The Astrophotography Manual

Chris Woodhouse was born in England, and during his teenage years was a keen amateur photographer. After receiving an M.Eng. in Electronics at Bath University, he designed communication and optical gauging equipment before joining an automotive company. His traditional monochrome photography earned him an Associateship distinction from the Royal Photographic Society. After the publication of the first edition of The Astrophotography Manual and astronomy-related activities, he was accepted as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He has pursued his passion for all forms of photography over the last 35 years and additionally invented and patented several unique darkroom timers and meters, which are sold throughout the world. He quickly found the technical challenges of astrophotography responded well to methodical and scientific methods, and together with his traditional photographic experience, he produces beautiful and fascinating images.

Part I. Astronomy Primer

1. The Diverse Universe of Astrophotography

2. Space

3. Catalogs

4. Four Dimensions and Counting

5. Limits of Perception

Part II. Choosing Equipment

6. The Ingredients of Success

7. New Tools

8. General Equipment

9. Imaging Equipment

10. A Portable System

Part III. Setting Up

11. Hardware Setup

12. Software Setup

13. Wireless/Remote Operation

Part IV. Image Capture

14. Sensors and Exposure

15. Focusing

16. Autoguiding and Tracking

17. Pointing and Tracking Models

18. Sequencing, Automation and Scripting

19. Mosaics

Part V. Image Calibration and Processing

20. Post Exposure

21. Getting Started in PixInsight

22. Image Calibration and Stacking

23. Linear Image Processing

24. Non-linear Image Processing

Part VI. Pix Insights

25. Pre-Processing

26. Seeing Stars

27. Noise Reduction and Sharpening

28. Image Stretching

29. Color Filter Array (CFA) Processing

30. Narrowband Image Processing

Part VII. First Light Assignments

31. Practical Examples

32. M3 (Globular Cluster)

33. M51a/b (Whirlpool Galaxy)

34. M45 (Pleiades Open Cluster)

35. C27 (Crescent Nebula) in Narrowband

36. M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)

37. IC 1805 (Heart Nebula) in False Color

38. Comet C/2014 Q2

39. M27 (Dumbbell Nebula)

40. M3 (Globular Cluster) revisited

41. 3-D Image Processing

42. Vacation Image

43. Horsehead and Flame Nebula

44. Wide-field Mosaic

45. Exoplanet

Appendices

A. Diagnostics and Problem Solving

B. Summer Projects

C. Automatic Observatory Control

D. Collimating a Ritchey Chrétien Telescope

E. Templates

F. Bibliography and Resources