Best smartphone for taking pictures with a sky-watcher heritage 150

[Billy Bob]

I have a sky-watcher heritage 150. I'm wondering what the best smartphone is good for photography with a phone adapter. I'm not sure if this is an acceptable question for this forum. I'm new at this.

Billy Bob 

[Elp]

I don't know if there's a best, the quality of the photo you'll get is based on whether the phone can focus and be placed in the right position to be able to image through an eyepiece. Having manual control over shutter speed/iso/aperture helps greatly, though most phones are kind of dumb in this regard and have auto modes.

What are you planning on imaging?

[Zermelo]

Welcome to SGL, and yes, this is a perfectly good question.

I presume you are planning just to hold up the phone to the eyepiece. Many people have obtained decent results this way, though usually on brighter objects like the moon. Fainter objects need a different setup.

The cameras on modern smartphones are increasingly good for simple astrophotography. Look for a photo mode specifically catering for low light or night scenes (it might even mention astro uses).

You can get reasonable results holding the phone by hand, but it is a bit hit and miss. A more repeatable approach uses a device that grips the phone and eyepiece, and holds them in relative position. There are several models at a range of price points, but this one gets good reviews here:

https://www.moveshootmove.com/collections/move-shoot-move-rotator/products/3-axis-smartphone-adapter-for-digiscoping-telescope-spotting-scope-adapters

[Stu]

13 hours ago, Billy Bob said:

I have a sky-watcher heritage 150. I'm wondering what the best smartphone is good for photography with a phone adapter. I'm not sure if this is an acceptable question for this forum. I'm new at this.

Billy Bob 

Most of the latest generation smartphones give very good results; technology has improved hugely over the years. Some of the multi lens phones can be a little tricky as they can switch between lenses without you wanting them to. That said, I use an iPhone 15 Pro quite successfully which has three cameras.

You may struggle a little with flex in the focuser and balance of the scope, particularly with a heavy phone, so handholding is not a bad option. Using a phone mount is possible though, so is worth trying.

Some time back, when Mars was at opposition ie nice and big, I took these through either a Heritage 130p or 150p, I can’t recall which. They are cropped, so Mars doesn’t appear this big in the eyepiece but the detail is certainly possible with patience. I think these were handheld and they were definitely single shots, not stacked video.

 

[PeterStudz]

As mentioned above any modern smartphone will be fine. There are a few pluses and minuses but they are trivial and not worth worrying about.

I started off with an even smaller SkyWatcher SkyHawk 1145p and when using and selecting a smartphone adapter (phone too if you have a choice) it’s important to have something that’s relatively light. Otherwise the focuser will flex resulting in images that are not so sharp. People can get hung up on the best adapter but I use something simple, cheap and light. To make things easier and before I start I’ll often have the phone attached to the adapter plus an eyepiece that’s reserved for images. All I then need to do is pop the whole lot in the focuser, focus and start snapping away. Saves faffing around in the dark.  Alternatively have a go at handheld too. With practice and a steady had the results can be surprisingly good.

Start on something easy and bright like the moon. This was taken several years ago - handheld with a standard iPhone 12 on the little 1145p. Cropped and basic editing with the stock camera app. One of the first images that I took.

For taking pictures I haven’t found many apps that help and go beyond the stock camera app. Some features that allow you to change camera setting are quite hidden, so lean how to use them. 

Deep sky objects are a little more tricky. As always it helps to have a dark sky. Unfortunately I don’t - I’m in Bortle 7. But there are a few phone apps appearing that you can try. These were taken with an iPhone app called AstroShader. Taken back in last May and since then the app has improved. For these I had a SkyWatcher 200p Dob. AstroShader is interesting as it live stacks and aligns, no tracking necessary. I really must give it a proper go as this was just my second attempt at using it. Not sure if there’s an Android version but if not then there might be something similar.

M13 Globular Cluster

M57 Ring Nebula

M27 Dumbbell Nebula 

 

Edited February 27 by PeterStudz

[DAT]

There are some great pictures taken with a phone on this thread. I am wondering if anyone has had trouble with the size of their eyepieces?

I have a reasonably priced celestron phone holder  but it can only clip on to the stock eyepieces, which I no longer have. The eyepieces I "now" use are all too wide for it.

When I did take pictures, sticking a timer on also helped as it gives the scope time to settle down in case you knock it when taking a picture, especially if you are not using a dob and the tripod is shaky. 

(I say "now" because I have had consistent cloud cover for feels like months  )