a higher level.You can check out my images at [...]These were all done using the techniques that I learned in this book.

Excellent!!!!
Scott Ireland has done an excellent job in putting together this interactive guide to the application of Photoshop for the astrophotgrapher.He provides numerous techniques in a very understandable way, although some understanding of Photoshop beforehand is highly recommended.The photographs that he discusses in the book are also provided on a DVD so that you can not only read about the processing but you can carry it out yourself on your computer. Of all the guides that I have purchased for the application of Photoshop (eight so far), this one is my bible for astrophotgraphy.We are really fortunate that Scott took the time to put his vast experience to print.He is a superb astrophotographer and over the years I have really enjoyed attending his lectures at the Winter Star Party.Thank you, Scott!!

Great source of detailed explanations and step-by-step
This book is thorough in its approach to educating you on the why's and how's of using PhotoShop for image processing.If you've always wondered how to best use PS to process your astronomical images, this book will give you the nitty-gritty details of how to do it, as well as why you should do it.

The text is split into logical chapters, so that if there are areas that you aren't interested in, you can easily skip them.

This is a GOOD book! It's not inexpensive -- but it's very comprehensive. ... Read more

Product Description

The second edition of Electronic Imaging in Astronomy: Detectors and Instrumentation describes the remarkable developments that have taken place in astronomical detectors and instrumentation in recent years – from the invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD) in 1970 to the current era of very large telescopes, such as the Keck 10-meter telescopes in Hawaii with their laser guide-star adaptive optics which rival the image quality of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Authored by one of the world’s foremost experts on the design and development of electronic imaging systems for astronomy, this book has been written on several levels to appeal to a broad readership. Mathematical expositions are designed to encourage a wider audience, especially among the growing community of amateur astronomers with small telescopes with CCD cameras. The book can be used at the college level for an introductory course on modern astronomical detectors and instruments, and as a supplement for a practical or laboratory class.

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent book on instrumental astronomy
A very comprehensive text on contemporary observational astronomy with a specific focus on instruments, detectors, and their host telescope technologies. The book reflects the deep insights of the author and his extensive practical experience in this area at leading telescope facilities and institutions. The book is detailed, and covers important auxiliary material, such as data reduction methodologies required for the instruments and detectors described, and important chapters on instrument design as well as leading-edge science examples in contemporary observational astronomy. The book is at a senior undergraduate, specialist, or graduate student level, but provides a lot of supporting material so can be read at different levels of technical interest. It is a deep technical view of observational astronomy, but I highly recommend it, especially to those who wish to understand the instruments and detectors of modern observational astronomy. The book covers radio, O/UV/IR, and high-energy photon astronomy.

Outstanding, Simply Outstanding!
If you have even a little bit of interest in learning about imaging technology in the field of Astronomy then this is definitely the first book you should be grabbing. What really separates this book from others like it is how its meticulously set up for all levels of experience and interest. In other words whether your a seasoned professional, a college student, or just an amateur backyard astronomer, this book has something to offer you.

If there was ever a time for a book like this its now as imaging technology in general has seen just massive breakthroughs in recent years and astronomy is one of the fields that has really benefited the most from such breakthroughs. In fact one could argue that astronomy has actually benefited more from such breakthroughs than photography itself. Of course photography is a huge part of astronomy so such arguments are pretty much futile. The bottom line is that imaging in astronomy is light years ahead of where it was even 20 years ago and this book will bring you up to date in regards to those technologies. It covers everything from the invention of CCD's right up to the use of adaptive optics. Overall Its extremely well written and is packed with a lot of great diagrams and mathematical equations.

I am actually an architectural photographer but I have been getting into astrophotography more and more in recent years and its now to the point where its one of my main focuses in regards to my personal work. A little while back I just really started getting the urge to learn about this technology from the ground up and I have been doing just that ever since. I have now read 4 different books on CCD's and imaging technology and this book is easily the best one I have read yet. If you want to take your understanding of such technologies to the next level then this is without a single doubt the place to start. Even if you already have a good understanding of such material, this book will still have plenty to offer you. In fact, anyone even half serious about imaging technology should have this on their bookshelf, period!

