Authors:
- Provides an in-depth look at the telescope accessories known as astronomical filters
- Includes the history of different types of filters, their uses and specialist techniques
- Features a basic guide to using Adobe Photoshop to further enhance images
- Includes an observational guide to 100 astronomical objects that you can see better with filters, personally imaged by the author
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series (PATRICKMOORE)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
As a casual read through any of the major amateur astronomical magazines will demonstrate, there are filters available for all aspects of optical astronomy. This book provides a ready resource on the use of the following filters, among others, for observational astronomy or for imaging:
- Light pollution filters
- Planetary filters
- Solar filters
- Neutral density filters for Moon observation
- Deep-sky filters, for such objects as galaxies, nebulae and more
Deep-sky objects can be imaged in much greater detail than was possible many years ago. Amateur astronomers can take photographs that rival those of professional observatories! The ability to do this has been brought about by the revolution in CCD cameras and improved filters.
The book pinpoints which astronomical objects are best observed with which filters. Post-processing (using Photoshop) is also discussed, since it is helpful in further improving filtered astro images.
The last part of the book is an observational guide to 100 deep sky objects that benefit from the use of filters – all personally observed by the author – with notes on the filters used (or potentially of use) in their observation and imaging. There are also notes on their celestial coordinates, magnitudes and other pertinent information.
Reviews
From the book reviews:
“The book covers light pollution filters, planetary filters, solar filters, ND filters for lunar observing and the range of filters for Deep sky imaging. … Overall this is a very nice book, and the first one that concentrates solely on filters. The most useful part of this book for me is the list of objects and what filters work best on that object.” (astronomylog.co.uk, February, 2015)Authors and Affiliations
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University of South Wales, Glyntaf, United Kingdom
Martin Griffiths
About the author
Dr. Martin Griffiths from the UK, is an enthusiastic observer, science communicator, and professional astronomer who utilizes astronomy, history, and science fiction as tools to encourage greater public understanding of science. He is Senior Lecturer in Astronomy at the University of Glamorgan in Wales. To promote public interest in the night sky he has written an observational guide entitled “Alien Worlds” (University of Glamorgan Press, 2004), and contributes articles on varied astronomical topics for popular magazines. His observational abilities have resulted in him being honored with awards on the Messier and Herschel objects by the Astronomical League. He is the recipient of the Astrobiology Society of Britain's Public Engagement Award.
Martin was a founding member of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute Science Communication Group, active between 2003-2006 and managed a multi-million pound ESF program in Astrobiology for adult learners between 2003-2008. He continues to promote cross-disciplinary links between science and culture that reflect his educational background and interests. He is an avid astronomer and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; a member of the British Astronomical Association; the Webb Deep-Sky Society; the Society for Popular Astronomy and the Astronomical League. He is also the local representative for the British Astronomical Association’s Campaign. He has recently published “Planetary Nebulae and How to Observe Them” (Springer, 2012).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Choosing and Using Astronomical Filters
Authors: Martin Griffiths
Series Title: The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1044-1
Publisher: Springer New York, NY
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4939-1043-4Published: 21 June 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4939-1044-1Published: 20 June 2014
Series ISSN: 1431-9756
Series E-ISSN: 2197-6562
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 269
Number of Illustrations: 107 b/w illustrations, 58 illustrations in colour
Topics: Astronomy, Observations and Techniques, Popular Science in Astronomy, Signal, Image and Speech Processing, Classical Electrodynamics