Hubble Servicing Mission astronaut training in the water of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, Texas, February 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.
Photographer Michael Soluri was granted unprecedented access to document the people and events behind the final Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4, STS-125, which launched in 2009. He has published these images in a new book, “Infinite Worlds: People & Places of Space Exploration.” Soluri has provided Universe Today with an exclusive gallery of images from the book, and also told us about his experiences in being able to follow for three years the behind the scenes lead-up to the mission.
Read his account and see more images below. You can read our full review of Infinite Worldshere.
K. Megan McArthur (PH.D.), the STS-125 Hubble SM4 Robotic Arm engineer during final servicing mission to Hubble, May 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.
From a very early age following the space program and over the decades as a documentary photographer on location at various NASA flight centers, I always felt something was missing: an honest, unscripted visual sense of the people behind the scenes that make human and robotic space flight possible.
Yes, it’s always inspiring to experience and photograph a rocket launch with remote equipment or from 3 miles away. However, the access pattern over time has been the same. Writers and photographers herded together into controlled situations that in the end capture the same shot. Given security issues, this is understandable and the results over the decades are predictable.
To achieve the results experienced in Infinite Worlds required earning the trust of both the crew as well as Hubble and shuttle flight management. That trust contributed to being asked by the STS-125 crew to coach them in making better more visually communicative images of their experiences at Hubble. It also enabled me to be a part of and be accepted into the many worlds of that mission during good times and challenging ones.
The edited results comprise my book and exhibitions. Looking back on that journey, I am humbled by the mutual respect and trust extended to me by a remarkable, “made in the USA” labor force that for the most part no longer exists.
— Michael Soluri
Mark Turczyn, Hubble Space Telescope Senior Systems Engineer. In ‘Infinite Worlds’ he said, “”Every time we ran out of time … we created more.” Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.Office white-board of Mark Turczyn, HST Senior Systems Engineer. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.Greg Cecil, a Thermal Protection Systems Technician, replaced and caulked damaged tiles on the cockpit area of the space shuttle. He is currently a middle school science teacher. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.Christy Hansen, EVA Task Lead and STS-125 SM4 astronaut Drew Feustel in cargo bay of Atlantis in July 2008. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.Four of the “space-walking” astronauts and their mission trainers reviewing one of the tool boxes they will be accessing in the cargo bay of the shuttle during the last service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.Mini Power Drill System, designed at NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center used by astronauts on the final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, May 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.The astronaut EVA crew of Hubble SM4 – last servicing mission to the Hubble by a space shuttle crew. From left to right: John Grunsfeld, Drew Feustel, Michael Good, and Mike Massimino. Image taken at Goddard Space Flight Center, July 2008. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.John Grunsfeld, just before entering shuttle Atlantis for his fifth mission in space and his third to the Hubble Space Telescope. Grunsfeld wrote “Climbing Mountains” for Infinite Worlds. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.Atlantis just after roll out and pad lock down at Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center for the STS-125 Hubble Servicing Mission. March 31, 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.Jill McGuire, Manager, Hubble SM4 Crew Aids and Tools, in Mission control in Houson during EVA 4, May 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.Self Portrait by John Grunsfeld and shuttle Atlantis on the Hubble Space Telescope — orbiting Earth. Image courtesy Michael Soluri.
Soluri will give a presentation and do a book signing on April 11, 2015 at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden. Soluri will be joined by four individuals who played key roles in Service Mission SM4: astronaut Scott Altman, the STS-125 shuttle commander; David Leckrone, senior project scientist; Christy Hansen, EVA spacewalk flight controller and astronaut instructor; and Hubble systems engineer Ed Rezac. More information on that event can be found here.
Infinite Worlds - People & Places of Space Exploration: by Michael Soluri, Foreword by John Glenn. Cover image courtesy of Michael Soluri and Simon & Schuster.
