Every once in a while, a really important book rolls out that will stand as a great reference for amateur astronomers for a long time to come. Such is the case with imaging guru Rob Gendler’s book Lessons from the Masters: Current Concepts in Astronomical Image Processing (387 pp., paper. Springer-Verlag, New York, 2013, $44.99, ISBN 978–1–4614–7833–1).
Gendler serves as editor of this volume, which contains contributions by Ken Crawford, R. Jay GaBany, Rogelio Bernal Andreo, Don Goldman, Tony Hallas, Adam Block, Damian Peach, Fred Espenak, Babak Tafreshi, and others. The contents cover recent thoughts on a wide variety of topics in astroimaging: high dynamic range processing; intensifying color; bringing out large, faint structures; narrowband imaging; noise reduction; high-resolution lunar and planetary imaging; imaging the solar corona; and composition in imaging are among them.
The book is profusely illustrated in color and black and white and contains not only results, but also step-by-step indications of how to make your images the best they can be.
Backyard astrophotographers will no doubt want a copy of this important book, which provides a state-of-the-art glimpse of many techniques that can tease the best out of your sky pictures.