NASA itself wrote a PDF guide on doing astronomical photos with smartphones. For free.
Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife – a project with many obstacles
21–28 of 28 posts
Re: Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife – a project with many obstacles
#22Fantastic shot!
I was in Tenerife in November 2024. I did some basic astrophotography one night with my Pixel 6 phone and a steady hand.
I managed to photograph M31, the Andromeda Galaxy for the very first time. It just appears as a faint oval smudge... but I was in awe.
Locating it was a challenge (I was flipping between a 2D star chart and my photos) so I was very happy to finally capture it. A few days later I discovered the Stellarium app which makes locating things much easier.
Re: Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife – a project with many obstacles
#23I felt my blood pressure spike at the mention of the people with the headlamps - I do astrophotography, and having an hour long exposure ruined because someone sauntered over with their high beams on is a touch infuriating.
It should be said that in no way is anyone at fault for walking on a mountain at night using a headlamp. The onus is on the photographer to plan ways to avoid this issue affecting their work, or hope for a bit of luck. A saunterer may be searching for rare wildlife or any of countless other important projects that must be shared with others on the mountain.
Yes and no. It's light pollution. It's this attitude that leads people to think it's OK to have way too loud cars/motorbikes and way too bright headlights etc. Photography doesn't affect others, but light and other types of pollution do. People should think more carefully about how their super-important projects and errands will affect others.
Re: Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife – a project with many obstacles
#24I felt my blood pressure spike at the mention of the people with the headlamps - I do astrophotography, and having an hour long exposure ruined because someone sauntered over with their high beams on is a touch infuriating.
Can't really pinpoint the place where they were located, but guessing some place between Portillo and Montaña Blanca at an altitude of 2200 meters, I'd say they could have seen either people coming down from the Altavista shelter to Montaña Blanca, or from the workers hut in Montaña Blanca (I think it's for the volcanologists).
I think the shelter's closed right now, so I guess in both cases it would probably be workers coming down.
Seems like they decided last minute to hike up for doing the shooting, so I hope they got the night permit.
Re: Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife – a project with many obstacles
#25I felt my blood pressure spike at the mention of the people with the headlamps - I do astrophotography, and having an hour long exposure ruined because someone sauntered over with their high beams on is a touch infuriating.
It reminds me of one evening around the time of the recent Aurora Borealis sightings in the UK. We finally had a cloudless evening but couldn't really travel right out into a dark sky so tried in a large meadow just outside of town.
Unfortunately, we weren't the only people with this idea. Half the town had descended on to this one meadow. It was quite comical seeing people awkwardly milling around who had clearly never been in a meadow in the dark before. Phone lights were on as well as fully lit screens etc. I think I've had better night vision during the day.
One of them suddenly exclaimed, "is that it?!". It was, in fact, not "it", but rather the glow from the town in which we all lived.
Re: Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife – a project with many obstacles
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think its more troubling to think that someones Very Important Thing™ might be being disturbed by someone elses More Important Thing™. Whining about flashlights ruining your shot is one thing - not having compassion for someone who might be searching the mountain for a lost colleague, or any one of a number of other possible scenarios, is another thing entirely. Its quite psychopathic to not at least consider that…
Very troubling to think the author did not even consider that those people were searching for their long lost colleague after reciveing mysterious signals coming from the Teide crater. All of which indicating an exact point in space and time where a portal would appear and contact could finally be made. Actually quite psychopathic they didn't consider this at all.
Now that I think of it, since they were shouting to turn off the lights ... If I heard some people shouting something I can't understand in the dark near a 3700m peak, I would presume there might be people who need help and try to locate them. It would make sense that they came into their direction.
Re: Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife – a project with many obstacles
#27I felt my blood pressure spike at the mention of the people with the headlamps - I do astrophotography, and having an hour long exposure ruined because someone sauntered over with their high beams on is a touch infuriating.
I hear a lot of astrophotographers take many short-exposure (5-10s) photos and then stich them together in POST. Missing 1 of possible 100 photos in OK I think? Keeping in mind that you photographing a specific thing in the sky, not the startrails, as missing a frame will be very visible there.
Sub exposures are taken explicitly to avoid this issue. It also lets you easily to be planes and satellites.
Re: Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife – a project with many obstacles
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't imagine any other scenario? Perhaps they were looking for a missing colleague? One would never know, for as long as hostility and antagonism is the reaction to assumptions made, instead of .. you know .. having empathy for someone out there on the mountain in the middle of the night, looking for something/someone ..
Sorry, but none of this makes any sense to me. First rare wildlife, now lost colleagues? Tenerife has a mountain rescue service with helicopters and off-roaders. Having empathy is great, but it still most likely that the availability of ultra-bright lamps is causing people to use them unnecessarily. There is an abundance of evidence that artificial light hurts natural ecosystems, not to mention inconveniencing astrop…
Ok how about a simple reason like this - they just went for a night walk in the wilderness and are using lamps to see where they are going. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
>> I don't think it's unreasonable to take a dim view of those who use bright lights in uninhabited environments like this.
I think it is, but it's the internet, we don't have to agree.