On April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched from Kennedy Space Center into low Earth orbit. Hubble was the first telescope designed to operate in space, so it was able to avoid interference from Earth’s atmosphere – an inconvenience that had limited astronomers since they first looked up to the skies. However, scientists quickly realized that something was wrong; the images were blurry. Despite being among the most precisely ground instruments ever made, the primary mirror in the Hubble was about 2,200 nanometers too flat at the perimeter (for reference, the width of a typical sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers). Luckily, there was a solution.
Hubble was designed to be serviced in space. As NASA writes on the telescope’s website, “a series of small mirrors could be used to intercept the light reflecting off the mirror, correct for the flaw, and bounce the light to the telescope’s science instruments.” A series of five missions lasting from 1993 to 2009 was devised to correct the mirror and perform various upgrades. Despite being the first of their kind, the missions were declared a resounding success – and they enabled the Hubble Space Telescope to remain operational to this day. Many of Hubble’s images are among the most incredible ever produced by mankind, yet few people know anything about the remarkable men and women who made them possible.
ohn Grunsfeld, just before entering shuttle Atlantis for his fifth mission in space and his third to the Hubble Space Telescope. Grunsfeld wrote “Climbing Mountains” for Infinite Worlds. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.
Infinite Worlds: People & Places of Space Exploration, the latest book from photographer Michael Soluri, documents the people who worked on the last of these repair missions, STS-125 (also known as Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4 [HST-SM4]). The nearly two-week journey aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis saw the successful installation of two new instruments and the repair of two others. Like the four other shuttle crews that came before them, the men and women aboard STS-125 enabled Hubble to see deeper and farther into the past than ever before.
Michael Massimino, a veteran of the earlier STS-109 mission, is one of these people. Massimino and Soluri became fast friends after a chance encounter, when Soluri asked: “What is the quality of light really like in space?” Following their discussion, Massimino asked Soluri to teach him and the rest of the crew how to take photographs that would better communicate their experiences in space. Astronauts are always taking pictures, but the lighting in space is, understandably, not always ideal. Like Soluri himself in Infinite Worlds, the astronauts repairing Hubble were looking for better ways to communicate the beauty of space travel through photography.
Soluri was granted unprecedented access to document the people and events behind the mission throughout a period of more than four years. The photographs in the book “give deserved attention to a few of the many thousands of people who worked on the Space Shuttle and Hubble Space Telescope programs,” reads an inspiring foreword by John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. Infinite Worlds reveals a side of space travel that most of us would never otherwise see, including the training sessions, tools, and trials that make success possible. NASA, notorious for keeping their employees tightly scripted and inaccessible, rarely grants such access – and with the closing of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011, such intimacy may never be seen again.
Jill McGuire, Manager, Hubble SM4 Crew Aids and Tools, in Mission control in Houson during EVA 4, May 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.
Science is a cooperative discipline, but most people only ever see the results. The tireless work of thousands of individuals is often taken for granted and forgotten. Although many people still hold the false idea that scientific accomplishments are made by individual geniuses working in an armchair, now more than ever before we are entering an age where science is performed by large teams working cooperatively. To mention just one example, CERN hosts scientists of more than 100 nationalities. As Jill McGuire, a manager at Goddard Space Flight Center, writes about the field in the book, “the best way to move forward in the business was to get my hands dirty by working with the skilled machinists and technicians in the branch to learn everything I could.”
Infinite Worlds grants readers an exhilarating glimpse into this cooperative world. One particularly inspiring section follows the immediate buildup to the launch of STS-125. The transcript of the pre-launch quality check is paralleled by images of the situation as it happened. Black and white photographs from both cockpit and control room highlight the tension behind “the most risky thing NASA does,” according to Space Shuttle Launch Director Michael Leinbach. He continues, “they were real people with real families, real children, real lives.” Infinite Worlds reminds us of this: the work behind every scientific breakthrough is not magic, but rather the result of talented and dedicated individuals.
