Terrence Dickinson, "Digital SLRs and the Democratization of Personal Astrophotography", Main Tent, Saturday 10:00 a.m., is the author of 15 astronomy books and is currently editor of the Canadian magazine, SkyNews. Among his numerous awards are: the Order of Canada, an honorary doctorate degree from Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's Klumpke-Roberts award for outstanding contributions to public understanding of astronomy.

The astonishingly rapid evolution of digital cameras since their introduction in the late 1990s has quickly led to the development of the digital single-lens-reflex camera, or DSLR.

These cameras have opened deep-sky astrophotography to a much broader population of astronomy fans than ever before by offering a straightforward, powerful way for an amateur astronomer to gather celestial images that were previously impossible to obtain with film emulsion. The talk will focus on "how-to" techniques, equipment recommendations--including modified red-sensitive DSLRs--and will include a wide range of examples.