Astronomy & Astrophotography Books

Basic astrophotography tips can be found here embedded in a good general book on amateur astronomy for anyone getting serious about doing and not just reading about astronomy.

If you are just getting into astronomy and have yet to purchase equipment, this is the book to get. There are discussions about a wide variety of equipment and provides a good basis for making buying decisions. Even if you have already obtained some equipment, I highly recommend you take a look at this book. Technology is moving on rapidly, so in many respects equipment details may seem outdated, but many bargains on older equipment can be found in the used market. This is an inexpensive way to get your feet wet in astronomy.

This was a "must-have" book for the beginning and intermediate level astrophotographer back in the film days. This book contains good (and still relevant) discussions about optics, f/stops, focal length, and techniques for astrophotography. The author has been supplementing his book with updates and software on his web page

This is another good book for serious film astrophotographers, with emphasis on wide field targets (i.e. targets for camera lenses). This starts simple with home-made "barndoor" star trackers but rapidly gets into advanced topics such as film hypersensitization and Schmidt cameras.

This book was the "bible" for advanced film astrophotographers and includes advanced topics such as film chemistry and hypersensitization, tri-color photography, and discussion of optics and mount designs optimized for astrophotography. It has been out of print for awhile, but usually available in the used-book market.

Although this is an early book in a rapidly evolving area, it still contains a good starting point for really understanding what is going on inside an astronomical CCD camera and the post processing that is done on the resulting images. Author's web page:
http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/