A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov
A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
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Re: A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
#2I find it funny (but cool!) that this is a full on 190 page book on the topic.
Re: A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
#3I find it funny (but cool!) that this is a full on 190 page book on the topic.
Smartphones (at least those with single cameras) have the advantage that you can just hold them up to a telescope's eyepiece and take a picture, which is a bit harder with "real" cameras.
Re: A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
#4I find it funny (but cool!) that this is a full on 190 page book on the topic.
Skimming the book, most of it isn't terribly specific to smartphones. It's more or less an introductory book on astrophotography in general.
Re: A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
#5I find it funny (but cool!) that this is a full on 190 page book on the topic.
The amount of nerdiness in this is amazing I’m so excited to read it! Especially with the new crazy zoom functions on phones and aligning them easier with telescopes !
Re: A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
#6I find it funny (but cool!) that this is a full on 190 page book on the topic.
Smartphones (at least those with single cameras) have the advantage that you can just hold them up to a telescope's eyepiece and take a picture, which is a bit harder with "real" cameras.
they make mounts now where this is exactly what you do which is nice when the device can do longer exposure than you can hold still. they are adjustable so you can use it for a plethora of different devices.
They're great for use at star parties. You can keep switching out eyepieces (a common thing) to get the view you want for whatever is being viewed. Then each person can get a pic on their device. It makes them much more engaged especially since the CMOS sensors can start to pick out colors that the human eye can't see.
Re: A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
#7Interesting this field is changed significantly last 20 years.
One thing is light pollution need to buy a big telescope if you can't transport it to the dark place. You have to drive 100+ from a big city.
Second is advanced image processing with deep learning. There is no need for accurate sky tracker anymore, you just shot many images and software combines.
Re: A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Smartphones (at least those with single cameras) have the advantage that you can just hold them up to a telescope's eyepiece and take a picture, which is a bit harder with "real" cameras.
they make mounts now where this is exactly what you do which is nice when the device can do longer exposure than you can hold still. they are adjustable so you can use it for a plethora of different devices. They're great for use at star parties. You can keep switching out eyepieces (a common thing) to get the view you want for whatever is being viewed. Then each person can get a pic on their device. It makes them mu…
Even better than a smartphone, mounting a DSLR at the prime focus on a telescope makes it really fun at star parties.
I went to a star party for some kids with my scope. There were a bunch of other guys there with scopes- all of them reflectors with hard-to-see-through eyepieces looking at faint blobs in the sky. The kids seemed bored. So I set up my refractor, installed my dslr (turning on Live View) and pointed it at Jupiter. You clearly see the planet and several moons around it. The kids thought that was great and one mom looked at me and asked... "Did you just show us the moons of Jupiter". I could see at least one kid look at it, look up at the sky, look at the telescope, and sort of put it all together.
The DSLR has better image quality, the image is falling directly on the sensor, the noise is very low, and there's a digital zoom option that works well.
Re: A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
#9Interesting this field is changed significantly last 20 years. One thing is light pollution need to buy a big telescope if you can't transport it to the dark place. You have to drive 100+ from a big city. Second is advanced image processing with deep learning. There is no need for accurate sky tracker anymore, you just shot many images and software combines.
I don't have any problems in a suburban area of the Bay Area with a small refractor. I can see bright nebulas, etc. The only reason for the big scope in a dark area is if you're trying to look at deep sky objects.
You still need a sky tracker to get enough exposures and generally, you want the item centered because that's where the optics are best.
Re: A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography [pdf]
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
they make mounts now where this is exactly what you do which is nice when the device can do longer exposure than you can hold still. they are adjustable so you can use it for a plethora of different devices. They're great for use at star parties. You can keep switching out eyepieces (a common thing) to get the view you want for whatever is being viewed. Then each person can get a pic on their device. It makes them mu…
Even better than a smartphone, mounting a DSLR at the prime focus on a telescope makes it really fun at star parties. I went to a star party for some kids with my scope. There were a bunch of other guys there with scopes- all of them reflectors with hard-to-see-through eyepieces looking at faint blobs in the sky. The kids seemed bored. So I set up my refractor, installed my dslr (turning on Live View) and pointed it…
Except a DSLR can't make an image that they take on their own device and walk away with it to immediately post to socials. that's the thing that draws them in.
A DSLR image needs to be processed to bring out the true qualities of the image. Also, a DSLR's tiny little pixels while a literal shit ton of them means that objects like planets resolve very small in the image. That's why most plantery images are still popular to use webcam level cameras.