Moon - 11th June 2022

[Stu]

First time out for a while, very good seeing through the Tak FC76Q. There were just handheld at x91 using a Pentax 10mm XW and iPhone 11Pro (x2 camera)

[Victor Boesen]

Brilliant Stu I must say I'm equally impressed with your garden/surroundings each time you share a new image of your setup. Looks like a great spot for some nice views towards the south!

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Victor Boesen said:

Brilliant Stu I must say I'm equally impressed with your garden/surroundings each time you share a new image of your setup. Looks like a great spot for some nice views towards the south!

Thanks Victor. Yes, it is pretty good! Despite looking over the town, the lights are well shielded so I still get good views. I’m looking forward to seeing all those lovely southern objects later in the summer when the MilkyWay is better positioned.

[Captain Scarlet]

When you say handheld do you mean literally holding phone up to eyepiece yourself, or using a bracket? If truly handheld I’m impressed you’re a lot better at it than I am!

[Stu]

33 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

When you say handheld do you mean literally holding phone up to eyepiece yourself, or using a bracket? If truly handheld I’m impressed you’re a lot better at it than I am!

I do mean handheld Magnus, yes 😃. It takes a lot of practise and you need to take plenty. I often can’t be bothered to set up the phone mount as it interrupts observing so I just take quick snaps like this. I quite often do it through one eyepiece of a binovewer particularly when solar observing to save changing things around.

I think one of the key things to get right is the distance from the eyepiece. It’s no different from observing I guess, but if you have an eyepiece with 20mm eye relief, you need to keep the phone about that distance away to capture a sharp field stop and get even illumination. I think I kind of brace with my little finger against the eyepiece to keep things steady.

One of the best things I discovered relatively recently was using the RAW file that my phone can take when processing. It allows more detail and makes quite a difference to the end result.

[Gonariu]

Beautiful photographs of the Moon and beautiful observation post, in particular the grass in the garden greatly decreases the heat radiation during the night of the heat received during the day.

[PeterStudz]

Grass also helps to dampen vibrations. As a beginner it took me about 10 months to work this out! Eg if, like me, you are the owner of a wobbly mount and you have vibrations that last around 7 seconds being able to get those down to 3 seconds makes a whole world of difference. Suddenly something that made life very difficult becomes user friendly.

As for using a phone handheld at the eyepiece… I have an iPhone but I’m sure Android has similar. I find that using the physical Volume-Up button as a shutter button far easier than using the on-screen software shutter button. Just hold the Volume-Up while using the camera app to take the shot. This makes it easier to keep the phone steady. And I find Burst-Mode handy too. Just keep the Volume-Up button held down for the potential of dozens of shots rather than just one and hope. The idea being that you have more chance than a single shot and hope. 

[Gonariu]

I didn't know that weed made it easier to dampen vibrations. I observe from a large terrace here at home which is certainly not ideal as it is well radiated by the sun during the day. that I bought back a C8 (the Nexstar 8 ) the better.

Edited June 19, 2022 by Gonariu

[Stu]

13 minutes ago, Gonariu said:

I didn't know that weed made it easier to dampen vibrations. I observe from a large terrace here at home which is certainly not ideal as it is well radiated by the sun during the day. that I bought back a C8 (the Nexstar 8 ) the better.

I find the best option is spiked feet, dug into the grass. Much better than rubber feet in my experience.

[PeterStudz]

My old tripod has plastic spiked feet but I do try and ram these into the grass. it does make a difference to vibrations. Mind, I’m long overdue a tripod upgrade.

With the Dob I place it on the patio but try and have the end of the OTA as close to the edge/near the lawn as possible. My “lawn” is very uneven. Although you have to be careful with that as there’s a drop with steps onto the lawn. Once, I wasn’t so careful and as I was moving the Dob to another target, pulling my observing chair along with it, I fell off and down onto the lawn