In 2012 the Hubble Hidden Treasures competition was organized by NASA/ESA asking amateur astronomers to crawl through the Hubble image archives to find, previous unknown, images and process them. After obtaining second place in the competition I had the feeling thatI wanted to do something unique with these images. So I decided to gather amateur images together with professional imagery in a book side-by-side showing the progress that has been made in the last decades in amateur astrophotography.
After building my portfolio of astro-images for several years I’m now ready to put together the book with the images that I’m proud of: “Treasures of the Universe – Amateur and professional visions of the Cosmos”. This book contains over 50 stunning objects in outer space as imaged by myself, by fellow astrophotographers and by the professional instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and some of the large professional telescopes in the world. It puts amateur and professional astrophotography together and shows the potential of amateur imagery in the present time.
Who am I?
I’m André van der Hoeven, and I am an astrophotographer from the Netherlands. My images can be found regularly on numerous websites, including the Astronomy Picture of the Day(APOD), space.com and Universe Today and in magazines like Sky & Telescope and Sky at Night magazine. In 2012 I became second in the ‘Hubble Hidden Treasures’ competition and in 2013 and 2014 I was shortlisted for the ‘Astronomy Photographer of the Year’ Award of the Royal Observatory in Londen.
Since I started with astrophotography five years ago I have spent long nights in the field imaging the beauties of the heavens, trying to grasp the infinity of it in all its splendour. Hours and hours of observing under the night skies has resulted in an extensive amount of images of objects like galaxies, star clusters and nebulae.
The design of the book is ready, all images have been selected, text has been written and the layout has been done.
The foreword is written by Robert Gendler, one of the most famous astrophotographers in the world, and author of several books including “Capturing the Stars: Astrophotography by the Masters” and “Treasures of the Southern Sky”.
Robert Gendler wrote about this book:
“… Still there exists a relatively small subset of those who produce astronomical images with a distinctive style and manner that captures the scenes not only accurately but also with a sense of visual impact that not only grabs the attention of viewers, but captures their imagination…
… Images such as NGC 7822, M77, M101, M31 composed by André are testament to his exceptional and delicate processing style and are a wonderful addition to the depth of superb professional imagery.”
The book will be an 10″x8″ (25x20cm) sewn full-color hardcover book which is offset printed on high quality 200g/m2 paper. I’m planning to print the book with 152 full-colour pages in high resolution. The book is divided into four sections – galaxies, nebulae, clusters and solar system – and more detailed information about the technical data (like equipment used and exposure information) of the images is included in the back of the book.
Every object has at least two pages, including a full-page photograph and more detailed information about the object and what can be seen in the images.
Here is an overview of the contents of the book:
This is where I need your help. I’m seeking funds to cover the startup of the book. To cover the costs a total investment of 9.000 euros is needed. More clearly said, about 170 single book pledges have to be made to make the project successful. A detailed breakdown of the costs can be seen here:
By supporting this project, you’ll help me to achieve a dream of mine, but of course you’ll get something back for that! On the right hand side you can find an overview what I’m offering for your support. I tried to achieve reasonable pledge levels with an excellent bang for the buck.
If you can’t support the project financially you can still help me. Please share this kickstarter project with your friends and family, and with your social networks, like Facebook, Twitter or Google+. The more people know about the project, the bigger the chance it has of becoming a succes.
Please remember that Kickstarter projects work on an all-or-nothing basis. In order to produce the book, the project has to meet its funding goal, or no money will be invested, resulting in the book probably never being published.
Thanks for your support, in any form possible!
A special thanks to the following people who helped make this book reality:
Robert Gendler – foreword
Judy Schmidt – editing
Wendy Mensink – typography
Ad Beerens – equipment
Chris Meijer – distribution (practicum-educatief.nl)
Images: Twan Bekkers, The CEDIC Team, Yuri Beletsky, Eric Mouquet, Michael van Doorn, Neil Fleming, Mike van den Berg, Mathijn Ippel, Fabian Neyer, The Tzec Maun Foundation, Daniel Verloop, Maurice Toet, Paul Gerlach and Björn Jonsson
NASA and ESA for kindly providing imagery and content for the book…
If you’re a company or individual who wants to contribute another amount or would like another kind of feasible reward please contact me…
In 2012 the Hubble Hidden Treasures competition was organized by NASA/ESA asking amateur astronomers to crawl through the Hubble image archives to find, previous unknown, images and process them. After obtaining second place in the competition I had the feeling that I wanted to do something unique with these images. So I decided to gather amateur images together with professional imagery in a book side-by-side showing the progress that has been made in the last decades in amateur astrophotography.
See Campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1546683916/treasures-of-the-universe-unique-astrophotography?ref=category_popular
Contact Information:
André van der Hoeven
Tags:
Kickstarter, Reward, Books & Publishing, English, Media & Entertainment, Industry verticals, Types of Crowdfunding deal, Language
Source: ICNW
