The Astrophotographer's Log Book

Book excerpt: This 25-session log book is for astrophotographers who want to record as much data for each session as they want. It's for beginners to help establish good imaging session habits early on; for the advanced astrophotographer who wants and needs a consistent place to record and find the data they worked hard to collect, and for the astrophotographer who likes to look back on old records and reminisce about those special sessions. If you are an astrophotographer, whether using a simple setup of a DSLR, lens, and tripod, or a more complex arrangement of telescope, mount, filters, and dedicated astrophotography camera, I hope you will find this log book to be very convenient and useful. Four pages are dedicated to each session, which includes the target, date, and location of the session, equipment used, exposure plan details, environmental information, and two pages for observation and processing notes. The Appendix contains a general checklist for astrophotography sessions, session planning considerations, Bortle scale, seeing scale, transparency scale, a section on ethical astrophotography, commonly-used formulas and unit conversions, and a handy equipment data sheet for specifications often used in common calculations. The framework provides a comprehensive list of data you may want to record, and also serves as a reminder or checklist to use for your imaging session planning and set up. The book format is 6x9, bound with twin loop wire which allows the book to lay flat and for the front cover to be brought all the way around to reduce the size of the footprint of the book next to your laptop on your imaging table. Each book is hand made by the author, so there will be variations in the appearance, end papers, and other aspects of the book. The front cover is 2mm thick book board and the back cover is 2mm thick book board for strength, durability during storage and travel, and provides a solid writing surface. The pages are strong 24lb, 90gsm paper, also for durability and long life as a record of your achievements.