"New CCD Astro" and "Zone System" books going out of print!

[SteveL]

A quite important heads up about Ron Wodaski's two books "New CCD Astronomy" and "The Zone System". This message was posted by Ron on the New Astro mail list over the weekend.

This is a heads up to let everyone know that my two books will soon be

going "out of print." As of Dec 31st, it will no longer be possible to

order either book from us. A few copies may remain in vendor hands after

that date, but we will officially be closing out both books.

This is largely due to my role as director of the Tzec Maun Foundation,

which provides free internet telescope access for students and

researchers. I do not have the time I would need to prepare revisions of

my books. All of my time and energy goes into the work that I do for the

Foundation.

If you were planning to get a copy of the books, now is your last

chance.

Books remaining unsold will go the Foundation for free distribution to

students.

Ron Wodaski

[FLO]

Have you got a link please Steve, I have the first book but not the second.

[SteveL]

http://www.newastro.com/

[ChrisEdu]

Are these books good for beginners or more advanced imagers? I presume, as you've posted about them, that they are good and worth having?

[Whippy]

I've got the new CCD astronomy book and it's probably my most read book this year, superb 'bible' on imaging IMO, definately worth the money. If you've got access to some printing & binding equipment, then download the PDF's . Looks like I'd better get a copy of the Zone System pretty sharpish...

Tony..

[ChrisEdu]

What's the Zone System?

[Whippy]

http://www.newastro.com/zone/

[SteveL]

By the time I got hold of the New Astro book, I had pretty much learnt most of its contents already, through asking questions and my own trial+error. It is a good building block of how the kit works, the process behind the capture of images, etc

The zone system is how to get the best out of the images you have taken with your post processing. This book was a real eye opener, even in the first couple of pages. Actually having a system to aim to use when processing images made it a hell of a lot easier, instead of "is that better? I`m not sure... i`ll use it anyway"

[ChrisEdu]

Thanks for that - very interesting. Would these books be likely to be available from a library?

[SteveL]

Highly unlikely.... you cant even BUY them from any UK shops. I got my Zone system book from a place in Belgium I think (trying to find the link now)

[ChrisEdu]

Highly unlikely.... you cant even BUY them from any UK shops. I got my Zone system book from a place in Belgium I think (trying to find the link now)

Shame.

[Ford Prefect]

We ordered them from here Steve

http://www.urania.be/astroshop/index.php

[SteveL]

Gah, you beat me to it by SECONDS

http://www.urania.be/astroshop/index.php?mode=product&id=03.05.1007

[ChrisEdu]

Gah, you beat me to it by SECONDS

http://www.urania.be/astroshop/index.php?mode=product&id=03.05.1007

But you included the product page link!

[ChrisEdu]

Does the Zone SYstem book have work through examples on the disc?

[MartinB]

Does the Zone SYstem book have work through examples on the disc?

Yes. The Zone System book is very expensive and rather padded out. However it is the quickest push up the learning curve out there. The great thing about it is that it is based around PS (also good for elements users). Histogram stretching very well explained, contrast enhancement, noise reduction, sharpening, star improvement plus a handy section on narrow band imaging by Rus Croman.

Another great buy is Adam Blocks series of DVDs - Making Every Pixel Count. He does things in a very different way to Ron Wodaski. He also covers non photoshop areas such as stacking methods and deconvolution.

[GazOC]

I wonder if they'll put the PDFs into the public domain?

[ChrisEdu]

I wonder if they'll put the PDFs into the public domain?

Good thought!

[Viking]

I bought CCD astro as a download.

John