Book Review - Making every photon count

[AstroTiger]

Hi All,

Well my copy just arrived. At first glance it is very well laid out, certainly seems informative.

Will have a read of it later and post my verdict

Meanwhile has anyone else read their copy, what do they think to it?

[barkis]

I think that all who have this book will be unanimous in saying, for an imager just starting out, this book is perfect. I bought it too, and although I have not read it in its entirety, It has all the Information I need.

Ron.

[AstroTiger]

To add to that comment, being a beginner in the field myself, it already has me googling for an automatic shutter release and considering more lenses for my camera. He also realises that money does not grown on tree's.

Think i will put my other book on Trick or Treatment down and read this one.

I just sent a pm praising the author. Very well done once again on such a fine text Steve, i think and feel this text should be on the bookshelf of any amateur thinking of starting out in the exciting field

[AstroTiger]

one small thing i would point out with this book steve, and it is a minor issue.

If ever you plan a revision of this book, i would consider perhaps including an index?

The book is very useful, but i can see how finding certain aspects might be difficult

For example i was looking quickly to see if there was any advise on imaging star trails. No index to assist there, so i had to leave the search for later.

Only a minor thing though, fab book otherwise, i am learning heaps from it

[Big Dipper]

AT, I did a review of Steve's book which Ant posted on SGL a few months back. Definitely the best purchase that i have made astro-wise in a long time and now that I have basic knowledge on processing techniques (e.g.knowing how to set the black point & what it means), it's made astro imaging far more enjoyable!

[AstroTiger]

indeed it certainly has for me too.

Its a magnificent read. Certainly not critising the text itself, its a way into a very tough technical field which is very expensive and can scare countless people off. Especially for those at home trying to master it alone.

I stand by the index suggestion though :-)

[Psychobilly]

The books very logically laid out and takes you through the journey very nicley... depending on how the book has been "typed" you can get sometimes a reasonable first stab at the index automatically perhaps its something that could be made available as PDF...?

[steppenwolf]

Unbelievably, I have only just stumbled on this thread - (note to self, be more observant in future!)

I did think about an Index but the premise on which the book was written was that a beginner would find it most useful if they read it from start to finish as I have deliberately laid it out in what I hope is a logical 'imaging session' progression, rather than as a book to 'dip into'! However, I know that several more experienced imagers who have bought the book do indeed just dip into it and, of course a beginner may well wish to check back on it from time to time and I can see that an Index might assist here.

I will certainly give some thought towards producing one so thanks for your comments.

[AstroTiger]

Well i say, nice one steven

I now know how good the lense is which came with my camera and what can be expected from it.

That will save me some time trying for more.

A day in bed tomorrow i think, with that book by my side.

[gataki]

"Making Every Photon Count" is an amazing book! I bought it a few weeks ago but (sadly!) was too busy at work to really get into it. We finished term last week and I've now read it all!

I'm a complete beginner and EVERYTHING about astro- (any) -photography is new to me - but Steve has explained it really clearly and I like the fact that there are helpful pictures and diagrams throughout.

I agree that an index would have been good, but have got round this by sticking tiny post-its out of crucial pages. It's definitely going to Zambia with me next week and hopefully I will be bringing my first attempts at a-p back with me in the Autumn.

Thank you, Steve, very much, for making such an exciting hobby more accessible to a complete novice like me!

Liz

[steppenwolf]

Liz, I am delighted that you have enjoyed my book and that it has helped you get into this exciting aspect of astronomy.

The subject of an index has been thrown up in this thread yet again and I have also had an email from another reader raising the same comment so it is time to act. Indexing is a very time consuming endeavour and I cannot find an auto-tool to help me with the task so I will be doing it using the indexing function in Word 97 (the version I used to write the book) - this responds to manual selection of a key word and then indexes every occurrence of that word throughout the text. It will take a while as I have other projects on the go but will post a PDF as soon as the task is completed.