Astrophotography

[Kevdan]

Hi All,

Can anyone tell me is there a astrophotgraphy for idiots book i could read - whats HA ? how do you take lights and then darks? so many other questions?

Kev.

[lukebl]

Thought I'd be the first in with Making Every Photon Count, by Steppenwolf on this very forum. You can't go wrong with that one.

[Essex Stargazer]

This one rates quite highly

by a member on this very forum

Beginners guide to astro-photography

[Capricorn]

HA is Hydrogen Alpha. When an electron drops from a higher to a lower energy level in an atom, then the energy difference is emitted as a photon.

As the levels are well defined the wavelength that is emitted is well defined.

So the Hydrogen Alpha wavelength is 656.28 nM (Red)

It is actually an electron dropping from the third level to the second.

Lots of hydrogen in the Sun and it is "excited" so lots of electrons in the higher levels that drop to lower ones and so emit the HA wavelength. Lots of other hydrogen wavelengths but they may not be visible to us.

[Essex Stargazer]

HA is Hydrogen Alpha. When an electron drops from a higher to a lower energy level in an atom, then the energy difference is emitted as a photon.

As the levels are well defined the wavelength that is emitted is well defined.

So the Hydrogen Alpha wavelength is 656.28 nM (Red)

It is actually an electron dropping from the third level to the second.

Lots of hydrogen in the Sun and it is "excited" so lots of electrons in the higher levels that drop to lower ones and so emit the HA wavelength. Lots of other hydrogen wavelengths but they may not be visible to us.

Arr well O hum

[JamesM]

Making Every Photon Count by Steve Richards (FLO £19.95) will answer all your questions and more. What Gear, why you need it to get the images you want. Using a Webcam to image planets and the Moon is fairly straightforward, deep sky imaging such as galaxies, nebula etc is a tad more trick and will require a little bit more kit. If you want to image please buy the above book which will pay for itself by helping you to avoid buying the wrong gear.

James

[Kevdan]

Thanks for all the replies... even the one that I dont understand hence the reason for a book for idiots or idiot (me)

Ok So Library here I come.

Thanks,

Kev.

[pete_l]

Hi All,

Can anyone tell me is there a astrophotgraphy for idiots book i could read - whats HA ? how do you take lights and then darks? so many other questions?

Kev.

It's not a For Idiots style book, more like a text of Astrophotography for Clever people, who just don't know much about it, yet. But Jim Solomon's cookbook contains a lot of the basics and techniques. He uses the free IRIS package for processing and goes into detail about the commands he uses.

Note: for all the point and click people: this might come as a bit of a shock, but IRIS uses the command line¹ for doing things

[1] Command Line: a means of sending commands to an operating system or application by actually typing them. Yourself. On a keyboard. No mouse necessary.