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[MarkMe2525]

Edit: I used my wife's Pixel 8 and I have a new new best shot of Orions Nebula. I'm blown away that I was able to capture this. I can't wait to get a real camera.

16mm eyepiece 8" dobsonian scope

OG post: This is admittedly nothing special, but I have never been able to capture as much detail in the gas that makes up the Orion Nebula, and I wanted to share. This is shot with my 8" dobsonian scope, a 32mm eyepiece, and my Samsung S21.

 

[Lord Panda]

Awesome shot. That UFO near the bottom left needs to upgrade its cloaking device.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Awesome shot. That UFO near the bottom left needs to upgrade its cloaking device.

"I Believe"

 

[Ownage]

Cool.

These one-off threads are why GAF still rocks.

 

[Trogdor1123]

That’s awesome! Share more please, it’s great

 

[MarkMe2525]

That’s awesome! Share more please, it’s great

These were also from last night when clouds starting rolling in.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

It may be nothing special in the grand scheme of things, but they’re still nice pics.
How much does amateur sky-watching gear cost these days? We have a house in the mountains where you can see the sky with much less light pollution than in the city.

 

[MarkMe2525]

It may be nothing special in the grand scheme of things, but they’re still nice pics.
How much does amateur sky-watching gear cost these days? We have a house in the mountains where you can see the sky with much less light pollution than in the city.

I'm not working with a whole bunch here but I can share some insights I have learned. My night sky shots have come from putting my phone in pro mode and fiddling with the settings until it works (if you already know how to manually focus and what ISO is, you are more than halfway there). I put manually focus to .7 (i dont even know what this means, it just looks right) and fiddle with iso until it "looks good"

You want to make your shutter speed as long as possible to capture more light, but as the Earth is spinning the longer the shutter is open, the more the stars are going to "smear" across the image. This takes trial and error. Secondly, you want your phone as still as possible while the shutter is open. I tackle this by turning on a 5 second shutter timer, click the shutter button, and quickly place my phone (face down) on the ground and leave it be.

I captured the following images this way.(I had to provide links as it won't let me upload them for some reason)

New item by Mark Gonsoulin

photos.app.goo.gl

New item by Mark Gonsoulin

photos.app.goo.gl

Most people do not use dobsonian telescopes for photography as I do. As far as what most people use for astrophotography, most us a camera on a tri-pod or small "fast" reflector telescope with camera. The prices for this type of equipment varies wildly and and will run someone $500-$5,000.

 

[kruis]

These were also from last night when clouds starting rolling in.

Are you aware of this issue?

Samsung caught faking zoom photos of the Moon

A photo of a blurry image of the Moon revealed some telling results.

www.theverge.com

 

[MarkMe2525]

Are you aware of this issue?

Samsung caught faking zoom photos of the Moon

A photo of a blurry image of the Moon revealed some telling results.

www.theverge.com

Yes, I side step any computational photography issues by only shooting in "pro" mode. The detail in my photos is really there when looking through my scope (which is what I have my phone rigged up to.) If anything, I can resolve more detail with my eye and just don't have a camera sensor big enough to capture it all. I do adjust contrast and brightness settings as my images of the moon are typically too bright. I need a good moon filter. Lastly, "Moon Mode" kicks on when zoomed in past 25x, I don't zoom and keep my level at 1x.

Regarding the article, this would apply to almost any photo someone takes with their phone these days and not just the moon. I don't get bent out of shape over these things as generally computational photography is pretty awesome, IMO. I know there are probably some purist (gatekeepers) that would argue the point.

 

[MarkMe2525]

NeoIkaruGAF I forgot to mention what scope I have. I was lucky enough to snatch this just as the pandemic supply shortages hit and prices increased by 25%. They run $699 now, but was a little under $500 when I got mine.

 

[EviLore]

Very cool shot!

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

I love night time photography. Here's zoomed out Orion nebula (with bonus ghost dog lol)

 

[MastAndo]

It's definitely something special. Great shot!

 

[ClanOfNone]

1500 light years away, pretty short distance in interstellar terms but still mind boggling.
Am I reading this correctly that you took this shot with a phone? Impressive!

 

[Insane Metal]

Really nice!

I have a picture I took of the moon with my T3i manyyy years ago somewhere.

 

[MarkMe2525]

I love night time photography. Here's zoomed out Orion nebula (with bonus ghost dog lol)

Beautiful scenery.

1500 light years away, pretty short distance in interstellar terms but still mind boggling.
Am I reading this correctly that you took this shot with a phone? Impressive!

Yeah, my wife got me this fancy phone holder that allows me to situate the phone right above the eyepiece of my 8" dobsonian telescope. Also, thank you for the compliment.

 

[Valedix]

Lovely shot!

 

[MarkMe2525]

*added to OP