My First Astrophotograph

[Naten]

This is where I posted (at the time of anyone other than me reading this, that means you if you're not me...) my first astronomy picture, or "astrophotograph." I took it with a Galaxy S4, 'cause I heard its camera is decent and compact, and my other cameras produced too much of a glare. I took it straight through the eyepiece, nothing fancy. I saw that the Moon was really bright that night (at that time "tonight.") so I pointed at the Moon with my lil' Celestron refractor, and then tried to align it with the finderscope, and then a combonation of seeing glare from the Moon's really bright light through my window (this one didn't have a screen, yaay! ) and moving towards the glare. (It didn't help me find the Moon at all that my finderscope's battery it came with was already ded...

Anyways, here it is!

Moon Through Window: Darkened Original Capture (simulated reduced exposure with S4) - 3/16/2014

Moon Through Window: Enhanced with The Gimp - 3/16/2014

Please tell me what you think.

[TechnicalK3rbal]

Don't take I through a window, the glass decreases the quality of the photograph, and (or so I've read ) that the temperature differences out/in-side the window can refract the light.

[Naten]

Don't take I through a window, the glass decreases the quality of the photograph, and (or so I've read ) that the temperature differences out/in-side the window can refract the light.

Sadly, that's not really an option...

Where I live, here in Wisconsin, there are deadly heat waves in Summer, severe thunderstorms and flash flooding rain in Spring, bitter winds in Autumn, and horrible cold in Winter.

That would be O.K., I guess... but this Winter, the temperatures were much colder than expected/normal. I'd also been out with the 'scope that day earlier in the night, about 1, 1.5 or 2 hours or so before then, and my fingers were numb even though I had 2 layers of coat, mittens and was balling up my hand into a sort of fist to keep them warm. Later today, I'll try for a good outdoor shot.

Thanks for the feedback! Now I have to go...

-Naten

[lajoswinkler]

Hint: when shooting Moon photos, use grayscale or simply desaturate later. The Moon is effectively gray, so the only thing you'll lose by doing so are those awful abberations near its rim.

Otherwise, quite nice shot for a ****ty phone camera (they're all like that compared to average compact digital cameras).

[Naten]

Hint: when shooting Moon photos, use grayscale or simply desaturate later. The Moon is effectively gray, so the only thing you'll lose by doing so are those awful abberations near its rim.

Otherwise, quite nice shot for a ****ty phone camera (they're all like that compared to average compact digital cameras).

Thank you!

My tiny video camera thingy took a picture with much more glare when I tried with that. I'll just wait until I get a good camera for this, oh, well. I have a telescope eyepiece camera for USB ports, although it won't work on anything newer than Windows XP. Life hates me. ;_;

-naten

[vger]

Thank you! :)My tiny video camera thingy took a picture with much more glare when I tried with that. I'll just wait until I get a good camera for this, oh, well. I have a telescope eyepiece camera for USB ports, although it won't work on anything newer than Windows XP. Life hates me. ;_;-naten

If you can get used to the cold, do it. The BEST time to stargaze/photograph is in the heart of winter when there's a minimal amount of 'heat shimmer' and haze to obscure your view of the sky. If your gloves aren't good enough, if you can afford them, get some electric ones. You wouldn't be getting them wet for any reason so it shouldn't be a problem.

Also, most telescopes have addons/mounts now for the very purpose of using cellphones as cameras.

Edited March 17, 2014 by vger

[lajoswinkler]

If you can get used to the cold, do it. The BEST time to stargaze/photograph is in the heart of winter when there's a minimal amount of 'heat shimmer' and haze to obscure your view of the sky. If your gloves aren't good enough, if you can afford them, get some electric ones. You wouldn't be getting them wet for any reason so it shouldn't be a problem.

Also, most telescopes have addons/mounts now for the very purpose of using cellphones as cameras.

Actually, one of the worst shimmerings appears during the winter. The least shimmer is during damp, stale, hot nights. The ones when you are sweating like a pig in the bed and mosquitos are driving you crazy.

Stars twinkle a lot more during winter nights and it's because of the high winds. The enormous heat given away by the hot ground during summer plays a smaller role; it's more about the actual mass of air movement which is more apparent during the winter.

Source: my observations and chief astronomer on one observatory.

[vger]

Maybe it's just my locale then. Any time it's really hot, there's also an infinite amount of humidity. It may also be a light pollution issue. With more moisture near the surface, all nearby lights are getting reflected which makes seeing the stars nearly impossible.

[cziken20]

Ow! Wait! I just saw it! The Moon refracts light somehow and there is this beautiful atmo-like line around moon!

[Motokid600]

Yes believe it or not the best seeing is in summer time on those hot muggy nights. When it comes to planets anyway. Planets are nice because they are not affected by light pollution. The best planetary pics ive seen come from the densest cities. Stable seeing is what you need for planets.

However.. transparency is what you need galaxies, comets and fainter, more diffused obecrs in general. High transparency is more common in the colder months, but can happen at anytime. I find the best time to view the sky is at the end of spring.

Very nice pic by the way. Easily the best I've seen taken from a phone.

[Naten]

If you can get used to the cold, do it. The BEST time to stargaze/photograph is in the heart of winter when there's a minimal amount of 'heat shimmer' and haze to obscure your view of the sky. If your gloves aren't good enough, if you can afford them, get some electric ones. You wouldn't be getting them wet for any reason so it shouldn't be a problem.

Also, most telescopes have addons/mounts now for the very purpose of using cellphones as cameras.

I'd rather build an observatory then "get used to the cold..." I'd probably not have any fingers left to align the telescope, they'd all be amputated after they froze.

[lajoswinkler]

Ow! Wait! I just saw it! The Moon refracts light somehow and there is this beautiful atmo-like line around moon!

It's because of high, whispy clouds. Their ice crystals create the halo, which can sometimes be even rainbow-like.

[vger]

It's because of high, whispy clouds. Their ice crystals create the halo, which can sometimes be even rainbow-like.

I hope I have the opportunity to see these. Someday...

http://markom.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Halo+Photos/Sotkamo+3.12-09/

[lajoswinkler]

I hope I have the opportunity to see these. Someday...

http://markom.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Halo+Photos/Sotkamo+3.12-09/

I've seen those. Stunning and beautiful things.

[JJayzX]

I just finished my new telescope not that long ago, its an Orion 8" reflector. The image was made of 3 pictures. I've taken a few other images but not good cause I need to work on stacking and need a light pollution filter.

[Mr. Entropy]

Pretty damn good for a first attempt. It's too bad you can't really do anything about the chromatic aberration short of buying some incredibly expensive lenses.

You might want to try taking pictures of the Moon when it's not at full phase. The shadow brings out a lot of details on features at the terminator. Plus it just looks cool. You know, like that guy up there.

[JJayzX]

You say you had glare with your usb cam, could it have been that the moon is too bright? Sometimes you need to use a moon filter to cut down the brightness. Also if you want something to work on something else other than xp without wasting too much money on a new astro cam, you can mod a webcam.

[Spaceisbeautifulul]

I remember one time I was able to hook up a phone to a adapter to go onto the telescope, and I had a crazy idea to look at the Orion nebula. And believe it or not, I actually got the Triangulum in there!

*ahem*

Anyways, these are good!

[xtremespino]

It's because of high, whispy clouds. Their ice crystals create the halo, which can sometimes be even rainbow-like.

Yeah I saw one of those a few years ago, it was pretty amazing.