As we approach the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch and look to the future, a book like Infinite Worlds is more relevant now than ever before. The beautiful photographs in Soluri’s book tell two kindred stories: not only the heroic report of repairing a multi-billion dollar piece of equipment, but also a unique glimpse at the inspiring men and women who made it all possible. Whether humanity’s next missions are to Mars, Europa, or elsewhere, one thing will remain constant – we will only reach the stars through the work of exceptional people.
Soluri will give a presentation and do a book signing on April 11, 2015 at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden. Soluri will be joined by four individuals who played key roles in Service Mission SM4: astronaut Scott Altman, the STS-125 shuttle commander; David Leckrone, senior project scientist; Christy Hansen, EVA spacewalk flight controller and astronaut instructor; and Hubble systems engineer Ed Rezac. More information on that event can be found here.
You’ve had a busy day wandering around a faraway part of our solar system. It’s time to put your head down for a nap. Where do you place it? According to Erik Seedhouse in his book “Bigelow Aerospace: Colonizing Space One Module at a Time“, you easily slip into a space module, doff your all-purpose space suit and enjoy the pleasures of a safe secure environment. Know of a better way to get over that stressful day?
Now what can you write about a space module? You can try to present all sorts of details and specifications, but that makes for a rather dry read. You can try to present imaginative different uses and configurations, but they’d be only pipe dreams. Or, you can bring both together and add lots of recent history, and you’d come up with something like what Seedhouse provides.
In his book, he shows that while Bigelow Aerospace has something ready for the International Space Station this year, it derives from a NASA concept many years ago. In particular, he sets the direct precursor as NASA’s TransHab that resulted from copious design work and intensive testing. Actually, a good part of the first part of the book is all about the NASA studies; sometimes reading as if the information came direct from NASA technical sheets. The nice thing about this is that the detail is quite involved. For example, are you interested in knowing the relative stress and strain qualities of phenylene benzobisoxazole? Or that early balloons were made of polyethylene terephthalate film? On the imaginative side, the book has many great diagrams and pictures of hypothetical inflatable modules, whether for journeying to Mars, visiting an asteroid or just hanging around in a centrifuge. These serve well to describe the intended usage by NASA as well as the ideas that Bigelow Aerospace is contemplating for the future of space modules.
While the details on space modules fill most of the book, there’s more. The book begins with a slight biography of Robert Bigelow. While these facts are interesting, their only relevance seems to be with Bigelow’s purchase of the eight TransHab rights and with his keen interest and support of many things related to aliens and UFOs. Towards the book’s end, Seedhouse spreads his topic to include a discussion on the launcher industry. Here, he rightfully cautions that the success of private industry space modules comes directly from the success of private industry launchers. And we know how well this is going so far! Seedhouse’s last chapter imagines how a space module can be used on the Moon but then he also warns that other countries, such as China, may claim that world beforehand.
Yes, this book seems to have so much in it and so much going for it. Somehow though, it misses the mark. With a title screaming out ‘Bigelow’, I would have expected lots of corporate insights. Yet, it seems that the author’s sole direct knowledge source is one interview with Robert Bigelow. The book’s data reads almost as if straight from a NASA data sheet or a Bigelow Aerospace advertisement. Yes, this smallish book does have lots in it, but nothing that pushes the boundary forward. Equally the near xenophobic rant toward the end detracts from an otherwise sound technical review. Still, once the Bigelow Expandable Space Module becomes part of the International Space station at least the book’s subject will have made a great step forward.
The technical review is the strength of this book by Erik Seedhouse. In “Bigelow Aerospace – Colonizing Space One Module at a Time” we get the feel for a technology that has showed a lot of promise and is on the verge of becoming a player in space. In many ways, the book is homage to a person that’s taken a waylaid government idea and turned it into a corporate product. As the book implies, go industry, go!
The book is available at Amazon. Find out more about Eric Seedhouse at the Astronauts4Hire website. Learn more about Bigelow Aerospace here.
