How did I start? -- The Beginning – and a Serious Health~Warning! -- Assembling your Imaging System -- Computational Considerations – Data Acquisition and Image Processing -- A Permanent Setup -- First Light – Choosing your Objects -- First Light – your First Objects -- Hyperstar Imaging -- Wide-Field Imaging with a Short Focal Length Refractor -- Basic Image Processing -- The Deep-Sky Images -- Differentiating your Work -- Your Largest Resource -- Book Recommendations.

Amateur astronomers, using commercially available equipment, have taken some beautiful and awe-inspiring color photographs of deep-sky objects. But how? Professor Greg Parker's astronomical photographs are widely known for their excellence, and a selection of them has recently been shown as a public exhibition in the UK. In Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images, he provides a detailed account of how spectacular deep-sky images can be taken by amateur astronomers using CCD cameras, and how they can subsequently be processed and enhanced in the "electronic darkroom" for maximum beauty and impact. You don't even have to own a big telescope. A range of telescopes and equipment is considered in detail, from Greg's 11-inch SCT down to lower-cost instruments. Quite simply, this is a "how to do it" book for people who want to make stunning astronomical pictures.