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New to Smartphone astronomy


Andy350

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And new to everything really!

 

I've got the NexYYZ phone adapter, so looking at different setting on both phone and eye pieces.  What I've realised is, if I want at some point to capture a galaxy, how do I know where to point in the first place.  I do have Stellarium app, but I would need to use this to take the pics.

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I guess we would need to know the rest of your set-up to see if anything is even possible first. The Milky Way is probably within reach but others galaxies probably aren't going to happen as those are so far away and you need to track and capture large amounts of data and then stack it.

Even with larger consumer scopes, galaxies can appear just a gray, fuzzy spots if looking through an eyepiece.

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4 minutes ago, Maideneer said:

I guess we would need to know the rest of your set-up to see if anything is even possible first. The Milky Way is probably within reach but others galaxies probably aren't going to happen as those are so far away and you need to track and capture large amounts of data and then stack it.

Even with larger consumer scopes, galaxies can appear just a gray, fuzzy spots if looking through an eyepiece.

Hi, I only have a Super 10, and super 25 eye pieces.  I also have a 2X Barlow, this is on a 6" Dobsonian.

I read about stacking images using RAW formats.  I do appreciate that without being able to track this will be tricky!!  

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Getting the smartphonecamera-holder-eyepiece-focus train aligned and focused is really fiddly and tricky to do in the dark. I started just like that and found it annoying, but if you shine a light in to the telescope you can get things aligned faster. For focus a still distant streetlight is the easiest. If none are available, pick an obvious and bright target. Polaris is pretty good too since it hardly moves. Once aligned and focused, try not to touch anything in the vicinity of the focuser.

 

As for finding things to shoot its no different from visual astronomy in general. Pick bright targets that are easy to find and shoot away (thousands of shots probably). The moon, Jupiter and saturn (might be too late, they are low in the sky) and M42, the orion nebula are pretty good targets and easy to find.

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36 minutes ago, Andy350 said:

And new to everything really!

I've got the NexYYZ phone adapter, so looking at different setting on both phone and eye pieces.  What I've realised is, if I want at some point to capture a galaxy, how do I know where to point in the first place.  I do have Stellarium app, but I would need to use this to take the pics.

Take a look at Skeye app which has a Push-To capability. Using this you should be able to get your scope close to where you wish to be. Final steps would need to be done using your finder scope or red dot finder.

Its not as bad as it looks though, you should be able to capture atleast the brighter galaxies using short exposures (even as low as 5sec) without tracking. Once you have cracked that bit, you can then send those images to stacking software.  Good luck.

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Thanks for help and advice, really appreciate it, I know these beginner questions are very repetitive, but I'm really clueless.

Yes, I kind of gave up with phone last night, it was cold and I wanted to see something, luckily Jupiter and Saturn said hello, first time for seeing this two.  I had seen them before and just assumed they were stars!!!

The apps I have used before are.....

Stellarium - Paid

SkySafari - free

Startracker - free

Just installed Skeye

For a phone camera app I have installed - DeepSkyCamera, but not had any results yet, just blackness, but this might have been an alignment problem.  Even in day time using phone it takes a little while before the phone seems to know that it's looking through an eyepiece.

 

Just another question, and happy to post somewhere else.  What is the best method for cleaning eyepieces?  Don't want to damage anything.  There is a mark from before, and also some condensation from last night.

Many thanks
Andy

 

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23 hours ago, Andy350 said:

And new to everything really!

 

I've got the NexYYZ phone adapter, so looking at different setting on both phone and eye pieces.  What I've realised is, if I want at some point to capture a galaxy, how do I know where to point in the first place.  I do have Stellarium app, but I would need to use this to take the pics.

Hi Andy350,

Would you recommend the celestron adaptor? I am considering getting one soon

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40 minutes ago, CaseyAstro said:

Hi Andy350,

Would you recommend the celestron adaptor? I am considering getting one soon

hmmmm.  I would like to say yes, but I haven't really used yet.  I did capture a far in the distant tv aerial the other day, came out really well.  But I got stuck last night with being able to line up against eyepiece and capture anything.  Annoyingly Saturn was moving too quickly for me!

I will try again as soon as I can if you can wait?

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13 minutes ago, Andy350 said:

hmmmm.  I would like to say yes, but I haven't really used yet.  I did capture a far in the distant tv aerial the other day, came out really well.  But I got stuck last night with being able to line up against eyepiece and capture anything.  Annoyingly Saturn was moving too quickly for me!

I will try again as soon as I can if you can wait?

I can wait. I like to do a lot of research before purchasing!!

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1 hour ago, CaseyAstro said:

Hi Andy350,

Would you recommend the celestron adaptor? I am considering getting one soon

I can, although they can be tricky to set up in the dark. I'd definitely recommend getting used to setting it up using the Moon. I've had some good lunar results just using the phone's auto focus and exposure. Another tip is if you're not using a remote shutter release, set the self timer at 5-10 seconds so the phone doesn't shake when you press the shutter. Also, don't be afraid to use the phone's zoom a bit.

Andy20210723_103621-01.thumb.jpeg.6b512db30e555ff6f6b7e54c21e4790b.jpeg

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5 minutes ago, Dark Vader said:

I can, although they can be tricky to set up in the dark. I'd definitely recommend getting used to setting it up using the Moon. I've had some good lunar results just using the phone's auto focus and exposure. Another tip is if you're not using a remote shutter release, set the self timer at 5-10 seconds so the phone doesn't shake when you press the shutter. Also, don't be afraid to use the phone's zoom a bit.