Elsewhen is a story about star-crossed young lovers, a love story for science fiction fans. Conceived when author/actor Gary Bullock was working at a radio astronomy site, Elsewhen follows the path of Elijah (‘Lije’) and Laura Bess, two child prodigies who fall head-over-heels in love before tragedy strikes and tears them apart. But for Lije and Laura, it seems that True Love might be able to thwart even fate…
Concepts from the more poetic end of theoretical physics are liberally peppered among the pages—musings on the directionality of time, for example—but this is by no means ‘hard’ science fiction. Scientific complexity level is about equivalent to the first Thor movie, so if you don’t know your bosons from your fermions, don’t despair.
Blending physics with a love story might seem like a difficult line to walk, but Bullock does a respectable job with his 118-page novella. Bullock’s career appears to have wended from screen writing to writing novels, and indeed, Elsewhen reads kind of like a screenplay—which I mean as both praise and as a critique.
On the side of praise, there is a good kind of inertia to the book. The plotline barrels along at a cracking pace, and given the length of the novella, it’s quite possible that you might read this cover to cover in a single night. But on the flip side, I wanted this novel to be longer. Several concepts and (particularly) characters were only loosely sketched out before the plotline whisked away to the next development.
The brevity led to my two main problems with the book. First of all, some key characters are bald rehashes of literary tropes. Some character development earlier in the novel could have, for example, fleshed out the villains in the story to make them more human and relatable.
Second, I craved more depth from the story. The many fantastical elements of the storyline open up the main characters in discussion of various concepts of philosophy and metaphysics, and I felt that more exposition here would have led to a more interesting read (and probably would have also helped with the character development problem). However, this may be less a critique of Elsewhen, and more a problem of my expectations going into this novel.
These issues aside, Elsewhen is a fun book with a clever premise. For the price of a cup of coffee, it’s easy enough to recommend for a light read.
Do you believe that humans are the ultimate species and that we have a destiny to rule? Perhaps you’re being optimistic according to Cameron Smith and Evan Davies. Their book “Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization” provides an anthropologist’s view that splashes a certain amount of chagrin on the hubris of our culture. Yes, they say we can and indeed should become a spacefaring species. However, they do caution that this future for our species can be attained only if we proactively try.
Smith and Davies describe themselves as adventurers and academics. This varied background comes through in their book. It contains an impressive amount of research and facts, all well referenced. The considered time-frame is all Earth encompassing, from the origin of life in the Hadean age up to today’s social structure of empires that encompass multi-millions of human subjects. Of course it highlights changes over time. For instance, humans are shown to have evolved from small brained quadrupeds to large brained bipeds with cognitive fluidity. But perhaps more importantly, it shows that culture is as important as opposable thumbs and sexual reproduction.
Maybe you recall this as the nature versus nurture issue? Well, this book states unequivocally that nurture or culture is an essential element of humanity’s existence. That is, our culture allows us to build thriving, capable empires as the Mayans did. The hubris appears by the reminder that most empires and indeed most species have faded away or gone extinct. Hence, the book’s unwritten conclusion is that humans will follow the same path unless we proactively choose otherwise. Whether from an academic viewpoint or from being a world traveller, the authors in their book vouchsafe that emigration to space is a necessary act for the survival of humans.
Indeed, much of this book is taken up with arguing for the emigration beyond Earth. In this sense, if you are looking for information and reasoning to support the effort and expenditure for space colonization, then this book is a great resource. It even offers a perspective on the relative benefits between colonizing the Moon or Mars. However, while it provides sound arguments for ‘why,’ it doesn’t really answer ‘how.’ This could be the book’s main short coming in that most of its arguments for emigration have arisen before and, thus, while being comprehensive it may not offer anything new to a well-read reader. Its one main suggestion is for a ‘cognitive shift’ to make the idea of space emigration as common place as eating. Indeed, if everyone were to read this book, then such a shift would likely take place.
