M27 (Dumbbell nebula) with iPhone 11/07/24

[PeterStudz]

Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. Southampton urban garden, Bortle 7, 3:17am 11th July 2024. Seeing Good. BST StarGuiders 12mm. iPhone 14 Pro held to the eyepiece using a no-brand smartphone adapter. 

Captured using the AstroShader app - 30 exposures of 4 sec each (2mins total), ISO 1300. All editing & processing on phone or iPad using the stock camera app, WaveletCam, LightRoom & SnapSeed.

I did this quickly, mainly to test an updated version of AstroShader. Given that the sky is light at this time of year and at 3:17am it was even lighter, I’m surprised it worked at all. Although I’m getting better at using the phone processing apps. To help things along I managed to remove M27 from the stars. Then editing each on their own before merging back together. Basically using SnapSeed to create a negative in “Curves”, “Double exposure” to remove stars from M27. Finally “Double exposure - Add” to merge back together. Did make it a lot easier as often (well, when I do it) processing the nebula will have a negative impact on the stars and visa-versa. Still some odd shaped stars but given what the app is doing it’s no surprise. But I do like the star field and It’s picked plenty of stars given the conditions. Must try this again when it’s properly dark!

 

[Gonariu]

Very very beautiful!!!

[carastro]

Well done.  

[bosun21]

Lovely Peter. It's quite amazing what can be captured using a phone nowadays.

[PeterStudz]

23 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Lovely Peter. It's quite amazing what can be captured using a phone nowadays.

Thanks! I do enjoy seeing what you can do with a phone. I also like just using phone apps. All of this started as my daughter wanted pictures to show her friends and I wanted something to help record sessions. I didn’t think of it as astrophotography. 

Having some tracking obviously helps and I’m sure you could do better with proper tracking. My EQ platform is obviously just for visual but will allow the exposure time to be extended. In fact on this night I could have had it setup better as there was a tad more drift than I know is possible. And using the “traditional” PC processing software would probably produce better results too, but I’m not concerned about that. It’s also taken a while to use and understand some of the phone apps - still learning too. Although if I ever do any “proper” astrophotography” I’m sure this will help as the principles are the same. With mobile there’s always a lot of noise and you really have to scrimp and scrape for any little bit of data. 

Edited July 17 by PeterStudz

[DAT]

Great picture,  a lot of time , work and effort has gone in to take a picture like that

Edited July 20 by DAT
Cannot spell picture

[Stu]

Really impressive image @PeterStudz, you really do get some amazing results.

[PeterStudz]

Thanks @Stu. One “advantage” of all these cloudy nights is that it’s given me time to play around with the images when I probably wouldn’t have bothered! 

And at the moment I’m a little under the weather and have time off work. Annoyingly I have COVID for the second time ☹️.

[Stu]

5 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

Annoyingly I have COVID for the second time ☹️.

Oh that is annoying. A lot of it about at the moment unfortunately. Hope you don’t feel too bad and recover quickly 👍

[CraigT82]

That is seriously impressive, would never have believed you could get an image like that with just a phone to the eyepiece, bravo! 

Edited Monday at 18:03 by CraigT82

[PeterStudz]

On 22/07/2024 at 18:49, Stu said:

Oh that is annoying. A lot of it about at the moment unfortunately. Hope you don’t feel too bad and recover quickly 👍

Thanks! It’s definitely “different” to any virus I’ve had before. The cough and overall fatigue got me. I had a complete rest this week which has definitely helped. Back and feeling better now!

[PeterStudz]

On 22/07/2024 at 19:02, CraigT82 said:

That is seriously impressive, would never have believed you could get an image like that with just a phone to the eyepiece, bravo! 

Thank you! The 200p has your primary mirror in it so hard to go wrong 😀

Edited 1 hour ago by PeterStudz