Andy20210723_103621-01.thumb.jpeg.6b512db30e555ff6f6b7e54c21e4790b.jpeg

That is an amazing photo.  Do you know what settings use used for this.  I'm guessing you were tracking to get this type of picture?

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No tracking, I've got a SW 200P on a Dobsonian mount. It was a single shot. I've just checked the settings and it says 1/50 sec at ISO50. It was a Samsung A6 on auto through a barlowed BST 15mm if I remember correctly. I may have zoomed the phone a bit (2 - 4 x), can't really recall now. 

Snapseed is a pretty good mobile processing app.

Edited by Dark Vader
Extra info and fat fingers!!
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10 minutes ago, Dark Vader said:

No tracking, I've got a SW 200P on a Dobsonian mount. It was a single shot. I've just checked the settings and it says 1/50 sec at ISO50. It was a Samsung A6 on auto through a barlowed BST 15mm if I remember correctly. I may have zoomed the phone a bit (2 - 4 x), can't really recall now. 

Snapseed is a pretty good mobile processing app.

Wow, still a great shot.  Isn't the 200p a 8".  Not sure how the 150p will take this but I can only try.

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That's with my NexYZ as well using a 200P Dob and a pixel 4a with  so so seeing. Without tracking it is unlikely you will manage much more than the planets/moon. Star trailing will show at >0.5s in my Dob so if you want to capture 100-1000s frames and stack them  for just few s to maybe a 1-2min of total data , it is going to be a lot of work. If you want to give it a try, start with some of the much brighter targets.PXL_20211111_202226443.thumb.jpg.c35e02ce4303d5ee95a62d1ce5a695bf.jpg

 

 

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And don’t quite give up on galaxies, although your are not going to get anything that looks like a Hubble image. Here’s my first attempt with the same Skywatcher 1145p - galaxies M81 & M82 from earlier in the year. Used a cheap £29 motor to “track” for a single 30sec shot on an iPhone. Circle cropped to get hide some unpleasant edge distortion . This was in a Bortle 8 sky, so if taken somewhere darker it would surely be better. 

C7656F41-E4EF-4A1F-A218-92FE8C95202F.jpeg

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@Kon is correct - without tracking star trailing will show on anything but the moon/planets. Although at low magnification you can get a reasonable image of something like the Orion Nebula. If nothing else the colours picked up by the phone that cannot be seen with the eye are certainly interesting. 

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1 hour ago, Dark Vader said:

I can, although they can be tricky to set up in the dark. I'd definitely recommend getting used to setting it up using the Moon. I've had some good lunar results just using the phone's auto focus and exposure. Another tip is if you're not using a remote shutter release, set the self timer at 5-10 seconds so the phone doesn't shake when you press the shutter. Also, don't be afraid to use the phone's zoom a bit.

Andy20210723_103621-01.thumb.jpeg.6b512db30e555ff6f6b7e54c21e4790b.jpeg

Thanks, cracking photo

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42 minutes ago, Kon said:

That's with my NexYZ as well using a 200P Dob and a pixel 4a with  so so seeing. Without tracking it is unlikely you will manage much more than the planets/moon. Star trailing will show at >0.5s in my Dob so if you want to capture 100-1000s frames and stack them  for just few s to maybe a 1-2min of total data , it is going to be a lot of work. If you want to give it a try, start with some of the much brighter targets.PXL_20211111_202226443.thumb.jpg.c35e02ce4303d5ee95a62d1ce5a695bf.jpg

 

 

👍

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13 hours ago, Andy350 said:

 

Just another question, and happy to post somewhere else.  What is the best method for cleaning eyepieces?  Don't want to damage anything.  There is a mark from before, and also some condensation from last night.

Many thanks
Andy

 

I use Baader fluid with a wonder cloth. Excellent results and no residue. As for apps I like Star Chart on my iPad.

Edited by Spile
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13 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

And don’t quite give up on galaxies, although your are not going to get anything that looks like a Hubble image. Here’s my first attempt with the same Skywatcher 1145p - galaxies M81 & M82 from earlier in the year. Used a cheap £29 motor to “track” for a single 30sec shot on an iPhone. Circle cropped to get hide some unpleasant edge distortion . This was in a Bortle 8 sky, so if taken somewhere darker it would surely be better. 

C7656F41-E4EF-4A1F-A218-92FE8C95202F.jpeg

You've got some lovely photos there.  When you see a photo like this, are the two bright object galaxies and the rest stars?

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3 minutes ago, Andy350 said:

You've got some lovely photos there.  When you see a photo like this, are the two bright object galaxies and the rest stars?

Yes, that’s it. It’s getting on for how you might see them with your eye at the eyepiece IF you can.

Although in this small telescope I could not see M82 (the top galaxy) at all using just my eyes. It was just too faint. M81 (at the bottom) I could JUST make out with averted  vision. 

It was only when I took a picture that they both appeared. The phone camera, especially with a little extra exposure time, can bring out details and objects that your eye cannot see. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here was my effort from last night.  It was more about playing around with some settings in an old version of Adobe Element using a RAW image from the smart phone.  I still a lot of practice as the focus was off a little, and I will be honest, I wasn't too sure with one of the settings I was playing with, I knew as a RAW image it needed toning down a little.  I've also made it a little green, but with practice I can sort that out.

 

 

 

rawMoon2.jpg

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