In total, this book empowers and indeed urges the reader to make a choice. The choice is between accepting the future whatever it may hold, or, proactively choosing to try to advance both our culture and our biological make-up via emigrating. In this, the authors Cameron Smith and Evan Davies in their book “Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization” clearly lay out the likely consequences for either. Does humanity have the will to make such a choice? Are you ready to make the choice? Read this book and then ponder some more about the future for humankind.
The story of our Universe has twists and turns, and from The Big Bang to the discovery of the atom to the eventual death of the universe, author Ben Gilliland uses his skill as an illustrator to explain it all with wit and detail in his new book “How to Build a Universe.”
Universe Today is proud to announce that thanks to Sterling Publishing, we have three copies of this engaging book to give away. The publisher has specified that for this contest, winners need to be from the US.
In order to be entered into the giveaway drawing, just put your email address into the box at the bottom of this post (where it says “Enter the Giveaway”) before Sunday, February 15, 2015. We’ll send you a confirmation email, so you’ll need to click that to be entered into the drawing. If you’ve entered our giveaways before you should also receive an email with a link on how to enter.
We’re only going to use these email addresses for Universe Today giveaways/contests and announcements. We won’t be using them for any other purpose, and we definitely won’t be selling the addresses to anyone else. Once you’re on the giveaway notification list, you’ll be able to unsubscribe any time you like.
We live in a wild and crazy universe. Gigantic stars explode and create the stuff of life, virtual particles pop in and out of existence so fast they can barely be measured, and light exists as particles and waves at the same time. And it all started with three simple words: The Big Bang. It’s taken hundreds of years of science to begin to sort some of this out, so for one author to write one book that tells the whole story is an enormous task.
Enter Ben Gilliland, science columnist, gifted illustrator, and winner of the 2013 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Space Achievement in Media. Gilliland tackles the task in his new book “How to Build a Universe: from The Big Bang to the End of the Universe.” He uses engaging storytelling, eye-catching graphics, and a relaxed and friendly style of writing that makes reading his book an enjoyable and informative experience.
“How To Build A Universe” reads like a conversation with a knowledgeable and enthusiastic friend. Gilliland leads us through the twists and turns of the story of the universe and uses his skill as an illustrator to great narrative effect. From The Big Bang, to the discovery of the atom. From the point in time when other galaxies will become invisible to observers on Earth, to the eventual death of the universe, it’s all explained with wit and detail.
If you’ve ever picked up a book about space science, opened the first page and then asked yourself why you didn’t take cosmology and astrophysics in university, this book is for you. There’s none of that with Gilliland’s book. This book grabs the reader right away, and is engaging from start to finish.
You would have to take several university level courses in astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology to cover as much ground as “How To Build A Universe” does in 224 pages. And your professors probably wouldn’t be near as engaging as the author, Ben Gilliland. (You’d go to more parties if you went to university, but that’s another subject.)
Don’t get the wrong idea. This book is not dumbed down. It finds its audience nicely. It touches on all the important topics, and digs into the detail with clarity and humour. The writing is clear and concise at the same time that it’s warm and informal. Beyond the writing, it’s the wealth of thoughtful illustrations that help pull it all together.
I’m a technical writer, and I know how hard it can be to explain complicated subjects to people. Ben Gilliland makes it seem effortless. His explanations of quantum physics are particularly effective, and they’re the clearest explanation of that challenging material that I’ve ever come across. I could say the same thing about how he handles Dark Matter and Dark Energy, two other difficult to explain concepts.
Gilliland is a gifted writer and illustrator, and I highly recommend “How To Build a Universe” to Universe Today readers.
