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Star Vistas

A Collection of Fine Art Astrophotography

  • Book
  • Feb 2009
  • Latest edition

Overview

  • Very high quality full-page true full color photographs of deep-sky objects as beautiful as images produced by space telescopes
  • Shows what can be done by amateur astronomers using commercially-available telescopes and cameras
  • Forewords by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Sir Patrick Moore, and Dr. Brian May
  • Shows many deep-sky objects rarely imaged by the major space telescopes
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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About this book

Most people are familiar with the spectacular Hubble Space Telescope images - most of them in the public domain and available on the Internet. These images, constrained by the scientific observing programs, are mainly very distant, strange objects. There are very few high-quality books of wide-field deep-sky images, primarily because the major professional telescopes are scheduled for research projects rather than creating beautiful images.

Star Vistas contains many spectacular photographs of the Moon and constellations, but most of the book contains wide-field astronomical images and some of the most exquisite star photographs ever made. Moreover, all these astronomical photographs were made using commercially-available amateur equipment and software! This is a testament to the development of today's optical and imaging technology, the excellence of relatively low-cost telescopes and cameras, to the author's skills in taking the photographs, and to Noel Carboni's skill in processing the images.

Whether it is to be used as a reference and gold standard for amateur imaging, or simply as a book of beautiful images of the night sky to be marvelled at, this book deserves a place in the library of anyone interested in our fascinating universe.

Keywords

  • Galaxy
  • Star
  • astronomical coffee table
  • astronomical images
  • astronomy
  • astrophotography
  • beautiful sky images
  • gallery astro images
  • gallery astrophotos
  • quasar
  • sky images
  • space photography
  • stars galaxy pictures

Reviews

From the reviews:

"This book is a collection of very-high-quality, full-page, true-full-color photographs of deep-sky objects, as beautiful as images produced by space telescopes. It illustrates what can be done by amateur astronomers using commercially available telescopes and cameras and features many deep-sky objects rarely imaged by the major space telescopes. … this title was written for armchair astronomers and general science readers." (Lunar and Planetary Information Bulletin, 2009)

“You would not be disappointed. In one sense, this is a coffee-table book, full of beautiful pictures … . But when you start to read the text you will begin to discover how remarkable these pictures really are — they were all taken from a back garden in the New Forest by an (admittedly very dedicated) amateur astrophotographer … . The full-colour images are extremely impressive … . The commentaries are well-written, generally accurate … . Altogether, this is a book to savour — highly recommended.” (Robert Connon Smith, The Observatory, Vol. 129 (1213), December, 2009) Aus den Rezensionen: “Dieses Buch entstand als Kooperation von zwei außerordentlich talentierten Amateur-Astronomen. Greg Parker machte diese herrlichen Weitwinkel-Aufnahmen von Deep-Sky-Objekten in England, während Noel Carboni diese in den USA meisterhaft nachbearbeitete. ... Zusätzlich sind diese Weitwinkel-Aufnahmen einfach schön, während die großen Teleskope sich auf die Forschung konzentrieren, nicht auf ästhetische Bilder. ... Ein prachtvolles Werk, das so richtig zum Schmökern einlädt ...“ (in: Weltraum Facts, 2008, Vol. 15, Issue 4, S. 24)

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Southampton School of Physics & Astronomy, Southampton, Highfield, United Kingdom

    Greg Parker

  • Boca Raton, USA

    Noel Carboni

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Star Vistas

  • Book Subtitle: A Collection of Fine Art Astrophotography

  • Authors: Greg Parker, Noel Carboni

  • Publisher: Springer New York, NY

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag New York 2009

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-387-88435-6Due: 12 February 2009

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 155

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