Best Camera App for beginner imaging?

[steve wiz]

Hi Guys, as the title says, any info appreciated, also any decent budget phone mount/ adaptors that users would recommend?

  Thank you.

[PeterCPC]

The mount is the most important item first. It's all going to depend on what you want to spend.

[johninderby]

Found this book on Kindle on the subject of smartphone astrophotography. A whole £1.47 for a 249 page book.Published Nov 2021 so up to date. Loads of info on aps, camera settings and image processing etc. 👍🏻

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smartphone-Astrophotography-Introduction-Photographing-Heavens-ebook/dp/B09KT7KX9X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=smartphone+astrophotography&qid=1639038844&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Edited December 9, 2021 by johninderby

[TerraC]

IOS or Android?  

Deep Sky Camera is good on Android..   Lots of settings, can program multiple exposures for stacking and supports RAW.   Seems to push your onboard camera to it's limits and offers high ISO's exp times..  Worth checking out.  

 

 

[Alien 13]

The mount/adapters depend on if you are using the Camera on its own for widefield or through a scope eyepiece. The most important cheap addition is a remote bluetooth shutter release. I bought one of these because of its lowish latency but there are lots of cheaper ones.

My own rig is an all metal stand alone widefield one that doubles up as a video set up but not cheap.

Alan

Alan

Edited December 9, 2021 by Alien 13

[malc-c]

3 hours ago, steve wiz said:

Hi Guys, as the title says, any info appreciated, also any decent budget phone mount/ adaptors that users would recommend?

  Thank you.

Such an open ended question.  It's dependent on a lot of other factors non of which you mention.  How much money you want to spend, is the setup needing to be portable, what targets or results you want / expect to get.  Post up some more details to help people suggest some suitable options, thus save wasting their and your time suggesting options that don't meet those requirements

[steve wiz]

Hi Malc,

 Looking to photograph DSO and planets, 8'inch Dob, in garden only up to £50 for the adaptor.

[johninderby]

This is the best budget one I’ve found. There is a similar looking but cheaper one on Amazon but the eyepiece clamp isn’t as good. I have one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Binocular-Monocular-Telescope-Microscope-default/dp/B07GH4YWTH/ref=sr_1_20?keywords=smartphone+holder+telescope&qid=1639060131&sr=8-20

The Celestron Nexyz one is popular but has some flaws as well. Namely no way to lock the adjusters so easy to knock out of alignment and a bit floppy. Had one but sold it on.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/celestron-nexyz-3-axis-universal-smartphone-adapter.html

Beware the ones like this. Had one but binned it.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08M8TFVQN/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B08M8TFVQN&pd_rd_w=dXBZj&pf_rd_p=828203ef-618e-4303-a028-460d6b615038&pd_rd_wg=35TjL&pf_rd_r=1PJTWXM9HZWV8QAAW0TK&pd_rd_r=2b8ac40a-5ea7-444c-a109-7ca70aa2e6dd&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFQSEQ0RUc1RTFTSEwmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA2NTUwOTYySklTMEswNkJTV1FQJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA3NzYwMDAyRlk2U1hZSTVWUEJRJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Edited December 9, 2021 by johninderby

[AstroMuni]

11 minutes ago, steve wiz said:

Hi Malc,

 Looking to photograph DSO and planets, 8'inch Dob, in garden only up to £50 for the adaptor.

I have this adapter https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solomark-Universal-Phone-Adapter-Mount/dp/B0188KP6T8/ref=sr_1_4?crid=11S88EGSDKPB2&keywords=phone%2Badapter%2Bfor%2Btelescope&qid=1639060319&sprefix=phone%2Bada%2Caps%2C225&sr=8-4&th=1

Works fine with both my android and iphone. Plenty of software around depending on if you have android or apple.

[Gfamily]

9 minutes ago, steve wiz said:

Hi Malc,

 Looking to photograph DSO and planets, 8'inch Dob, in garden only up to £50 for the adaptor.

DSO will probably be out of the question with a dob. You'll need longer exposures than a Dob will allow. 

Planets may be do-able by capturing video streams as the planet crosses the field of view. You can then download the video stream to a laptop for processing in PIPP and AutoStakkert .

There are various mounts that will attach a phone to the eyepiece. I would personally recommend the Celestron NeXYZ - which is in the range you're looking for. It has slow-mo controls which make adjustments easier.  I've tried cheaper mounts, but my view is you need to be an octopus to be able to hold everything in place and tighten everything up. 

[malc-c]

13 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

DSO will probably be out of the question with a dob. You'll need longer exposures than a Dob will allow. 

Planets may be do-able by capturing video streams as the planet crosses the field of view. You can then download the video stream to a laptop for processing in PIPP and AutoStakkert .

 

100%.

Webcams work really well, and I can't see mobile phones being any worse.  I used a couple of 2x barlows and an old Phillips SPC900 back in the day to get these sort of results from my 200P explorer

[Alien 13]

On 09/12/2021 at 09:12, TerraC said:

IOS or Android?  

Deep Sky Camera is good on Android..   Lots of settings, can program multiple exposures for stacking and supports RAW.   Seems to push your onboard camera to it's limits and offers high ISO's exp times..  Worth checking out.  

 

 

Just downloaded this and looks promising, was worried if it defaulted to the highest res camera on my S21 but it seemed to do so, I like its simplicity too.

Alan