You’ve watched Star Wars and Star Trek and you believe people are destined to live in space. Heck, we’ve even got a laboratory orbiting a few hundred kilometres over our heads so we must be on the way. But are we? Well, according to Arlin Crotts in his book “The New Moon – Water, Exploration, and Future Habitation” we need to take the next step. That step is to firmly place us upon our own Moon. Nope, it’s not Mars, not Venus, not some tethered asteroid from who knows where. If our species wants to grow, hey, even to survive, then according to Crotts, we need to be Moon-bound and the sooner the better.
So you ask yourself, “What’s so exciting about our Moon?” Start into this book and you will quickly find answers. Reading almost as a compendium of human interaction with our grand satellite, the book takes the reader on a journey through history, literature, geology, chemistry and politics. Whether considering the eloquent recitation between Romeo and Juliet while bathed in moonlight or xenophobic ranting about restrictions due to ITAR, the book shows that the Moon has had a significant impact upon both humans and the Earth.
In a sense, this is the strongest element of the book in that it is a very well referenced, directed resource from the time of Theia to today. Sometimes the details get very precise, as with its careful explanation of Precambrian rhythmites or the amount of KREEP in anorthositic crust. If you’re interested in the chemical composition of serpentine Mg3Si2O5(OH)4 or the wonders of Drake’s equation, you will find wonderful explanations in this book. Just take care, the index is somewhat light for the amount of factual information and you may find yourself asking “where exactly was that description of bright lights coming out of Aristarchus?”.
With all this detail, you’d be thinking that the book comes to some wonderful revelation or conclusion. Sadly, you will be mistaken, as the lack of purpose is one of the book’s major short comings. Most telling is the author’s explanation for writing the book, as provided on its jacket: “Having observed objects as distant as ten billion light years and as close as the Moon, he finds the problems of lunar science particularly intriguing.”
Well, yes, the problems are indeed intriguing but, as noted in the book, research for research’s sake is unlikely to get funding. So, this book doesn’t present the reason or way for funding lunar research, even if that is the presumed best way forward. Yes, the book has lists on why humans should return to the Moon and lengthy discussions on the respective values of robotic and human explorers, but it does not give any certain direction.
The second concern with the book is its nationalistic perspective. The book comes with the view of someone from the United States; the greatest space exploring nation of all as it says. Russia is considered a wannabe, while China and Europe are simply recent upstarts. There is acknowledgement that the International Space Station is a successful collaboration of nations. But the purported solution to the lunar enigma is presented as just needing Obama, the TEA party and the Republicans to play nice. The reader may not agree with this view.
However, for providing a huge amount of information for the Moon, a reader need look no further than Arlin Crotts in his book “The New Moon – Water, Exploration, and Future Habitation “. Reading it will make you a champ at Trivial Pursuit – the Lunar Edition. If you delve between the lines, you may also find yourself wondering just what the future has in store for humankind; a moribund future rocking in the cradle of Earth or a future prospering with greater challenges, higher technology and endless potential.
'Astrophotography' by Thierry Legault, now in English. Image courtesy Rocky Nook.
A newly published English version of the book, “Astrophotography” by Thierry Legault provides detailed, step-by-step instructions of how to start or improve your photography of astronomical objects. But this is not just a dry manual: Legault tells stories and explains details in a manner that seems like he is talking directly to you, and he shares the expertise he has garnered from over 20 years of amateur astrophotography.
Universe Today is proud to announce we have several copies of this engaging book to give away, and two ways to win.
NOTE: This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for everyone’s participation!
The first way to win a copy is our usual “giveaway” process where we have two copies available to winners. In order to be entered into the giveaway drawing, just put your email address into the box at the bottom of this post (where it says “Enter the Giveaway”) before Monday, September 22, 2014. We’ll send you a confirmation email, so you’ll need to click that to be entered into the drawing. If you’ve entered our giveaways before you should also receive an email with a link on how to enter.
The second way to win is through Facebook. Again, two copies are available through this avenue. Please see our Facebook post for this giveaway, then we ask you to “like” the Rocky Nook Publishing Facebook page. Your “like” to Rocky Nook will be considered an entry to the contest. From there, a winner will be chosen and the winners will be notified through Facebook.