The bottom line - This is one book that anyone even remotely interested in imaging technology should have!!

5 Stars!!

Excellent book for beginner and expert
I have worked most of my career in scientific detectors for astronomy, for both ground and space, and my career includes positions at some of the major ground-based astronomical observatories (European Southern Observatory, W.M. Keck Observatory), and I now work at a leading detector manufacturer. I am a collector of books on technology for astronomical imaging, and Ian McLean's book is the best introduction and reference I have found for electronic imaging in astronomy. Ian McLean's book provides an excellent introduction to those who wish to learn about electronic imaging and it is a very good reference for those working in astronomy and other fields that require high performance imaging. The information on instrumentation and detectors is both broad and deep, with excellent compilation of references for those who seek more detail.I have ordered 3 copies of this book for my colleagues at work, and this book is often referenced in our discussions.I strongly recommend Professor McLean's book.

James W. Beletic, Ph.D.
Director of Astronomy & Civil Space
Teledyne Imaging Sensors

Very nice book!
I just wanted to mention how much I enjoy this book, Electronic Imaging in Astronomy (2nd ed.). I am nowhere near a professional in this field (I'm a mathematician, but do astronomical spectroscopy for fun), but the book's friendly writing style, wide scope, and clear explanations make the topics engaging and completely accessible. A work like this bespeaks a wide and deep knowledge of the field, as well as, I am sure, no small amount of perseverence! So kudos to the author from a layman for a really nice book!

best for the CCD ultra-enthusiast
An odd combination of the most detailed description of CCD and infrared arrays (their history,use, calibration, optical and electronic properties, drive waveforms, etc.), plus a shallow and general coverage of generaloptics, software (including a flow chart for software development plus afew screen shots!), telescopes, and adaptive optics.

It is hard toimagine someone who would get something useful out of every chapter; theultra beginner could learn the basics better elsewhere, but would find thetechnical chapters hard slogging, while the CCD enthusiast will make thecomplementary choices.

Exercises suggest the author may have imaginedthis to be a text book, but the poor general coverage and excellenttechnical coverage make this instead a reference for techies. ... Read more

Product Description
This second edition has been entirely restructured and almost doubled in size, in order to improve clarity and account for the great progress achieved in the field over the last 15 years.
"This is not a handbook for observers. It is a broader reference for students, active researchers, and anyone who wants a detailed look at the tools of modern astronomy..." -PHYSICS TODAY ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

takes you to the frontiers
Astronomy is going through exciting times, as new and better instrumentation and methods gives us greater insight into the universe. This book helps explain what some of the advances are. It gives basic material about radiation, photometry and the like. There is an important explanation of how the atmosphere has traditionally limited the resolution of images (at least in the visible spectrum) due to turbulence. Which leads the book into some of the attractions of space-based telescopes.

But the book also goes into how ground based telescopes are overcoming the atmospheric barrier. Using adaptive optics in "smart" telescopes. This lets them cancel out the effects of turbulence, on the time scale of that turbulence. Very impressive. We can push to the instrinsic limits of the optics.

The book takes you to the frontiers of modern astronomy. ... Read more

Product Description
Charge-coupled Devices (CCDs) have revolutionised astronomy. Even affordable CCD cameras can be ten times a sensitive as photographic film, and they deliver a digitised image that is easy to enhance using a personal computer. David Ratledge has brought together contributions from twelve leading amateurs from around the world, people who are routinely producing astronomical images of a quality that rivals those of professional observatories only of 10 years ago. These experts describe their techniques and solutions, and offer essential tips and advice for anyone who is choosing or using a CCD camera. Now glance through the Colour Gallery at the back of this book to see just what they have done! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

1996
This book has useful information but is outdated. The author talks about his IBM 486 33MHz computer and the amount of time on image download and etc.......

