How to Photograph the Moon and Planets with your Digital Camera, by Tony Buick, is published by Springer.

The book is now also available at Amazon, and NHBS

“This book is unlike any other known to me” So begins Sir Patrick Moore’s foreword. I am pleased with that statement since one aim is to make it possible for absolutely anyone, without spending huge amounts of money, to take very detailed photographs

 
of the stunningly beautiful surface of the Moon, all of it – well, the near side anyway. The younger generations especially thirst for more knowledge about the cosmos and what better to start with than their very own album of photographs.
 

Launch of ‘How to Photograph the Moon and Planets with your Digital Camera’

Although the book did not become generally available until around April/May of 2006 I received a few advanced copies soon after Christmas 2005 and the picture shows Gilbert Satterthwaite, president of the Orpington Astronomical Society, to which I belong, accepting a copy with my gratitude for all the support and encouragement I have received from its members since I joined some time ago. The presentation was made at the Society’s Christmas lunch in January 2006.



Here is one of the first that I took and remember, only used inexpensive telescope and camera and some bits of wood and a dismantled tripod. 2 minutes to carry the telescope, with adaptor permanently fixed, out to the garden. 2 minutes to roughly align north and add lenses. Just a few minutes more to focus on the Moon and attach the camera and within 10 minutes the first photograph was captured. “But I don’t know anything about astronomy or telescopes” said one friend who achieved a super picture. Precisely! Get the stunning pictures then learn.

And what else can you photograph while you are at it or when the Moon has retreated for a few days? The book presents quick and easy techniques to capture quite respectable images of of some of the planets as well as the fascinating movement of Jupiter’s Galilean moons and sunspots on our nearest star. I would be very interested to receive your comments and suggestions for improvements, other topics to cover and, of course, any errors and omissions.