Google pixel 7 pro

[StargazerUK]

Hi,

I have a google pixel 7 pro phone and have recently discovered the astrophotography mode on it. I haven't tried it yet but I have bought a smartphone adapter to attach to an eyepiece of the telescope. Has anyone else used a google pixel phone attached to their scope in astrophotography mode?

Do you use the timer function to allow the phone to stabilise after pressing the shutter?

Also I would be interested to see any images people have got using a google pixel in astrophotography mode.

 

Thanks

[Stu]

1 hour ago, StargazerUK said:

Hi,

I have a google pixel 7 pro phone and have recently discovered the astrophotography mode on it. I haven't tried it yet but I have bought a smartphone adapter to attach to an eyepiece of the telescope. Has anyone else used a google pixel phone attached to their scope in astrophotography mode?

Do you use the timer function to allow the phone to stabilise after pressing the shutter?

Also I would be interested to see any images people have got using a google pixel in astrophotography mode.

 

Thanks

Not a 7, but I’ve got a 6 Pro. I’ve only used it a couple of times due to the weather, but the results are astounding! Once mounted on the scope (or on its own on a tripod) it enables the long exposure mode and takes a series of images which it stacks giving a 4 minute exposure (may be longer on a 7 Pro, not sure)

Here are some images I took with mine through a 4” scope I think.

[cajen2]

I have an old second-hand 3 Pro. I bought an adaptor for it but it doesn't fit very well so I gave up. Like the AP mode, though!

[StargazerUK]

@Stu those pictures are incredible. I would be gobsmacked if I can achieve anything half as good as those.

Did you attach the camera to an eyepiece or did you use a t adapter nosepiece and photograph at prime focus (if that is even possible)?

[Stu1smartcookie]

I believe the pixel 6 and 7 share the same camera sensor and most importantly for a pixel , the same software . Delfinitely the best the mobile phone for astrophotograhy . 

[Stu]

34 minutes ago, StargazerUK said:

@Stu those pictures are incredible. I would be gobsmacked if I can achieve anything half as good as those.

Did you attach the camera to an eyepiece or did you use a t adapter nosepiece and photograph at prime focus (if that is even possible)?

Thanks! This was attached to an eyepiece, don’t think you can do prime focus with cameras without removeable lenses.

The clever bit is all in the camera, no real skill involved which suits me! No reason why you can’t achieve similar results.

Which scope and adaptor did you buy? Getting the home aligned properly is probably the trickiest bit.

One thing, you do ideally need a mount which does basic tracking to keep trailing to a minimum. It doesn’t need to be an EQ or Goto mount, just simple tracking will do.

[Stu1smartcookie]

3 minutes ago, Stu said:

The clever bit is all in the camera,

Honestly not wishing to be pedantic here Stu , but the clever thing is definitely the software not the camera . The camera is pretty standard fare , but Google ( being primarily a software company ) have found a brilliant way of enhancing photos like the ones you took . Lets face it , thats about as good as you are going to get from a mobile phone .. truly fantastic . And the pixel 7a which is out soon will have the same camera . 

 

[StargazerUK]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

Thanks! This was attached to an eyepiece, don’t think you can do prime focus with cameras without removeable lenses.

The clever bit is all in the camera, no real skill involved which suits me! No reason why you can’t achieve similar results.

Which scope and adaptor did you buy? Getting the home aligned properly is probably the trickiest bit.

One thing, you do ideally need a mount which does basic tracking to keep trailing to a minimum. It doesn’t need to be an EQ or Goto mount, just simple tracking will do.

I have the skywatcher star discovery 150i so tracking is not a problem. As for the phone adapter it is just a very basic clamp onto eyepiece adapter. I will just need to figure out which camera it is using and line it up. See what happens

[Stu]

6 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Honestly not wishing to be pedantic here Stu , but the clever thing is definitely the software not the camera . The camera is pretty standard fare , but Google ( being primarily a software company ) have found a brilliant way of enhancing photos like the ones you took . Lets face it , thats about as good as you are going to get from a mobile phone .. truly fantastic . And the pixel 7a which is out soon will have the same camera . 

 

Yes, very true 👍. In general smartphone cameras, and specifically the sensors used have become much more sensitive and have much lower noise than they were a few years ago, so it’s definitely worth upgrading to the latest phones I think.