Learn the experiences of other Astronomers
'The Art and Science of CCD Astronomy' gives you the experiences and tips/tricks of those who have used (and are currently using) CCD's as their primary Astrophotography tool.Learn how to do Planetary as well as deepspace photography with just about any CCD on the market today.Somesources for CCD equipment is also included.Great title for the beginner ... Read more

Product Description

Deep-Sky Video Astronomy is a concise guide to using modern integrating video cameras for deep-sky viewing and imaging with the kinds of modest telescopes available commercially to amateur astronomers. It includes an introduction and a brief history of the technology, camera types, etc. The authors then examine the pros and cons of this unrefrigerated yet highly efficient technology, which is already beginning to compete with expensive astronomical cooled-chip CCD cameras in quality and ease of use.

There is a thorough examination of accessories used to achieve particular results. Examples are focal reducers, Barlow lenses, and optical filters. However, the focus is mostly on the practical side of creating beautiful and detailed astronomical portraits using image-stacking software, enhancement tools like PhotoShop, and creating color images with a black-and-white camera.

Practical step-by-step examples supported by tried and trusted tips show how to achieve the best possible deep-sky video portrait!

Customer Reviews (2)

More of a software guide
The other reviewer hits the nail on the head. With only about 13 pages devoted to describing the various video cameras available this book leaves you with more questions than answers about camera selection. I tracked down websites for the various cameras mentioned and I was unable to make a sensible comparison of their features. The cameras mentioned range from $275 to $800 and they clearly feel this is the best bang-for-the-buck. There is a passing mention of webcams, but little more. There is no mention at all of Celestron's Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager.

That said, the bulk of the book is an in-depth step-by-step guide to manipulating the raw video you have captured and explains how to get the best possible images. The book is also filled with great photos, each listed with the telescope specs listed, but not always the camera model. There's also a nice little section on using a video camera for guiding.

If I ever buy a video camera this book will be invaluable; but I'll have to find another source of information to guide my camera selection.

Prescriptive astrophotgraphy
Massey and Quirk's (M&Q) latest book is largely a prescriptive guide to operating a monochrome frame-accumulation video camera with a telescope.It tells the user what to do and when to do it.It describes the GSTAR-EX camera sold by Massey, and the well-known Registax program, and spends a lot of time in describing the steps the operator must go through to get results from the astrophoto session.

M&Q spend most time on the GSTAR-EX camera sold by Massey, with only occasional mention of other competing products (StellaCam, Mintron, Watec, Imaging Source) and no mention at all of the Mallincam Hyper.This is not a criticism; if you use one of these other devices you will still find the book useful.

Careful reading is needed to tease out equipment configuration which will work with a given telescope.This is one area where M&Q could have spent more time, as it represents the greatest cost to the isolated amateur trying to get things right.The writers are also exclusively PC-centric, but if you use Macs you may still find the broad steps applicable to the software you do use.

The gallery at the end of the book is spellbinding, and shows M&Q's consummate abilities at the telescope.Enviable indeed.The section on "photographs from light polluted skies" gives some idea of what can be achieved with the GSTAR from suburbia using moderate telescopes (8 - 10" Newtonians and SCTs, 4" ED refractors, etc).

My verdict - the book is a worthwhile addition to the amateur's library.It will not provide as much background theory as the amateur might wish for, but in its stated aim of introducing the amateur astronomer to video astronomy, it does a very good job.

