Books O - P
Books O - P
Observing
The Moon, North
Observing Variable Stars, Levy. Variable
star observing is an area where amateur astronomers makea considerable
impact. This book explains how to observe the variable stars with a modest
telescope or binoculars and track and record their changes in brightness.198pp
pb
P
Patterns
in the Sky Hewitt-White, Did you ever wonder exactly what
constellation you're seeing when you look up at the night sky? The first
book in our Night Sky: Astronomy for Everyone Series will guide even the
absolute beginner through the constellations in no time! An extensive introduction
guides the reader through the basics of constellation observing, and the
convenient season-by-season organization of the text makes observing throughout
the year a snap. Patterns in the Sky emphasizes what anyone can see from
a typical suburban backyard and concentrates on just-for-fun, naked-eye
stargazing - no optical aid required! Perfect for ages 10 to adult.
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Photoelectric Photometry
Of Variable Stars A Practical Guide for the Smaller Observatory,
2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded, Ed. by Hall and Genet, hardbound, 240
pages, Can amateur astronomers make significant contributions to the Science
of Astronomy? In this book you learn how dedicated amateurs, using either
home built or commercial equipment, regularly produce data that is published
in professional journals. One example, Louis Boyd (shown on the front cover)
designed and built an automatic photoelectric telescope that makes hundreds
of observations each clear night. His pioneering work has spawned a whole
generation of highly productive instruments. But, you do not need an automatic
telescope or vast amounts of spare time to be a valuable observer --- this
book, written and edited by both professional and amateur astronomers shows
you how to design a program that is both personally satisfying and scientifically
valuable.
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Photoshop
Astronomy, by R. Scott Ireland, softbound, 8.5 by 11 inches, 280 pages,
includes DVD with full resolution images used in this book’s tutorials.
Ship wt. 1kg.
Photoshop Astronomy starts with the tools you'll
need for your digital darkroom, including choices for computer platforms,
RAM considerations, hard dives, optical drives, video cards, USB hubs,
and other peripheral devices. Ireland spends a great deal of time discussing
computer monitors and specifically stresses the importance of color-calibration
systems. "the best monitor in the world," he writes, "won't do you much
good if it is not calibrated." Printers, scanners, and file formats are
also discussed at length.
The chapters are arranged by image-processing themes and are ordered roughly by complexity. Chapter two contains exercises designed to familiarize readers with color space, color management, color profiles, and bit-depth. Chapter three deals exclusively with understanding an image histogram and how to interpret changes incurred to the tonal range when you are applying the Levels command. Next, the Curves function –quite possibly the most powerful tool in all of Photoshop–is explained.
After covering these basics, Ireland recommends that the reader skip to points of particular interest, though each chapter still builds upon the previous one and introduces new concepts. For example, many astrophotographers dedicate their observing time to one category of imaging, such as deep sky, lunar and planetary, or comets. A reader might assume that the sections on planetary imaging would be of little use to deep-sky astrophotographers. But I find that the techniques I use for planetary images can be just as useful for deep-sky photographs.
While I didn't always agree with Ireland's approach to various image-processing tasks, the reasoning for his decisions was always sound. Moreover, it should be noted that in cases where Photoshop cannot adequately perform a task, the author had no qualms about recommending other programs that can do the job.
Overall, it's hard to complain about anything in Photoshop Astronomy. Everything the author sets out to tackle is covered well, especially when the reader uses the images provided on the DVD to methodically follow each step. Ireland also freely admits (as does any good teacher) that he is still learning new tricks every day. Photoshop is such a powerful, evolving program that users always seems to be discovering new useful techniques that can further enhance their images.
While virtually all of Ireland's tips can be found or discovered on your own, it would take many months or even years to find and memorize all the information Ireland provides in this one-stop source. That makes Photoshop Astronomy worth its weight in gold ... or terabytes.
Sky
& Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas
Our celestial atlases are the standard by which
all others have been judged for a half century. Now we've raised the bar
with our new Pocket Sky Atlas! There has never been such a wonderfully
detailed atlas so handy to take on trips and use at the telescope, thanks
to its compact size, convenient spiral-bound design, and easy-to read labels.
The 80 charts contain more than 30,000 stars to magnitude 7.6 and some
1,500 deep-sky objects (including 675 galaxies to magnitude 11.5). The
best double stars are named, and three dozen red (carbon) stars are marked.
The charts show constellation boundaries and stick figures to help you
find your way. In the back are close-up charts of the Orion Nebula region,
Pleiades, Virgo Galaxy Cluster, and Large Magellanic Cloud. spiral bound,
softcover,
110 pages.