Software is developing hugely too as you say, and Google does seem to be leading the way on this front. I would love to see them do something similar but stacking planetary and lunar videos automatically. I actually found that when using the Live function on iOS on the Moon it ends up choosing the sharpest image from the run so it does do a form of lucky imaging.

There is a current discussion on Reddit I think about one of the modes on the latest Samsung phones which actually uses AI to fill in more detail than it actually sees on lunar images by referencing other images I believe. Not totally sure where the truth lies on that one but that seems to be a step too far for me.

[StargazerUK]

35 minutes ago, Stu said:

👍There is a current discussion on Reddit I think about one of the modes on the latest Samsung phones which actually uses AI to fill in more detail than it actually sees on lunar images by referencing other images I believe. Not totally sure where the truth lies on that one but that seems to be a step too far for me.

I agree this seems to be a step to far, if you wanted then then you may as well just download an image of the moon

[pipnina]

I also only have a Pixel 6 (the middle tier one that doesn't have a telephoto lens) and I did try the AP mode by itself, once using the RAW + AP mode built into the phone, plus stacking some of those together with PixInsight. Another I made with DeepSkyCamera app and pix stacking.

Here are my results:

Sadly I found the camera to be severely lacking, mostly in the optical department but the sensor was a bit hit-and-miss too.

The two big things optically are distortion (it seems to ripple in waves from the center, no distortion and sharp image gives way to STRONG coma, a few times), and very intense vignetting. I was unfortunately unable to use flats to get rid of it and so had to rely on teasing the background extraction tools in Pix.

The big thing sensor wise is dark current. The sensor was more hot pixel than not, requiring dithering. But as you can see from the images above (Cassiopeia image was dithered, Cygnus was not) dithering does make the distortion much more pronounced in the final image.

I think the way forward with the P6 is to take raw images using the 4 minute AP mode and stack them, as the P6 will automatically remove hot pixels with its own stacking process. Taping an ice pack to the screen side of the phone and controlling it remotely with developer controls might help too haha.

Would I buy this phone for the AP capacity? I don't think so. But if I were considering it regardless, I think its capabilities are surprising! Not least that it picked up the hydrogen in cygnus from NAN to SADR. The eagle-eyed may even spot the veil nebula and the heart & soul neb.

This is what PixInsight rejected from the Cassiopeia pic during stacking (stretched):

[Ratlet]

20 hours ago, Stu said:

Not a 7, but I’ve got a 6 Pro. I’ve only used it a couple of times due to the weather, but the results are astounding! Once mounted on the scope (or on its own on a tripod) it enables the long exposure mode and takes a series of images which it stacks giving a 4 minute exposure (may be longer on a 7 Pro, not sure)

Here are some images I took with mine through a 4” scope I think.

If I could get this quality of imaging out of a phone I'll probably sell my astrophotography kit.

[bosun21]

I also have the Pixel 6 pro but I just haven’t got around to trying it out for AP. Maybe on a good clear night when I have both scopes out I will try it on one of them. The reason I sold my AP kit was because I would rather be observing than standing around doing nothing. It’s the old horses for courses again.

[Stu1smartcookie]

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

I also have the Pixel 6 pro but I just haven’t got around to trying it out for AP. Maybe on a good clear night when I have both scopes out I will try it on one of them. The reason I sold my AP kit was because I would rather be observing than standing around doing nothing. It’s the old horses for courses again.

If enough of us actually look through our scopes we might start a revival . Lets have a dedicated "visual obsy only night " with sketches rather than pictures posted . 

[Stu]

39 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

If enough of us actually look through our scopes we might start a revival . Lets have a dedicated "visual obsy only night " with sketches rather than pictures posted . 

Plenty of us weird visual types still around 🤪, but yes, post up those observing reports and sketches whenever you can, and not just on the ‘What did you see’ thread where they get lost. Clear skies, or lack of, seems to be the problem at the moment!

[thomasv]

I have the Pixel 7 pro and had a few experiments just on its own, no scope, mounted on a tracking mount. Below is a single AP shot from Bortle 5 zone. Not great, just wanted to see if it picked up the comet that was not visible by eye. 

