Digital imaging is now available to all amateur astronomers at a reasonable price. The advent of CCDs, DSLRs and - perhaps most significantly - webcams mean today's astronomers can make colorful planetary or deep-sky images of breathtaking beauty. The results obtained with even modest equipment can be spectacular, but of course they depend crucially on the computer processing of the images after they have been captured. Enhancing Digital Images is not just an introduction to image processing, it is a deeply practical, comprehensive and fully illustrated in-depth guide to using a digital camera, performing image reduction and undertaking image enhancement - all without jargon or math. Here is everything you need to know about processing digital astronomical images, regardless of whether you are experienced or a relative beginner!

Autorentext

Grant Privett works for the Ministry of Defence in the UK, heading up the Advanced Image Processing Team.

Zusammenfassung

The book will, in jargon-free blow-by-blow terms, describe how to create the best astronomical images you can with the digital camera equipment at your disposal. It will explain the steps we go through to extract results from the raw-and-dirty original imagery, and then transform them into high quality pictures that you could hang on your wall.

The advent of CCDs, and more recently inexpensive webcams, has led to a much greater proportion of amateur astronomers becoming involved in digital imaging. The low price of the new Meade Deep Sky Imager - $299 (2005) suggests that within a few years a simple digital camera will become a standard accessory for any telescope.

To summarise; this is a book that tells practical astronomers (and that includes some but not all professionals) what is needed to get from standing in the dark with a telescope and a camera, to showing your spouse, local society friends or even supervisor the astonishing images that can be obtained with simple equipment but the right software and knowledge of how to use it.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements.-The myriad advantages of image processing (introduction).- Choosing a camera.- Acquiring images (and choosing software).- Displaying images.- Image reduction.- Flat fields.- Dark subtraction.- Image transformations.- Image stacking.- Image mosaicing.- Image scaling and histograms.- Background gradients.- Image enhancement.- Image sharpening.- Image unsharp masking.- Image deconvolution.- Handling colour images.- Achieving colour balance.- CMY or RGB?- Other problems.- Handling image sequences and webcams.- Image acquisition.- Image quality techniques.- Automated image processing.- What is best for.- Planets.- Deep Sky.- Widefield imaging.- The pitfalls.- Postscript.- Notes on image contributors.- Appendices .- Software.- Hardware + Software Suppliers.- References.- Further reading.- Index.