[APML] Jerry's Book

["Joseph O'Neil" <joneil@multiboard.com>]

	Just got Jerry's book/CD in the mail last week - took only ten days form 
the day I ordered, a near world record for speed for delievery to Canada.  :)

	I haven't had time to go through it much, but I am pleasantly surprized at 
just how much information , specifically basic "background" information on 
the nature of light, how film works, etc, etc.   Even though aimed at 
Astro-photography, I would reccomment this book to strickly visual 
observers just on how it does a good job explaining the basics.  I think 
one of the biggest problems with people comming into astronomy for the 
first time is how little basic science people leave school with.
	For example - at public star nights, we ahve had to explain to people that 
the moon orbits th eearth, and not the other way around.  While not that 
basic, Jeery's book is a good reference source on how film, light, CCD, 
etc, all interact.

	I like how the book is setup.  Because my 3 year old laptop has only a 5 
gig drive, I am very pleased and relieved I do not have to install anything 
on my hard drive to access the book.

	Technically I find it intuitive, and easy to navigate.  Not all e-books 
are like that.  I ahve bought & downloaded other e-books that work off your 
web browser (mostly sci-fi stuff), but Jerry's layout, whomever did it, did 
a good job, because the temptaiton with e-books is to cram too much onto 
one page or one screen.  Not so here, IMO.  Navigation controls are pretty 
easy to flip around with too.

	I still have a lot to pour through, but I am finding the information on 
scanning images and other technical detial pretty interesting stuff as I go 
thought.  Again, even though it is aimed at astro-photography, at our 
family business we do a lot of desktop publishing & scanning, using 
photoshop & pagemaker, and i find some of the details & techinical 
suggestions helpful with daytime images as well.

	So, if you want a treat yourself, I would say get the book/CD.  The only 
fly in the ointment is my laptop sucks my battery dry if I use the CD-Rom 
drive a lot, so to read in bed, I have to use my AC power adaptor.  The 
other answer is perhaps to  just copy the whole thing onto my hard drive, 
but I am crammed full as it is on my hard drive.

	Anyhow, worth a look for anyone interested in astro-photography, at any 
leve of expertise.
joe




	
www.oneilphoto.on.ca
www.multiboard.com/~joneil

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