At first glance, the challenge of astrophotography may appear daunting. But not only are spectacular results possible, they are easy to learn with the step-by-step instructions provided in Stephan Seip's Digital Astrophotography: A Guide to Capturing the Cosmos. Today, amateurs can produce images that only twenty years ago a large professional observatory would have been proud of; and this book shows you how.

Learn how to:

• Set up your camera for optimum results

• Focus your camera for razor-sharp images

• Take beautiful night shots with a simple compact digital camera, a tripod, and a telescope

• Use a DSLR camera to shoot the Sun, Moon, stars, star clusters, and nebulae through your telescope

• Get brilliant images of planets with a Webcam

• Capture remote galaxies with a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera just like a pro

Also included are lessons on the processing that is done in the "studio" after your shoot, including how to:

• Shoot RAW format images and improve them with calibration frames

• Take short exposures of faint deep-sky objects and combine them into a longer exposure

• Perform brightness, contrast, and color correction

• Make corrections to correct for vignetting and uneven field illumination

• Process your images for stunning results

Equipment requirements for astrophotography range from nothing but a simple camera and tripod to a multi-thousand dollar computer controlled telescope equipped with a CCD auto-guider and separate guide-scope. Researching the best equipment for your needs is a task in itself. Seip helps you to sort out which cameras are best for the various celestial objects, what to look for when buying a camera, and what accessories you really need.

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