The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide — What’s New

Revisions in January 2012

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 13:18:32 -0700

The two sections always in need of updates, the pages for ... Chapter 13, Recommended DSLR cameras and
Chapter 13, Autoguiding Options
... have been revised to bring them up to date as of January 2012.

Chapter 3’s survey of current trends in the telescope marketplace also has a minor refresh to include new models.

Our Blog contains a listing of some the best sky events of 2012.

Chapter 14 has a greatly expanded survey of apps for the iPad.

In addition, check out our updated recommendations for the wealth of new deep-sky observing guides on our Deep-Sky Books page. Other minor updates to books appear on the Recommended Reading pages of most chapters, such as for Chapter 1.

Enjoy!

— Alan Dyer, January 2012

Telescope Buying Guides Revised

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:13:03 -0700

For many readers, Chapter 3 of The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide is the heart of the book, with its advice on telescopes. In the What’s New section for Chapter 3, we update and expand the chapter by surveying some of the new telescopes and telescope trends that have caught our eye — more low-cost Dobsonians, low-cost Ritchey-Chrétiens astrographs, and the high-tech Meade ETX-LS LightSwitch™. We also list companies mentioned in the book that have gone out of business, and on the Chapter 3 Links page we’ve updated the listings accordingly.

In Chapter 3 of the website, also check our Best Beginner Telescopes page for our latest recommendations of low-cost entry-level scopes, ones under $1,000 (most under $500).

Lots of Sky Motion Movies Added

Mon, 11 May 2009 18:04:59 -0600

We’ve added a lot more time-lapse movies illustrating sky motions to both Chapter 11: Finding Your Way Around the Sky and to Chapter 12: Observing Deep-Sky Objects. The latter collection shows the southern hemisphere sky and the magnificent southern Milky Way. The movies were all taken with DSLR cameras, using the techniques outlined on page 287 of Chapter 13. So they also serve as good examples of what you can do with a DSLR on a tripod, and a suitable intervalometer timer to trigger the shutter automatically. Check Chapter 7: The Naked-Eye Sky for more time-lapse movies of sky phenomena.

Cosmic Zooms and Comparisons

Sat, 6 Sep 2008 13:36:20 -0600

We’ve added a Cosmic Zoom page to Chapter 1 What’s New that shoots you through the universe at a warpspeed velocity guaranteed to burn up the dilithium crystals and freak out Scotty. We’ve reorganized the Chapter 13 What’s New, and added a new section, A-B Comparisons, that provides much higher-resolution versions of some of the comparison images that appear in Chapter 13, so you can better see the “before-and-after” or “with-and-without” effects we’re talking about. These include:
• CCD vs. DSLR
• RAW vs. JPG
• Short exposures at high ISO vs. long exposure at slow ISO
• Dark vs. No dark frame
• In-camera dark vs. Subtracting darks later
• Short stacked added exposures vs. Single long exposures
• Single exposures vs. Stacked averaged exposures In all, these are a useful set of comparisons that have guided the way we take our DSLR images. (Most of our astrophotos in the book were taken with DSLRs, so our advice is provided from first-hand experience, and is not received and repeated wisdom). We hope you enjoy these additions. — Alan Dyer