I was then hoping to use it with a 2" light pollution filter blue-tacked over the lenses, but that did not work, as it messed up the focusing, with light from the time of flight sensor reflecting back I think also. I could not find a way around this, not sure, why they don't just fix the focus at infinity once it goes into AP mode. There is no way to override the auto focus. AP mode is good, but the lack of manual mode do annoy me a bit.

 

[pipnina]

1 hour ago, thomasv said:

I have the Pixel 7 pro and had a few experiments just on its own, no scope, mounted on a tracking mount. Below is a single AP shot from Bortle 5 zone. Not great, just wanted to see if it picked up the comet that was not visible by eye. 

I was then hoping to use it with a 2" light pollution filter blue-tacked over the lenses, but that did not work, as it messed up the focusing, with light from the time of flight sensor reflecting back I think also. I could not find a way around this, not sure, why they don't just fix the focus at infinity once it goes into AP mode. There is no way to override the auto focus. AP mode is good, but the lack of manual mode do annoy me a bit.

The laser AF could possibly also be tacked or taped over maybe?

Given your sky colour, a typical LP filter might not help that much, especially with broadband targets.

Also consider giving DeepSkyCamera app a looking when doing more fancy things like adding filters, as I believe that app does allow you to se the manual focus point, and in the future (they say in a paid version) it will control the telephoto camera too!

[pipnina]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Plenty of us weird visual types still around 🤪, but yes, post up those observing reports and sketches whenever you can, and not just on the ‘What did you see’ thread where they get lost. Clear skies, or lack of, seems to be the problem at the moment!

I bought a UHC and an OIII visual filter in november, and I havent used either yet! I was hoping to observe M42, flame and horsy with them but never got the chance... Oh well, next stop: NGC 7000 I think.

[StargazerUK]

4 hours ago, thomasv said:

I could not find a way around this, not sure, why they don't just fix the focus at infinity once it goes into AP mode. There is no way to override the auto focus. AP mode is good, but the lack of manual mode do annoy me a bit.

In settings you can set the focus to far to disable auto focus.

[thomasv]

Thanks StargazerUK, I was looking under the 'Camera' tab only and missed the focus setting under the 'Night Sight' tab.

Brilliant, I shall try to repeat my with filter experiment, was going to try a dual band filter too, maybe when the milky way is visible again.

[pipnina]

4 hours ago, thomasv said:

Thanks StargazerUK, I was looking under the 'Camera' tab only and missed the focus setting under the 'Night Sight' tab.

Brilliant, I shall try to repeat my with filter experiment, was going to try a dual band filter too, maybe when the milky way is visible again.

That sounds like a great idea!

Keen to learn how you get on, the phone's sensitivity to HA makes narrowband a tempting prospect.

[Dave scutt]

I had the Google pixal 6 pro , the camera is excellent, it's a shame after a while the phone keeps freezing. 

[PeterStudz]

On 19/04/2023 at 14:30, Stu1smartcookie said:

If enough of us actually look through our scopes we might start a revival . Lets have a dedicated "visual obsy only night " with sketches rather than pictures posted . 

I know that this isn’t too serious but I find the exact opposite! I’ve tried sketching many times but I find it just gets in the way of my observations. I completely understand that if you are decent at sketching then it can help you see more but that’s not me! I’ve had many frustrating and sometimes comical sessions trying to sketch at the eyepiece and it’s often ended up with much huffing, puffing & cursing.

On the other hand I’ve found using a smartphone has helped me record what I’ve seen, helped me see things that have been difficult to observe and occasionally even shown something that I would have missed altogether. I can give loads of examples but I’m sure you know what I mean. 

[jamiejet]

This is my attempt at Neptune (right) with my Pixel 7 Pro, SW 130 and Svbony zoom EP. I used a Neewer eyepiece clamp to hold the phone up to the EP. Quick edit in Lightroom as well.

Has anyone got any tips and tricks to get better results? When trying to align the phone camera with the EP I just get a lot of blue lens flare. Hopefully just a case of trial and error but can't seem to find much in this niche area of AP.

[wookie1965]

I had the Google pixel 7 pro I was in town with the wife stood at the car wife wanted something out the boot phone was on the roof. 

The wife got a phone call saying our son had been taken to hospital after having a seizure so we jumped in the car and drove off. 

I had the phone 3 weeks not got it back and car and house insurance won't cover it so I'm paying £900  for nothing. 

Before I was looking forward to using the excellent camera. 

Paul