Smartphone Valles Alpes Rille

[CraigT82]

We've been blessed with some great twighlight seeing the past few days, last eve I was out at about 9pm and observing the Valles Alpes area which was right on the terminator and in a good position to try to pick out the long narrow rille in the valley floor.

I could make it out as a faint white line visually, not for the whole length of the valley though, just the northern portion. This line quite 'transient and came and went with short spells of excellent clarity. 

Attached are a  couple of images I shot using a galaxy s8 afaocal (through a barlowed 10mm BCO giving x325). In the enlargement you can just make out the faint white line on the northern valley floor, but only if you squint, stand 6ft away and use your imagination! (Visually it was a bit clearer than this). 

Also added a picture of craters Aristoteles and Eudoxus, I spent a good while having at the lovely terraced walls and boulder Strewn floors of these two as well. 

[LukeSkywatcher]

You really took those with a smartphone?. Just incredible. That last image is just....... 

Well done. 

[Stu]

Well done Craig. Those are really excellent shots of a difficult target. It is hard enough visually so to catch  with a smartphone is some going!

I’ve seen it as a white line too in the Tak, broken in places but over a good extent of the Valley, great to see but I had always expected a dark line for some reason.

I had an upgrade available so have just ordered and Samsung S9 which seems to have a much better camera than my iPhone 6 Plus so it will be interesting to see how it performs. Hopefully should also be able to use it to control my AZGTi directly with SkySafari so it will be more of an Astro device than phone!

[johnfosteruk]

Absolutely outstanding. You can definitely see a portion of the rille. Was this handheld or do you have a holder?

[CraigT82]

4 hours ago, Stu said:

Well done Craig. Those are really excellent shots of a difficult target. It is hard enough visually so to catch  with a smartphone is some going!

Thanks Stu, yes the samsung cameras are great!  You can get much better manual control apps with Android too.

4 hours ago, johnfosteruk said:

Was this handheld or do you have a holder?

Thanks John, I've never bothered with a holder, I find just holding it up to the lens is good enough, though can be tricky with tiny exit pupils