Book Review: Learn from the Master with "Astrophotography" by Thierry Legault

By Nancy Atkinson September 17, 2014

Select the most useful equipment: cameras, adapters, filters, focal reducers/extenders, field correctors, and guide telescopes

Set up your camera (digital, video, or CCD) and your lens or telescope for optimal results

Plan your observing sessions

Polar-align your equatorial mount and improve tracking for pin-point star images

Make celestial time-lapse videos

Calculate the shooting parameters: focal length and ratio, field of view, exposure time, etc.

Combine multiples exposures to reveal faint galaxies, nebulae details, elusive planetary structures, and tiny lunar craters

Postprocess your images to fix defects such as vignetting, dust shadows, hot pixels, uneven background, and noise

Identify problems with your images and improve your results

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com