Digital SLR cameras have revolutionized astrophotography and made it easier than ever before. The revolution is still going on, and writing this book has been like shooting at a moving target. New cameras and new software are sure to become available while the book is at the factory being printed. But don't let that dismay you. All it means is that we'll have better equipment next year than we do now.

This book is not a complete guide to DSLR astrophotography; the time is not yet ripe for that. Nor does space permit me to repeat all the background information from my other books. For a complete guide to optical configurations and imaging techniques, see Astrophotography for the Amateur (1999). To get started with a telescope, see How to Use a Computerized Telescope and Celestial Objects for Modern Telescopes (both 2002). All these books are published by Cambridge University Press.

What I most want to emphasize is that DSLR astrophotography can be easy, easier than any earlier way of photographing the stars. It's easy to lose track of this fact because of the flurry of technical enthusiasm that DSLRs are generating. New techniques and new software tools appear almost daily, and the resulting discussion, in perhaps a dozen online forums, thrills experts and bewilders beginners.

My goal is to save you from bewilderment.