The following list of books and internet sites with information and programs was compiled from members of the ASEM Digital Imaging SIG, and its friends.
This list was compiled to inform and aid both the experienced and the beginner, in finding some of the most beneficial resources and websites on Astro-Photography methods and tools. Given that Astro-Photography is here for the amateur astronomer, this page will always be "under construction". Comments and descriptions are in italics.
BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Books
"A Beginner's Guide to DSLR Astro-Photography", by Jerry Lodriguss
"Astrophotgraphy for the Amateur", by Michael Covington
"The Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing", by Richard Berry and James Burnell
“CCD Astronomy “, by Christian Buil
“The New CCD Astronomy”, Ron Wodaski
“The Art and Science of CCD Astronomy”, by David Ratledge
Articles
"Improving your DSLR Photos" by Jerry Lodriguss, S&T, October 2008
(off the Internet)
REFERENCE INFORMATION
Personal/Informative Websites
(Members and friends of ASEM, who have their own websites and who have provided instruction at ASEM Digital Imaging meetings)
Gregg Ruppel
www.ruppel.darkhorizons.org
Jim Melka
https://sites.google.com/a/asemonline.org/melka/
Will Day
www.wsday.com/astrophotos
Dan Crowson
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcrowson/
DSLR Cameras and CCD Imaging
(Those below have books and products to sell along with sharing information)
Jerry Lodriguss
Author and active DSLR Astro-Photographer. Has put a lot of his books' content and recent DSLR camera reviews on his website; go thru the site's menu and look around. Also the forum moderator for the Yahoo's 'digital_astro'' group.
www.astropix.com
Michael Covington's Digital SLR Notes
Another noted book author with some content and techniques to share in his website.
www.covingtoninnovations.com/dslr/index0.html
Richard Berry
www.wvi.com/~rberry/
Jim Solomon's Astrophotography Cookbook
www.saratogaskies.com/articles/cookbook/
Matt BenDaniel Articles
www.starmatt.com/articles/index.html
Hap Griffin
Also well known for DSLR modification services, in addition to his Imaging experience.
www.hapg.org
Rob Gendler
www.robgendlerastropics.com
Paul Kanevesky’s Imaging Tips
Select from the menu "Tips and Downloads"
http://darkhorizons.emissionline.com/
Dick Locke's DSLR Astronomy Workflow
www.dl-digital.com/astrophoto/P2-Astro/Astro-Workflow.htm
CCD Imaging Only
Steve Cannistra
www.starrywonders.com
Paul LeFevre’s CCD Image Processing Tutorial
www.lefevre.darkhorizons.org/articles/proctutorial2.htm
Thierry Legault’s High Resolution CCD Imaging
http://legault.club.fr/index.html
Ron Wodaski’s New CCD Astronomy
www.newastro.com
Apogee's CCD University
www.ccd.com/ccdu.html
Other Reference and Magazines
Wikipedia's page on Astrophotography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophotography
AstroPhoto Insight Magazine
www.astrophotoinsight.com
SOFTWARE
Astrophotography Image Processing
Free or 'Easy on the Wallet':
DeepSkyStacker
A free program that provides the basics of image processing. If you plan to get into AstroPhotography with a DSLR or low-cost CCD camera, then this program is a good starting point.
http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html
Nebulosity
A less than $100 program that provides very good tools for image stacking, processing, and includes shutter control and image display for both DSLR and CCD cameras. If you can't afford Photoshop for after processing refinement, this program can help with its built-in image refinement tools.
www.stark-labs.com/nebulosity.html
Iris
This has a steep learning curve, but rich in tools, and has an
over-wehlming amount of tutorials - so be prepared to spend time just
learning this one.
www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm
A site with more help on using Iris:
http://astro.ai-software.com/articles/dslr_iris/dslr_iris.html
NeatImage
A low cost an image filter that can reduce noise and grain in photographic images produced by digital cameras and scanners.
www.neatimage.com
Software Products over $100
(Most of these products are available for a free-trial period)
ImagesPlus
A very common choice when getting serious about an all-in-one image acquisition and processing program. Cost is around $250.
www.mlunsold.com
PixLight
Was free, but now has gone commercial big-time, with lots of features. From Europe, with cost around $300.
http://pixinsight.com/
Diffraction Limited's MaxImDL
The current leader in image acquisition and processing programs. Cost can range depending upon options, to upwards of around $700.
www.cyanogen.com/maxim_main.php
Photoshop plug-ins
Astronomy Tools
Very powerful, yet low cost, plug-ins specifically for Adobe Photoshop, for refining Astro-Photography images, after they are developed with an processing program.
www.prodigitalsoftware.com/
GradientXterminator
Another low cost plug-in specifically for Adobe Photoshop to remove gradients
www.rc-astro.com/resources/GradientXTerminator
FITS Liberator
A free program that preprocesses FITS files before PhotoShop sessions.
www.spacetelescope.org/projects/fits_liberator/
Video Processing
(AVI Tools)
Registax
A free program that combines images in a video into a single stacked result.
http://www.astronomie.be/registax/index.html
AVIstack
Another free program that combines images in a video into a single stacked result.
http://avistack.de/
AVI Raw
Reads raw webcam AVIs
http://arnholm.org/astro/software/aviraw/
VirtualDub
A free program that reads and converts video files into different formats.
http://www.virtualdub.org/
AVIsynth
http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page
Canon EOS Camera Movie Record
For use with Canon LiveView Cameras only. When used with your Canon camera, this FREE program will create movie files on your computer
http://sourceforge.net/projects/eos-movrec/
BackyardEOS
Another program for Canon EOS cameras, that can handle both movies and still Astrophotography images. It is not free.
http://backyardeos.binaryrivers.com/
K3CCDTools
Covers video-capture (supporting wide range of video capture devices), auto-guiding and frame aligning and stacking / summing.http://www.pk3.org/Astro/index.htm?astrophoto_vesta_sc2_mod.htmDarkFrameScaler
For the correct scaling of video dark-frames caused by AGChttp://www.qcuiag.org.uk/DFS/index.htmwxAstro Capture
A free capture program that supports webcams and Artemis/ATK camerashttp://arnholm.org/astro/software/wxAstroCapture/PhotoLapse
A free program to create avi movies from jpg sequences. It can be used for creating timelapse movies with your digital photocamera.
http://home.hccnet.nl/s.vd.palen/HandyAvi
A low cost program that can control video cameras for time-lapse, motion-detection, planetary and meteor photography. Can also edit and play movies, and control your telescope.
http://www.azcendant.com/
Miscellaneous
CCD Calc
by Ron Wodaski
A free program that can be used to visualize the field-of-view for various optical tube/camera combination including barlows or focal reducers.
www.newastro.com
"3D Fly Thru", "Star Removal" and "Stereo Image Pair" Photoshop add-ons ("PS Actions")
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/search/label/PS-actions
Astronomy Software, Books, and related material
www.astrotips.com
Camera and Guider Control Programs
Stark Labs PHD Guiding and Other Free Programs
The same source for Nebulosity, Stark Labs, also provides free basic programs for DSLR shutter control, motorized focusers, control of SAC4-2 cameras, Orion
StarShoot Solar System imager, and for other cameras
compatible with DirectX (DirectShow) and WDM (e.g., the
ToUcam, Vesta, etc).
www.stark-labs.com/index.html