Capturing The Universe

This book provides a thorough introduction to and exploration of deep sky astrophotography for the digital photographer. With over 280 images, graphs, and tables, this introductory book uses a progressive and practical style to teach readers how to image the night sky using existing, affordable equipment. The book opens with a brief astronomy primer, followed by chapters that build progressively to explain the challenges, offer solutions, and provide invaluable information on equipment choice through image capture, calibration, and processing in affordable software. The book’s focus ranges from how to image sweeping vistas and star trails using only a camera body, lens and tripod, to more advanced methods suitable for imaging galaxies, clusters, nebulae, and stars. Other features of the book include: Real-world assignments showing how and when to use certain tools and how to overcome challenges and setbacks Practical construction projects Evaluations of the most recent developments in affordable hardware and software Exploration on how sensor performance and light pollution relate to image quality and exposure planning Ground-breaking practical chapters on lucky imaging and choosing and using the latest CMOS cameras Written in an accessible, easy to follow format, this comprehensive guide equips readers with all the necessary skills to progress from photographer to astrophotographer.

Get swept up in the beauty of our universe with this collection of spectacular images taken by today's most powerful telescopes and orbiting probes. These breathtaking photographs both enthrall and inform as they reveal the many wonders of outer space. Moving from the planets in our own solar system, to the Milky Way, to the far ends of the universe, this stunning volume features images taken by Earth's largest telescopes--including the Hubble, Herschel, and Keck telescopes in Hawaii--along with those sent back by spacecraft such as Cassini and New Horizons. Gaze at merging galaxies, overlapping galaxies, and galaxies undergoing huge bursts of star formation, as well as the most distant objects we are able to glimpse. The images, which come from agencies such as NASA and the European Southern Observatory in Chile, all include commentary by an expert astronomer who explains what we are looking at and provides technical information on how the photo was achieved. New in paperback and retitled edition of ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY.

This book provides a thorough introduction to and exploration of deep sky astrophotography for the digital photographer. With over 280 images, graphs, and tables, this introductory book uses a progressive and practical style to teach readers how to image the night sky using existing, affordable equipment. The book opens with a brief astronomy primer, followed by chapters that build progressively to explain the challenges, offer solutions, and provide invaluable information on equipment choice through image capture, calibration, and processing in affordable software. The book's focus ranges from how to image sweeping vistas and star trails using only a camera body, lens and tripod, to more advanced methods suitable for imaging galaxies, clusters, nebulae, and stars. Other features of the book include: Real-world assignments showing how and when to use certain tools and how to overcome challenges and setbacks Practical construction projects Evaluations of the most recent developments in affordable hardware and software Exploration on how sensor performance and light pollution relate to image quality and exposure planning Ground-breaking practical chapters on lucky imaging and choosing and using the latest CMOS cameras Written in an accessible, easy to follow format, this comprehensive guide equips readers with all the necessary skills to progress from photographer to astrophotographer.

The Astrophotography Manual, Second Edition is for photographers ready to move beyond standard SLR cameras and editing software to create beautiful images of nebulas, galaxies, clusters, and the stars. Beginning with a brief astronomy primer, this book takes readers through the full astrophotography process, from choosing and using equipment to image capture, calibration, and processing. This combination of technical background and hands-on approach brings the science down to earth, with practical methods to ensure success. This second edition now includes: Over 170 pages of new content within 22 new chapters, with 600 full-color illustrations. Covers a wide range of hardware, including mobile devices, remote control and new technologies. Further insights into leading software, including automation, Sequence Generator Pro and PixInsight Ground-breaking practical chapters on hardware and software as well as alternative astrophotography pursuits

Portraits of the deep sky and of local astronomical phenomena taken by the world’s renowned astrophotographers—with a foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson. To gaze at the stars is one thing; to capture that gaze in photographs is something else, a tantalizing scientific art that many attempt and few master. That rare mastery is on full display in this beautiful volume of space photography from thirty of the most accomplished astrophotographers in the world, both professional and amateur. Galaxies, star clusters, nebulae, and other deep-sky treasures fill the pages. Along with the marvels of the night sky—the Andromeda and Whirlpool galaxies, the Pleiades and the Praesepe, the Orion and Crab nebulae, and many more—each section features a profile of the photographer’s work, techniques, philosophy, and experiences. Compiled by the world’s leading amateur astrophotographer, with an introduction to the history of space photography, this spectacular volume is an essential for every stargazer’s bookshelf.elf.

Step into a world of photography that most artists consider magical. The closer you get to things, the more fascinating they become. Unimaginable details can be captured with the aid of special photography techniques and equipment, detailed at length within these pages. Macro photographers play by a different rulebook. The challenges faced from the subject matter, the equipment and even the laws of physics make this an ambitious genre of photography. It can be abstract, it can tell stories, and it can spark your imagination. Author and “Mad Scientist” photographer Don Komarechka covers every area of macro photography, from simple beginnings and tips to help you get the most out of your first macro lens, all the way through a masterclass in the obscure. Topics include: - Redefining the rules of composition - Finding and exploring narratives we ignore - The challenges of magnification - Camera equipment choices and recommendations - Inexpensive ways to get “closer” - Controlling and sculpting light - Overcoming shallow focus - Using water droplets as lenses for enchanted refractions - The art of photographic discovery: “what if?” - Winter macro: snowflakes and freezing soap bubbles - Ultraviolet fluorescence macro - Stereoscopic 3D macro photography - MANY more topics down the rabbit hole

To the ancient Greeks the universe consisted of earth, air, fire, and water. To Saint Augustine it was the Word of God. To many modern scientists it is the dance of atoms and waves, and in years to come it may be different again. What then is the real Universe? History shows that in every age each society constructs its own universe, believing it to be the real and final Universe. Yet each universe is only a model or mask of the unknown Universe. Originally published in 2003, this book brings together fundamental scientific, philosophical, and religious issues in cosmology, raising thought-provoking questions. In every age people have pitied the universes of their ancestors, convinced that they have at last discovered the ultimate truth. Does the modern model stand at the threshold of discovering everything, or will it, like all the rest, come to be pitied?

An accessible look at the mysteries that lurk at the edge of the known universe and beyond The observable universe, the part we can see with telescopes, is incredibly vast. Yet recent theories suggest that there is far more to the universe than what our instruments record—in fact, it could be infinite. Colossal flows of galaxies, large empty regions called voids, and other unexplained phenomena offer clues that our own "bubble universe" could be part of a greater realm called the multiverse. How big is the observable universe? What it is made of? What lies beyond it? Was there a time before the Big Bang? Could space have unseen dimensions? In this book, physicist and science writer Paul Halpern explains what we know?and what we hope to soon find out?about our extraordinary cosmos. Explains what we know about the Big Bang, the accelerating universe, dark energy, dark flow, and dark matter to examine some of the theories about the content of the universe and why its edge is getting farther away from us faster Explores the idea that the observable universe could be a hologram and that everything that happens within it might be written on its edge Written by physicist and popular science writer Paul Halpern, whose other books include Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles, and What's Science Ever Done For Us: What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe