MAY 19TH - FIRST QUARTER - PRIME FOCUS V SMARTPHONE PICS AFOCALLY THROUGH AN EYEPIECE

[paulastro]

Out from 9.00 pm to about 10.30 pm, Tecnosky 102ED F7. I used the binoviewer with Orthos for visual observations.  The terminator was fabulous, particularly the M Imbrium/Apennines area and the terminator from Purbach to the S limb.

I then took a single frame full disc pic, as usual, with the Olympus E -M5 Mk11 at 1/160 sec at 200 asa.  I also did some crops from it off two selected areas later..  Of course, the crops are quite low res due to small size of the original image, it always amazes me how good they are considering I use the m4/3 format!

I them took some pics using my Samsung A40 smartphone (not a high spec phone camera) through a Morpheus 17.5 mm eyepiece with the aid of the Celestron smartphone adapter.

When I compared the crops with the smartphone pics of the same areas today, the latter showed better resolution and a more smoother look to them.  Not surprising really, but I wanted to to do a direct comparison anyway.

The full disc pic below is using the Olympus at prime focus, and the close ups are pucs with the A40 and the Morpheus eyepuece.  I haven't added the crops, but you can simulate it by enlarging the full disc pic of course.

I should be able to improve on the quality of the smartphone pics with some practice. The smartphone pics here we're on auto focus, and it chose the asa and speed itself! 

 

 

 

[BRADLEY 1953]

Fabulous image of first quarter. Well done.

[Stu]

Excellent shots Paul. I’ve found the latest phone cameras to be excellent quality, low noise and very sensitive, better than my old Canon 1000D!

[paulastro]

38 minutes ago, BRADLEY 1953 said:

Fabulous image of first quarter. Well done.

Thanks Chris.

[paulastro]

25 minutes ago, Stu said:

Excellent shots Paul. I’ve found the latest phone cameras to be excellent quality, low noise and very sensitive, better than my old Canon 1000D!

Thanks Stu.  I'm surprised my camera works so well, it's been around  at least 2/3 years, and it certainly was never top of the range. I'm wondering how much better more recent and higher speced  phone cameras are for astro photography?

 

 

[Stu]

9 minutes ago, paulastro said:

Thanks Stu.  I'm surprised my camera works so well, it's been around  at least 2/3 years, and it certainly was never top of the range. I'm wondering how much better more recent and higher speced  phone cameras are for astro photography?

 

 

From what I’ve seen, moving from iPhone 6 through Samsung S9 to iPhone 11 Pro, each successive generation gets better; lower noise and better low light sensitivity. Huawei and LG are actually probably better but (for my sins) I prefer Apple for its overall infrastructure and ease of use (iCloud etc). I have a ‘Samsung’ shaped hole in my photographic iCloud record which bugs me, not to be repeated.

People are doing amazing things with smartphones in astrophotography, essentially using them in the same way you would a dedicated Astro camera ie stacking 4K video clips for lunar and planetary, or using traditional processing tools to stack long exposures and producing very credible deep sky images. I think fairly soon they will be able to stack on the fly to produce near live deep sky images.

[paulastro]

15 minutes ago, Stu said:

From what I’ve seen, moving from iPhone 6 through Samsung S9 to iPhone 11 Pro, each successive generation gets better; lower noise and better low light sensitivity. Huawei and LG are actually probably better but (for my sins) I prefer Apple for its overall infrastructure and ease of use (iCloud etc). I have a ‘Samsung’ shaped hole in my photographic iCloud record which bugs me, not to be repeated.

People are doing amazing things with smartphones in astrophotography, essentially using them in the same way you would a dedicated Astro camera ie stacking 4K video clips for lunar and planetary, or using traditional processing tools to stack long exposures and producing very credible deep sky images. I think fairly soon they will be able to stack on the fly to produce near live deep sky images.

Many thanks Stu, that sounds amazing.  I could do with a primer on all this to get me up to speed.  Perhaps there's already something on SGL?

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, paulastro said:

Many thanks Stu, that sounds amazing.  I could do with a primer on all this to get me up to speed.  Perhaps there's already something on SGL?

There is some stuff in the Smartphone section but it needs updating. I keep threatening to do a talk on this for Stargazine if that would be of interest, but need to put it together to send to Grant. Must try harder!

[Stu]

@paulastro, just remembered this NASA guide which might be of interest. I actually have an image in there, page 92 NGC457 😀.

https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/SMBooks/AstrophotographyV1.pdf

[paulastro]

9 minutes ago, Stu said:

There is some stuff in the Smartphone section but it needs updating. I keep threatening to do a talk on this for Stargazine if that would be of interest, but need to put it together to send to Grant. Must try harder!

That would be of great interest and be a real help. If you go ahead, can you let me when it's available Stu?  I have to admit I don't know anything about Stargazine 😱

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, paulastro said:

I have to admit I don't know anything about Stargazine 😱

Paul, people have been drummed out of the Brownies for lesser offences!! 😱😱🤣🤣

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/295-stargazine/

I’ll let you know if I manage to put something together.

[paulastro]

35 minutes ago, Stu said:

Paul, people have been drummed out of the Brownies for lesser offences!! 😱😱🤣🤣

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/295-stargazine/

I’ll let you know if I manage to put something together.

Thank you Stu 😏 🙂