An Anglo-American collaboration, which began through the Internet, has produced some of the most exquisite star photographs ever made. Combining Greg Parker's photography skills in England and Noel Carboni's image-processing prowess in the US, the results are the striking astro images found in the new book Star Vistas.
Parker started deep-sky imaging in 2004 from his back garden. He spent less than £10,000 on his equipment but invested thousands of hours to perfect his remarkable images. Carboni is known for transforming peoples' astronomical images into stunning deep-sky works of art. He worked his magic on Parker's material and created the spectacular images found in the book.
There are very few high-quality books of wide-field deep-sky images, primarily because the major professional telescopes are scheduled for research projects rather than creating beautiful images. All the astronomical photographs in Star Vistas were made using commercially available amateur equipment and software. This is not only a testament to today's optical and imaging technology and the excellence of low-cost telescopes and cameras, but also to Parker's skills in taking the photographs and Carboni's expertise in processing the images.
Professor Greg Parker is head of the Nanoscale Systems Integration Group at Southampton University in England. His deep-sky astronomical images have been published in numerous popular astronomy magazines. He is the author of Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images:
Astrophotography with Affordable Equipment and Software, published by Springer, and has written many scientific papers and articles, mostly in the area of photonics and optoelectronics.
Noel Carboni is an internationally acclaimed expert on astronomical image processing and has had astrophotographs published in many magazines and journals. He lives and works in Florida. Most recently he collaborated with Greg Parker in the Starcapes exhibition of astronomical images at Brockenhurst, UK.
Greg Parker, Noel Carboni
Star Vistas
A Collection of Fine Art Astrophotography
Forewords by Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Sir Patrick Moore, and Dr. Brian May
2009. 155 p. 95 color illus. Hardcover £31.99, $39.95, €39.95
ISBN 978-0-387-88435-6