The Moon: A Beginner's Guide to Lunar Features and Photography

by James Harrop

A practical guide aimed at beginners interested in learning about the Moon and how to image our closest satellite neighbour. The book contains the complete photographic process including equipment, settings, capture techniques, stacking and image processing, each of which is vitally important to producing a good image. The information is laid out in a visual and easy-to-understand format so that even the dark art of image processing will not seem quite so daunting. There are many high-quality colour photos of the Moon to help you learn about different lunar features and a list of 100 lunar targets identified as a challenge for you to find. All the targets have been captured by the author who provides a brief description of each feature and where it is located on the lunar surface. You will be surprised to discover the fine level of lunar detail which you can see from your back garden and once you start imaging, you will realise there is more to the Moon than meets the eye.

• ISBN13: 9781526760586
• Publish Date: 17 September 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd
• Imprint: White Owl
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 128
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Moon is a hybrid atlas and photography tutorial manual dedicated to Earth's own satellite. Due out 30th Aug 2020 from Pen & Sword on their White Owl imprint, it's 128 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

Author James Harrop is an experienced photographer and he provides quite a lot of specific information for readers concerning equipment, atmospheric conditions, and other criteria to reproduce or capture their own images.

The book itself follows a logical and accessible format. From the general photography terms and equipment he moves on to more specific detail of DSLR imaging, mobile phone images, sensors and image resolution, Sharpcap, stacking, image processing in Photoshop, composite images in ICE, and lunar features (with a cool checklist to tick off seen/imaged features). If those terms don't mean a lot, it might be reassuring to know that I am a complete newbie when it comes to photography and the author takes pains to make the concepts painless and understandable. This really is a mostly beginner friendly guide to capturing images better than I had thought possible with the equipment I had. I also liked the way the author used actual screenshots with specific programs to guide the reader through some of the software features. (Click here. The interface should look like this. Do this step, then that). I also liked the way technical terms are defined in highlighted sidebars on the pages on which they appear. It makes it *so* much easier than looking things up at the back of the book.

Well written, very interesting, and night-time astral photography is a hobby anyone can do at a beginning level (whilst social distancing). I gained an appreciation for the subject reading the book. This would make a superlative selection for astronomy fans, photography hobbyists, or anyone looking for a neat way to use up some insomnia hours. It's all ages accessible and virtually free to start, since everyone has a mobile phone.

Five stars. Quite comprehensive.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.