M45 and California Nebula on Note 9

[Recneps]

Hello,

I noticed the sky was clear enough to get the telescope out for the first time tonight since getting it for Christmas (newbie), my phone mount to take images properly hasn't arrived yet but with my Note 9 pointing straight upwards I took a few photos (max 10 second exposure, F1.5 and ISO 800) and believe I have captured M45/Pleiades and California Nebula, please correct me if I am wrong though. Thought the second photo was also cool.

Feedback and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Spencer

[Scooot]

This is what you’ve captured in the first image

in the second you’ve got a good view of Auriga with Capella being the bright star at the top. It looks good  

[Scooot]

In the first I think you’ve just caught the Andromeda Galaxy. It’s a tiny smudge just above & to the right of the 3 vertical stars in Andromeda. You need to zoom in on your image, not the astrometry version.

[Recneps]

Thanks, I appreciate that, I'm guessing it starts to become very easy to recognise constellations by eye after a while, hopefully I'll get there soon!

I stupidly forgot to use Star Walk (I'm guessing this is also a very beginner thing to do) to check where it was looking when I took the photo, instead I went home and tried to remember the direction. 

Anyway, for a phone on what was still a fairly cloudy evening and only 5 minutes out of Aylesbury I'm happy with the results.

This is what I thought I was looking at (forgot to mark it in original photos), I suppose I wasn't far off of where I was looking from memory with perseus being just above.

[Recneps]

18 minutes ago, Scooot said:

In the first I think you’ve just caught the Andromeda Galaxy. It’s a tiny smudge just above & to the right of the 3 vertical stars in Andromeda. You need to zoom in on your image, not the astrometry version.

I just checked to see if any of the images had less cloud there and I think I have captured it in this image. Thanks again, I'll have to have a thorough look through them now that I know exactly where it's pointed.

[Astro Imp]

Hi Spencer,
Good start to your astronomy journey.
What you thought was the Pleiades I think is a hint of the double cluster.
Good luck for the future. 

[Scooot]

If you upload your image to here it will identify most things for you.

http://nova.astrometry.net/upload

I had to download your image so it hasn’t picked up as much as an original. It’s free, reasonably quick and very useful  

[Recneps]

8 minutes ago, Scooot said:

If you upload your image to here it will identify most things for you.

http://nova.astrometry.net/upload

I had to download your image so it hasn’t picked up as much as an original. It’s free, reasonably quick and very useful  

Thanks, this should help a lot!

[adder001]

Thats impressive for a phone camera. Did you use any zoom? I notice that the note 9 has a 2x optical zoom. I wonder what the results would be like on a really dark cloudless sky, I bet Andromeda would be quite good.

[Captain Scarlet]

What you’ve circled and labeled as California Nebula is in fact the Alpha Perseii Cluster, aka Melotte 20. It’s a lovely open cluster.

cheers, Magnus