Best pic of Saturn yet

[skiddieleet]

I had the best seeing to date tonight.  I typically view planets at 200x and there is still a lot of distortion.  Tonight it was very steady and I threw my 2x barlow on and was still able to see pretty clearly.  I didn't think I'd ever be able to use 400x on my scope.

Anyway, astrophotography is very tough through an 8 inch dob with no nice camera, just a phone, but I somehow was able to get a great picture of Saturn.  Here it is:

Not bad for a smartphone.  I didn't want to come inside because I don't know if I'll ever have a night of seeing like this again.  I hope others had as much luck tonight as I did.  Clear skies!

[Sandraj]

Fantastic picture with your phone, really good. 

[tingting44]

thats epic! for a phone, what phone is it?

[wxsatuser]

thats epic! for a phone, what phone is it?

Agreed!.............I would be well chuffed with that.

[oldpink]

very nice
had some good viewing myself last night and lots of data to process

[Pete Presland]

i have seen many images produced of Saturn with dedicated webcams, that are no where near as good as that! excellent, well done to you!

[ultramol]

I can't manage to phone someone with those things yet you managed to image Saturn...Brilliant

[simmo39]

V nice shot indeed.

[soundwave]

Hey, that's awesome!

I couldn't get my iPhone to lower the exposure enough and Saturn kept coming out wayyyy too bright (although it looked wonderful to the eye).

Did you use a certain camera app / setting? or is your phone something like the Lumia 1020? 

[jonnopfc]

Cracking picture

[Pondus]

Fantastic picture using a phone, and the  XT8 at 400x ?, must have been excellent conditions.

Rune

[skiddieleet]

thats epic! for a phone, what phone is it?

It's the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Hey, that's awesome!

I couldn't get my iPhone to lower the exposure enough and Saturn kept coming out wayyyy too bright (although it looked wonderful to the eye).

Did you use a certain camera app / setting? or is your phone something like the Lumia 1020? 

It was the standard camera app on the S4, and the ISO exposure settings can be toggled between 800, 400, 200 and 100 or auto.  I believe I had it on 200 or 100 for these.  With the magnification so high it wasn't immensely bright, but I still had to lower the exposure.  I probably took at least 50 pics and picked the best one I could find eyeballing it to post here.  It's tough because at that magnification it drifts out of the field of view very quickly.