A little experiment...

[Stu]

I just had time for a quick experiment last night. Whilst out feeding the rabbits and making them fox safe for the night, I noticed a clear sky, albeit with a little high cloud.

I set the phone to take three 10 second exposure shots after a ten second delay, then popped it on top of a fence post pointing directly upwards, and got the result in the first picture.

I processed the image quickly in Snapseed using Curves, which I've shown in the second image, with the result in the third image. I was a little confused over what I had actually captured, so I submitted it to the Astrometry website and got the result back in the fourth image, showing the constellations I had captured.

It just shows how sensitive the latest phone cameras are, and how simple processing can really improve an image. I'll try this again, but perhaps with the phone on a tripod to make targeting possible.

[RayD]

Excellent, Stu.  I've often thought of putting my S8 on my SA and seeing just how far you can push a smart phone.  I think this has inspired me to do just that, as it looks like quite far.

Thanks.

[adyj1]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

 

I set the phone to take three 10 second exposure shots after a ten second delay

@Stu, I assume you were just picking the best one out of those three, rather than stacking them? 

It has cleaned up the image really well. 

Ady

 

[Stu]

7 minutes ago, adyj1 said:

@Stu, I assume you were just picking the best one out of those three, rather than stacking them? 

It has cleaned up the image really well. 

Ady

 

Hi Ady, yes that's correct. I'm sure @RayD could take far more images whilst tracking on the SA and stack them on a pc to get significantly better results.

Also, better skies would obviously help, no cloud reflecting the LP would have improved the original. Finally I guess I could have used Nightcap to get a longer exposure still, or those with Huawei P20 Pro phones can go to 30 seconds. Many different possibilities.

It's certainly something I will try when under a dark sky next.

[Stu]

Tried this again last night, with fairly decent results despite the bright moon. I think somehow I've lost some stars in the lower part of the picture, probably swamped by the brightness. Quite fun, need to put the phone on a tripod, the top of my fence post is quite tricky to aim

[Paul73]

Nice result. What was the NELM? And what phone were you using? 

Snapseed is a splendid App. A professional photographer friend swears by it. 

Paul

[Stu]

26 minutes ago, Paul73 said:

Nice result. What was the NELM? And what phone were you using? 

Snapseed is a splendid App. A professional photographer friend swears by it. 

Paul

I don't recall accurately, but I reckon around 3.5. The moon was pretty bright, but I did notice the whole of Ursa Major quite clearly because anything dimmer was obscured.

I'm attaching two images, the first is the unprocessed shot taken with a 10 second exposure, ISO 800 f1.5 on a Samsung S9. I literally put it on top of a fence post with a 5 second timer to take 3 shots in a row. I wedged it at a slight angle to get more or Ursa Major in but didn't do it quite enough.

Second shot is defined to represent the stars I could see.