Globular clusters M3 and M13 - 31/03/24

[PeterStudz]

Snaps of globular clusters M3 and M13 taken at the end of an observational session. I find globulars especially tricky with a smartphone. I’m pleased with M3. M13 had some distortions near the edges so has been cropped a bit more than I’d like. The app I’ve used - AstroShader - is getting good and is now so simple. Although haven’t quite got the hang of the settings. I’m not an imager. These are straight out of the app, some simple editing & crop in the stock camera app… no processing. I might try and get a bit more out of them at a later date, eg when I’m bored sitting on the train! The “tracking” is just a DIY EQ platform, but it can be used without. 

Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. Southampton urban garden, Bortle 7. BST StarGuider 15mm. iPhone 14 Pro on no-brand smartphone adapter. Captured via AstroShader -   ISO 1424,  40 exposures of 6 seconds each - for a total of 4mins. Longer is possible but I was getting bored with that! 
 

 

 

Observation Report…

 

Edited April 1 by PeterStudz
Added link to Observation Report

[Kon]

These have come out really nice. M13 seems much sharper, probably better focusing.

[PeterStudz]

20 hours ago, Kon said:

These have come out really nice. M13 seems much sharper, probably better focusing.

You could be right. And maybe why distortions at the edge were more noticeable.
 

AstroShader provides a live preview and although in some ways this is nice and useful it does mean that it can be difficult to focus. Depending on settings it can take a number of seconds before you see the result of a focus change on the screen. Even getting focus right on one target and moving to another requires a tweak in focus. However, there’s probably an easier/better way. Might be worth posting around with everything during daylight eg when doing some solar. 

Edited April 1 by PeterStudz

[Jeff-Colorado]

Terrific images! I'm going to try some images with my Pixel 7 phone soon.

[jjohnson3803]

I downloaded Astroshader today to try on my iPhone SE Gen 3.  Curious to see what it can do with my scopes tracking on an Az-GTi.  Of course, it's raining now...  

Edited April 18 by jjohnson3803