EAA with iPhone 12?

[Nerf_Caching]

Hi all, so I was gifted an iphone 12 for my birthday and I have come to realise its potential in the field of photography. FIrstly, the iphone camera allows wide-field landscape photography and excellent quality video. Additionally, I realised that it had the provision of doing long exposures of up to 30 seconds! One night, I wondered whether it will do any good for stargazing. I used a Celestron NeXYZ phone adapter and a Nexstar 5SE telescope to view the Orion Nebula. What came out of a 30-second exposure surprised me. I wonder if anybody else who owns a 12 has used it for any casual EAA?

Edited January 6, 2021 by Nerf_Caching

[callump]

I've not tried any phone photography, but this is a terrific picture for a phone!

Callum

[Vulisha]

Well not with iPhone but I did use OnePlus 5t while ago for same target. Check does your phone have RAW capturing, take few exposures and stack it with Sequator and you will get even more impressive results. Best of luck! 

 

 

[PeterStudz]

I’m new here and my first post. My 9 yr old daughter is astronomy mad and wanted a telescope for Christmas. But because of the shortage I couldn’t get what we wanted. Ended up with a Skywatcher skyhawk 1145p. Really wanted something with a little bigger primary mirror and simpler to use. Still, we were lucky to get that and at a reasonable price!

Started off looking at the moon but have only had 4 clear nights since Christmas. And one of those was working out how to polar align and getting use to everything.

This is our first picture of anything in the nights sky. My iPhone 12 was literally gaffer taped to the eyepiece. The stock 10mm. Just pressed the shutter for (I think) a 5 second exposure. All I could do without too much star trailing. Then a little noddy “processing” in Camera+ in order to reduce the light pollution. We are in a city, Southampton, England, so it’s no exactly ideal. Still, when my daughter saw the result she was literally jumping up and down. I known it’s far from perfect but still pleased for a first attempt.

Nice as it’s something we can both do. I hope that she won’t get bored too quickly. The biggest issue at the moment is the lack of clear sky. We now have a phone mount, a couple of better eyepieces and a cheap motor drive. Much to learn!

 

Edited January 20, 2021 by PeterStudz
Making photo smaller

[Nerf_Caching]

Wow that's a superb attempt for a first! You might want to consider investing in the Celestron NeXYZ phone adapter as that's what I used for that shot. It supports many different phone sizes too!

[PeterStudz]

Thanks! I think you might be correct about the phone mount. I’ve now got a  cheap phone mount but it’s tricky to get it aligned so that it’s looking straight down the eyepiece. And even when you do it’s not very stable and if not extremely careful can be knocked out of place. But only had it for a few days so haven’t used it proper. Haveing a look at the Celestron NeXYZ now.

[R26 oldtimer]

🤔How long before there is an astro-mod / ir filter removal service for phone sensors?

[PeterW]

On 26/01/2021 at 13:41, R26 oldtimer said:

🤔How long before there is an astro-mod / ir filter removal service for phone sensors?

Have you seen how small and complex those cameras are... no way to disassemble/mod them!

Peter

[saac]

On 20/01/2021 at 17:15, PeterStudz said:

I’m new here and my first post. My 9 yr old daughter is astronomy mad and wanted a telescope for Christmas. But because of the shortage I couldn’t get what we wanted. Ended up with a Skywatcher skyhawk 1145p. Really wanted something with a little bigger primary mirror and simpler to use. Still, we were lucky to get that and at a reasonable price!

Started off looking at the moon but have only had 4 clear nights since Christmas. And one of those was working out how to polar align and getting use to everything.

This is our first picture of anything in the nights sky. My iPhone 12 was literally gaffer taped to the eyepiece. The stock 10mm. Just pressed the shutter for (I think) a 5 second exposure. All I could do without too much star trailing. Then a little noddy “processing” in Camera+ in order to reduce the light pollution. We are in a city, Southampton, England, so it’s no exactly ideal. Still, when my daughter saw the result she was literally jumping up and down. I known it’s far from perfect but still pleased for a first attempt.

Nice as it’s something we can both do. I hope that she won’t get bored too quickly. The biggest issue at the moment is the lack of clear sky. We now have a phone mount, a couple of better eyepieces and a cheap motor drive. Much to learn!

 

Peter that is actually superb for an introduction to astronomy especially for a 9 year old.  What you have done makes for a really simple and quick set-up and yet produces an image that should enthral any 9 year old (even adults)  to get them further interested.  What I really like is the immediacy of the image - no long waits for post processing which to be honest can take a lot of the shine out of it.  I can well imagine why your daughter would have been delighted with that image, it really is excellent.  Maybe have a go at something like Pleiades next or even Andromeda. Andromeda will most likely just be wispy but once you explain to your daughter what that wispy cloud represents (over 100  billion star) I'm sure she will be jumping up and down again.  This really is what astronomy should be like at the introduction level - I wish it had been for me when I was at that age - the thought of seeing your Orion nebula shot when I got my first telescope as a kid would have been like magic.  I wonder what your phone would make of Jupiter or Saturn!

 

Jim 

Edited February 1, 2021 by saac

[theropod]

I have no skin in the game, but the app “Nightcap Camera” for iOS provides some serious comtrol over iPhone low light photography. I use it on my antique 6s plus to capture meteor falls. I’ve held the shutter open over 20 minutes before, and the photo was surprisingly crisp. Worth a look.