The publisher has specified that for this contest, winners chosen from the US will be sent a copy of the book, while winners chosen from other countries will receive an ebook.
'Astrophotography' by Thierry Legault, now in English. Image courtesy Rocky Nook.
If you’re looking for detailed, step-by-step instructions of how to start or improve your photography of astronomical objects, look no further. Astrophotographer Thierry Legault shares the expertise he has garnered from over 20 years of “amateur” photography in his newly translated book titled simply — and appropriately — “Astrophotography.”
“It took me more than two years to write the first edition of the book (published in French in 2006),” Legault told Universe Today, “and I worked several months on the second edition (2013), and worked several months again for this new English edition.”
This softcover book is filled with dramatic images, helpful graphs, charts, and more – plus over 100,000 words of text to provide detailed, guided instructions on everything from choosing the right camera for your needs to how to process imagery for the best and most accurate results.
Despite the full moon that turned the sky blue, the Milky Way, crossed by a bright meteor, is visible on this 1-minute exposure taken with a 14mm f/2.8 lens on a 24x36mm DSLR over Wallaman Falls, Australia. Credit and copyright: Thierry Legault.
100% of the astronomical images in the book are Legault’s own photos, just a few of which are featured here in this review. “I really wanted to use my own images,” Legault said.
While each page is a treasure trove of Legault’s beautiful images, he’s not just showing off: he tells you how you can try to get the same results.
Of course, we’ve featured Legault’s stunning and sometimes ground-breaking astrophotography here on Universe Today, and his work has been published and broadcast worldwide. You’ll likely recall images of the space shuttle or International Space Station crossing the Sun or Moon, views of spy satellites in orbit, beautiful deep sky views, or shots like the striking image above of a ‘moonbow’ and meteor over Australia’s Wallaman Falls.
His continued dedication to his craft, along with his attention to detail and quality has earned Legault the reputation as one of the top amateur astrophotographers in the world. And he now shares his tips and know-how in this well-organized and detailed — but highly accessible — manual. Legault’s descriptions and instructions will not lose even those just beginning with astronomical imaging.
Lunar close-ups such as these, taken with a video camera and a 14″ telescope, need good atmospheric conditions and telescope collimation. From the book ‘Astrophotography’. Credit and copyright: Thierry Legault.
So, with experts like Legault and so many other accomplished astrophotographers taking incredible photos (which we love to feature on Universe Today) why would someone want to bother with trying to just start out and learn the craft?
Legault addresses that question immediately in the forward of his book.
“Part of the answer to that question lies in the desire to get our own pictures of the stars: after all most of the tourists who visit the Egyptian pyramids, Niagara Falls, or The Great Wall of China also take photographs, even though these sites have already been photographed millions of times with beautiful tomes devoted to them,” Legault writes. “The pleasure of photographing the sky is a natural progression from the visual observations of the night sky…”
Plus, Legault continues, with current equipment that is now available, the expanding avenues of citizen science offers the chance for anyone to add to the body of astronomical knowledge.
“It is entirely possible to go beyond the purely aesthetic aspect of astrophography and use images of celestial bodies to study their behavior and deduce the physical mechanisms that govern them, or even reveal new insights,” Legault writes. “In some cases, advanced amateurs can do useful work assisting professionals who, while certainly having more sophisticated means and deeper skills are s0 few that it is impossible for them to perform a complete survey of a a celestial object to to continuously monitor it.”
So not only can you create beautiful imagery but you can contribute to science as well.