Disclaimer:- the author does not have a GSTAR-EX nor is affiliated with M&Q. ... Read more

Product Description
The 10th Symposium on Photoelectronic Image Devices was held at Imperial College, University of London, on 2-6 September 1991. Covering the latest developments and applications of detectors and systems, this volume contains 52 papers from leading international researchers. It is divided into the following sections: Astronomical applications; image intensifiers, design and characterisation; scientific applications; techniques, camera tubes and electron optics. The performance and assessment of detector systems are also discussed. This research level volume has applications over an enormous range of disciplines. It will be of interest and value to researchers both developing and using photoelectronic detectors in academic, government and industrial laboratories, working in the areas of nuclear and particle physics, astronomy, space science, medicine, telecommunications and military applications. ... Read more

Product Description
Remotely sensed images are an indispensable tool to researchers in disciplines such as cartography, forestry and geology in which mapping by satellite or aircraft is often a far more acurate, efficient and cost-effective method than conventional survey. Most users of remote sensing data are now familiar with using photographic images prepared to standard prescriptions by others to relate colours or grey tones to what actually exists on the ground. This book is aimed at the discipline-oriented user who wishes to move away from these traditional photographic interpretation methods towards interactive analysis systems. Such systems permit the classification of the digital data in ways that enable locations and quantitative information on specific themes to be extracted and portrayed. The empasis is upon the integration of these new techniques into existing discipline skills: the user is not expected to become a 'computer operator'. The book covers the fundamental theory of image classification, and illustrates it with practical examples in the form of a structured outline of a total research project. It is therefore an essential reference manual to 'sit at the elbow' of the user working with an image processing system for remotely sensed data. ... Read more

Product Description
This up-to-date and comprehensive set of two CD-ROMs provides a superb guide to the images and observations of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, launched by NASA and operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Thousands of genuinely stunning photographs taken by the observatory are presented. Over 450 image files in JPG and GIF format are provided for use in any computer graphics program, and twenty computer video movie clips are also included.

Images and observations of many types of astronomical targets are included:

SupernovaePulsarsNeutron StarsQuasarsGalaxiesClustersBlack HolesMilky Way Galaxy

The Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is NASA's newest Great Observatory. Chandra detects and images X- ray sources that are billions of light years away. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. If the surface of Earth was as smooth as the Chandra mirrors, the highest mountain would be less than six feet tall! The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. This focusing power is equivalent to the ability to read a newspaper at a distance of half a mile. Chandra's improved sensitivity is making possible more detailed studies of black holes, supernovae, and dark matter. Chandra will increase our understanding of the origin, evolution, and destiny of the universe.

In all, the disc has nearly 6000 pages reproduced using Adobe Acrobat PDF software - allowing direct viewing on Windows and Apple Macintosh systems. Reader software is included on the CD.

Our CD-ROMs are privately-compiled collections of official public domain U.S. federal government files and documents. They are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work utilizing the benefits of the Adobe Acrobat format to uniformly present thousands of pages that can be rapidly reviewed, searched by finding specific words, or printed without untold hours of tedious research and downloading. Vast archives of important public domain government information that might otherwise remain inaccessible are available for instant review no matter where you are. This book-on-a-disc makes a great reference work and educational tool.There is no other reference that is as fast, convenient, comprehensive, and portable - everything you need to know, from the federal sources you trust. ... Read more

Product Description
IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration) isthe first NASA MIDEX mission and the first mission dedicated toimaging the Earth's magnetosphere. It will obtain the first globalimages of the plasmas that populate the Earth's inner magnetosphere,using new techniques of neutral atom imaging, ultraviolet imaging, andradio sounding. With these images, space scientists will be able toobserve, in a way never before possible, the large-scale dynamics ofthe magnetosphere as its constituent plasma regimes respond tosolar-wind-induced variations. Written for both experimentalists andtheorists in the field of magnetospheric physics, this volume offersdetailed descriptions of the imaging instruments on board the IMAGEspacecraft and of the innovative modeling and image inversiontechniques that will be employed in the interpretation of the data.Also included are chapters on the IMAGE science objectives, thespacecraft design and capabilities, science and mission operations,and the processing and distribution of IMAGE's nonproprietary dataproducts. The IMAGE Mission is the only publicly availableresource to provide complete and authoritative documentation of theIMAGE instrumentation and science investigation. ... Read more