Digital SLR Astrophotography (Practical Amateur Astronomy)

I notice the other reviews, but I think the negative ones expect too much. This is not a detailed reference work for the advanced imager but a beginning book that will get you for 0-90 mph right away. I have done planetary and solar webcam imaging and beginning astrophotgraphy with Canon DSLR (Milky Way, Aurora) and been confused by the amount of information avaialble. Michael has presented a concise "how-to" that incorporates all of the specific actions required for DSLR and the underlying tehcnical reasons for them. He also includes some asides that are important, but you will not find in purely technical reports. I was able to scan it in about an hour and it corroborated and enhanced what I had learned on my own. This book would have saved me time and anxiety and I would have had better early results if I had read it first. Again - not a reference for advanced imager, but a solid how-to for beginning to intermediate DSLR astrophotography. Highly recommended for style and content.

Like another reviewer, I found that this was a well written book however, I agree that a little too much was referenced in another book for its price. I am happy to look up the many websites which are referenced...I expect that these days. It is probably time for a new integrated book that has it all. The cameras discussed were a bit old now Nikon D70 etc.

Mr Covington is an amayeur astronomer who has taken some wonderful astrophotos and is well qualified to explain the hows of this art. He has written a straight forward, easy to understand book that makes the subject to digital photography easy for the average person. I found his explanations understandable, making sense to even my "photo challenged" mind. Excellent book!

great beginner and pro book. great skills for both starts and pros

The book is outdated and overpriced. While naturally the field of astrophotography is like all electronics advancing in leaps and bounds (it seems like no sooner do you order and receive a new piece of equipment and it has already been replaced), the book is written with the then current technology without any awareness of how technology will improve. Case and point in the end of the book when it touches on non-SLR cameras the opening line comes across as dismissive outlining the flaws with using non-SLR with no hint of how non-SLR cameras could improve. Oddly enough a lot of the things that one could find interesting to read and learn about are brushed over with 'covered in my previous book'. The author flat out assumes that the reader owns, has read, and has available at hand the other book to just be able to open to the specific page and continue learning what they want to know. The impression left is one of a pompous a** who is more interested in just selling his product that actually teaching or explaining. The one part of the book that probably excels is the one part that most people are likely to not care about: technical DETAILED calculations. The author is obviously a student of photography from the film era when it was often necessary to perform detailed calculations to ensure the absolute correct exposure as the cost of trial and error often proves exceedingly great in time (shooting and then developing) and money (film). Chances are most people looking for this book or one similar to it are just starting out and are a child of the digital age. With digital cameras you learn more by the trial and error method of playing around with the settings and seeing the difference. I am one with a pretty good mathematical ability and I often found myself just glazing over the text. I can easily see someone who cringes at the word math wanting to throw the book across the room (something that could proof catastrophic reading on a kindle). Worst of all the author offers no guidance over the choice of equipment beyond the basic EQ good AZ bad. There is no touch on the different levels of equipment that one can get or even a detailed explanation of what he uses and the good and bad of his setup. Who knows maybe he covered equipment in his first book... Overall one is left with a feeling that they spent a considerably amount of money (25$ for kindle book) and got practically nothing to show for it. I thought for sure that for 25$ I would certainly find a lot of valuable information but in the end I learned and enjoyed less material from this book then I did from similar books which I purchased for 10$. Final words, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. I am not endorsing a particular author but there are better books out there with more useful information and cost less money.

Great book! Must have for amateur astrophotographers!

If you have a DSLR and want to try astrophotography this is the prefect place to start. Covington's previous books on the subject were classics and the basic information in this book is superb. Since cameras and equipment change very rapidly you will need to do some additional research online to get more insight on your particular setup. Covington will give you the fundamentals.

This book does a very good job of covering the fundamentals of amateur astrophotography. The concepts presented are sound , but the text does not present much mathematical detail, if you want to build spreadsheet models, etc. it does point you toward gthe appropriate sources for such data. Covers DSLR concepts and application well. If you're familiar with the film world, this is a great bridge into using digital tools. Some camera and software references are dated (not surprising in such a fast evolving area)' but you will learn what questions to ask in further researching each topic. Be prepared to do much outside research after reading this book. Pay attention to the authors suggested web resources (esp. The books update page and links), and use them often. A little pricey, considering how much work is required outside of the text, but a good overall guide to the tools and techniques required.

初心者にはちょっとという内容になるために、日本の天体写真入門書ではやや敬遠されがちな内容も含まれているが、やはり本筋の内容の天体写真の解説書で素晴らしいものです。

Gives excellent instructions on how to use your DSLR camera for astrophotography. I am experimenting in taking pictures of the moon with my DSLR camera, and this book is invaluable to me, to give me guidance.

I haven't read all of this book yet, but it certainly has impressed me so far. As a writer Covington has that ability to communicate very well and has a evident passion for his subject. He has an academic disciplined quality to his style which is necessary for a technical subject like this (which is missing from Seip's book), but without drifting off into abstruse theoreticals. He keeps things on a down-to-earth simple-to-grasp basis which I find very refreshing given the possibilities for confusion. Diagrams are clear and informative, and cover areas I've never seen in other books - like single page diagrams showing all the camera coupling methods, lens configurations or telescope types. Equations and concepts are backed up by real examples and data. There's plenty of nice astro photos showing the results of all this hard work too. I bought this on the strength of his original astrophotography book which was geared towards film, with a brief mention of digital imaging at the end of that. The only regret, mentioned by another review is the lack of colour plates, but this isn't a serious concern for me, so this gets five stars from me.

Agree, this is one of those books that will travel with you. Great info

a quick read through of this book shows it is a useful starter for astrophotography. that said, it does get a wee bit technical in places and i will need to re read more carefully. my only criticism is not actually of the book itself; because technology moves rapidly, and manufacterers constantly bring out new products, the author's recomendations are generally no longer available or have been superseded. but its a good starting point nonetheless. 7th May 2012.