These images of the ISS are taken from a video obtained on February 28, 2011, with a 10″ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a monochrome video camera mounted on a Takahashi mount. The mount’s electronics were considerably modified by Emmanuel Rietsch for satellite tracking and were used in conjunction with his software, Video Sky (a modification he also performs on EQ-G mounts). At the center left of the ISS, viewed from the rear and docked to the ISS, is the space shuttle Atlantis. Just to its right, astronaut Steve Bowen is on a spacewalk at the end of the ISS articulated arm (triangular structure). When the images are merged in pairs using the cross-eyed viewing technique described earlier in this chapter, the ISS appears in 3D. The solar panels of the ISS are at top and bottom. The large rectangular white checkerboard structures are radiators. Credit and copyright: Thierry Legault.
The book begins with the simplest ways for amateurs to begin photographing the night sky, and you don’t even need to own a telescope. For example, Legault’s video, below, of fireworks and a big Moon over Paris is something anyone can record. But using the right settings — and planning ahead — are key to capturing beautiful images and video.
But then Legault delves into the details of telescopic photography, and provides information on using telescopes and tracking mounts. He shares how to precisely capture everything from incredible solar imagery, to deep sky photos, to his ‘trademark’ transits of satellites, like those seen below:
For the total eclipse of March 29, 2006, five images of exposure increasing by a factor of four per step (1/250, 1/60, 1/15, 1/4, and 1 second) were combined with HDR processing to produce this wide dynamic range view of the solar corona. The earthshine on the moon also can be seen. The HDR program Photomatix was used to register the images before they were combined. Credit and copyright: Thierry Legault.a.) On May 16, 2010 near Madrid, Spain, the weather allowed me to get this simultaneous transit of the ISS and the space shuttle Atlantis just tens of minutes before docking, during the STS-132 mission. This is an exposure of 1/8000 s with a Canon 5D Mark II on a 150mm apochromatic refractor with a Herschel prism and neutral filter. Transit time was 0.5 seconds. Credit and copyright: Thierry Legault.b.) Six days later, in Switzerland (Berne), atmospheric conditions were especially favorable to imaging Atlantis docked to the ISS (on the left, between the solar panels). Credit and copyright: Thierry Legault.
Also key is image processing. While Legault has provided details for Universe Today before on how not to over-process and be fooled by image artifacts, his book offers much more thorough information on how to start — as well as knowing when to quit — processing images for the best results.
Other areas Legault covers are how to:
Select the most useful equipment: cameras, adapters, filters, focal reducers/extenders, field correctors, and guide telescopes
Set up your camera (digital, video, or CCD) and your lens or telescope for optimal results
Plan your observing sessions
Polar-align your equatorial mount and improve tracking for pin-point star images
Make celestial time-lapse videos
Calculate the shooting parameters: focal length and ratio, field of view, exposure time, etc.
Combine multiples exposures to reveal faint galaxies, nebulae details, elusive planetary structures, and tiny lunar craters
Postprocess your images to fix defects such as vignetting, dust shadows, hot pixels, uneven background, and noise
Identify problems with your images and improve your results
“Astrophotography” is not just a dry manual: Legault tells stories and explains details in a manner that seems like he is talking directly to you. For a translated book, the text flows extremely well, making for a very readable book. Legault credits Alan Holmes from the Santa Barbara Instruments Group (SBIG) – one of the main manufacturers of CCD cameras for astronomy — for his assitance with the translation from French. “He did a tremendous job of correcting my bad translation!” Legault told UT.
This false color image of the North America and Pelican nebulae covers 3° and shows the SII, Hydrogen Alpha, and OIII lines isolated with a set of 3 nm wide narrowband filters using a CCD camera from a very light-polluted area, with cumulative exposure times of 12, 2.5, and 4.5 hours respectively. Each 5-minute raw frame was calibrated and all of them were registered. Then, each stacked group was assigned to a layer in the MaxIm DL Combine Color function in LRGB mode: H? to luminance and green, SII to red, and OIII to blue. To compensate for the weakness of OIII, and especially SII with regard to H a, their respective amplification factors were 3.5 and 10. Final adjustment of levels, curves, and color saturation was done using Photoshop after export from MaxIm DL in 16-bit TIFF format. Credit and copyright: Thierry Legault.
