A Visual Astronomers Photographic Guide to the Deep Sky: A Pocket Field Guide (Astronomers Pocket Field Guide)

Product Descriptionover The Last 15 Years Or So There Has Been A Huge Increase In The Popularity Of Astrophotography With The Advent Of Digital Slr Cameras And Ccd Imagers. These Have Enabled Astronomers To Take Many Images And, Indeed, Check Images As They Scan The Skies. Processing Techniques Using Computer Software Have Also Made Developing These Images More Accessible To Those Of Us Who Are Chemically Challenged! And LetS Face It Some Of The Pictures You See These Days In Magazines, Books, And On Popular Web Forums Are, Frankly, Amazing! So, Why Bother Looking Through The Eyepiece You Ask? Well, For One Thing, Setting Up The Equipment Is Quicker. You Just Take Your Scope Out Of The Garage Or, If YouRe Lucky Enough To Own One, Open The Roof Of Your Observatory, Align The Scope And Off You Go. If You Have An Equatorial Mount, YouLl Still Need To Roughly Polar Align, But This Really Takes Only A Few Moments. The Imager Would Most Likely Need To Spend More Time Setting Up. This Would Include Very Accurate Polar Alignment (For Equatorial Mounts), Then Finding A Guide Star Using His Or Her Finder, Checking The Software Is Functioning Properly, And C Tinuous Monitoring To Make Sure The Alignment Is Absolutely Precise Throu Out The Imaging Run. That Said, An Imager With A Snug Obsy At The End Of The Garden Will Have A Quicker Time Setting Up, But Then Again So Will The Visual Observer.From The Back Coverhow Many Times Have You Found A Deep Sky Object (Dso), Ticked It Off The List, And Moved On, Or Used The Tour Function On Your GoTo Scope And Said, Oh ThatS A Just A Smudge Or CanT See It ILl Move On To The Next One. If This Has Happened To You, Then This Book Is For You. It Will Challenge You To Go Back To The Smudge And Really Look. Can You See The Faint Wisp Or The Detail In The Southeastern Corner? Can You See The Small Cluster Within The Cluster? Try To Classify The Open Cluster For Yourself. Compare It To The Accepted Trumpler Classification. Whether You Have A GoTo Scope Or Not, This Book Gets You To Rediscover One Of The Great Things That Got You Into This Hobby In The First Place Looking Through The Eyepiece Of A Telescope. So Pack Away The Dslr, Ccd Camera, The Guide Scope, And Laptop And Open Your Pencil Case! YouRe In For Some Fun!About The Authormy Love Affair With The Cosmos Began, Probably, When I Stared, OpenJawed, For Two Hours At The Film Star Wars. Although I Was Only Three At The Time, I Can Remember Subsequently Drawing Pictures Of Stars And Planets And XWings. I Quickly Became A Science Fiction Addict, Watching ReRuns Of Star Trek And Various Other Series. And So, I Desperately Wanted A Way Of Seeing Some Of These Objects For Myself. My Parents Bought Me A Cheap (Supermarket) Scope When I Was 11, Which I Then Proceeded To Set Up In My SisterS Room (The Only One With A Southernly View) And Stargaze Through Her Window. Neither My Father Nor I Could Ever Get It To Focus Properly. Of Course, At The Time, I Had No Knowledge Or Understanding Of Air Currents, Seeing, Or Indeed How To Use A Telescope Or Star Chart. Nevertheless, Even With The Horrendous Optics Of This Small Telescope I Could Make Out Some Craters On The Moon I Was Hooked! I Decided To Save Up For Something Better. After Several Birthdays I Finally Bought Myself A Reasonable Scope A 9.25 Inch Dobsonian, And Spent Many A Clear Night Sitting On The Garage Roof (My Sister Wanted Her Room Back!) Gazing At The Wonders Of The Universe. Soon After, University Beckoned. I Studied Chemistry, With A Subsidiary In Astronomy. Although I Very Much Enjoyed The Latter, I Was Unable To Continue As The University (At The Time) Did Not Offer Astronomy As A Major Degree. And So, My Hobby Took An Enforced Break, Which Was Then Extended By Teacher Training, Getting Married, And Emigrating To East Africa. It Was There, Under The Clear Equatorial Skies Of Kenya, That My Love Of The Cosmos Was Rekindled