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I find it funny (but cool!) that this is a full on 190 page book on the topic.

by yreg 4y ago

rob74 4y ago
Smartphones (at least those with single cameras) have the advantage that you can just hold them up to a telescope's eyepiece and take a picture, which is a bit harder with "real" cameras.
- dylan604 4y ago
  they make mounts now where this is exactly what you do which is nice when the device can do longer exposure than you can hold still. they are adjustable so you can use it for a plethora of different devices. They're great for use at star parties. You can keep switching out eyepieces (a common thing) to get the view you want for whatever is being viewed. Then each person can get a pic on their device. It makes them much more engaged especially since the CMOS sensors can start to pick out colors that the human eye can't see.
  - dekhn 4y ago
    Even better than a smartphone, mounting a DSLR at the prime focus on a telescope makes it really fun at star parties. I went to a star party for some kids with my scope. There were a bunch of other guys there with scopes- all of them reflectors with hard-to-see-through eyepieces looking at faint blobs in the sky. The kids seemed bored. So I set up my refractor, installed my dslr (turning on Live View) and pointed it at Jupiter. You clearly see the planet and several moons around it. The kids thought that was great and one mom looked at me and asked... "Did you just show us the moons of Jupiter". I could see at least one kid look at it, look up at the sky, look at the telescope, and sort of put it all together. The DSLR has better image quality, the image is falling directly on the sensor, the noise is very low, and there's a digital zoom option that works well.
    - dylan604 4y ago
      Except a DSLR can't make an image that they take on their own device and walk away with it to immediately post to socials. that's the thing that draws them in. A DSLR image needs to be processed to bring out the true qualities of the image. Also, a DSLR's tiny little pixels while a literal shit ton of them means that objects like planets resolve very small in the image. That's why most plantery images are still popular to use webcam level cameras.
      - dekhn 4y ago
        That's the point of digital zoom (which is built into live view). Nothing stops you from taking a photo of the dslr screen with a phone camera, either.
        dylan604 4y ago
        Except live view is just that, live just like your eye on the scope. To really get the benefits of a DSLR, you want long exposures like 20sec or longer to really pull in those photons. Then you probably want some auto-guiding to get longer to avoid trails, blah blah. So other than planets, live view will just show the same thing you can see through the eyepiece (black and white). If you're zooming in on the digital zoom, maybe you need a larger selection of eyepieces? a nice 9° or similar? I have a scope that was bought specifically for DSO imaging, so when I point it at the moon, the full disc is maybe 25%-30% of my frame in prime photography with my DSLR. Which is still cool as most scopes are so zoomed into the surface you have to scan around to see the full disc, which is also cool in its own right. with a 30° eye piece, the full disc is simply stunning. that same eyepiece looking at jupiter/saturn has them very very small but still easily identifiable. switching to a 15° gets to the point i need ND so the moon doesn't blind you, but brings the planets into a much less disappointing view. but at the end of the day if someone looks at whatever you show them and is engaged, then by all means continue. definitely not suggesting "you're doing it wrong" at all
        dekhn 4y ago
        You use the ISO setting (which is Gain on a webcam, often not a changeable paramter) which is much better than your eye on the scope. For example, looking at M42 through the Live View, you can easily see all the colors and fainter parts that aren't visible through an eyepiece. It's clearly picking up light the eye doesn't process or report to the brain through an eyepiece. I'm not using an eyepiece. I have the DSLR at prime focus. The reason digital zoom works (to give more details) is because the LiveView screen doesn't have the screen resolution to show all the data. Trust me, I spend a lot of time doing this (I build automated telescopes, solarscopes, microscopes for fun). The DSLR sensors beat all the webcam sensors (I'm still trying to find an affordable sensor board with good specs, for example, the Sony StarVis, that I can integrate so I don't need to mount a damn DSLR any longer- they're too big and heavy and need too much power). I think there's two camps- one that really like eyepieces for the amazing results you can get with bright objects, and one that likes to look at digital images in real time, or later.
orbital-decay 4y ago
Skimming the book, most of it isn't terribly specific to smartphones. It's more or less an introductory book on astrophotography in general.
tamiral 4y ago
The amount of nerdiness in this is amazing I’m so excited to read it! Especially with the new crazy zoom functions on phones and aligning them easier with telescopes !
gmiller123456 4y ago
It looks like most of it is just about astrophotography and astronomy in general. There is some specific to smartphones, but even a lot of the example images Hubble/professional images taken with professional equipment. Unless I'm just not seeing it somehow, it seems to be completely lacking in how to affix your phone to your telescope, which would probably the most important thing to know specific to phone photography. Additionally, focusing is a huge issue with phone cameras when dealing with low light astrophotos, and I didn't see anything on that.

I find it funny (but cool!) that this is a full on 190 page book on the topic.

by yreg 4y ago

I find it funny (but cool!) that this is a full on 190 page book on the topic.

Smartphones (at least those with single cameras) have the advantage that you can just hold them up to a telescope's eyepiece and take a picture, which is a bit harder with "real" cameras.

dylan604 4y ago
they make mounts now where this is exactly what you do which is nice when the device can do longer exposure than you can hold still. they are adjustable so you can use it for a plethora of different devices. They're great for use at star parties. You can keep switching out eyepieces (a common thing) to get the view you want for whatever is being viewed. Then each person can get a pic on their device. It makes them much more engaged especially since the CMOS sensors can start to pick out colors that the human eye can't see.
- dekhn 4y ago
  Even better than a smartphone, mounting a DSLR at the prime focus on a telescope makes it really fun at star parties. I went to a star party for some kids with my scope. There were a bunch of other guys there with scopes- all of them reflectors with hard-to-see-through eyepieces looking at faint blobs in the sky. The kids seemed bored. So I set up my refractor, installed my dslr (turning on Live View) and pointed it at Jupiter. You clearly see the planet and several moons around it. The kids thought that was great and one mom looked at me and asked... "Did you just show us the moons of Jupiter". I could see at least one kid look at it, look up at the sky, look at the telescope, and sort of put it all together. The DSLR has better image quality, the image is falling directly on the sensor, the noise is very low, and there's a digital zoom option that works well.
  - dylan604 4y ago
    Except a DSLR can't make an image that they take on their own device and walk away with it to immediately post to socials. that's the thing that draws them in. A DSLR image needs to be processed to bring out the true qualities of the image. Also, a DSLR's tiny little pixels while a literal shit ton of them means that objects like planets resolve very small in the image. That's why most plantery images are still popular to use webcam level cameras.
    - dekhn 4y ago
      That's the point of digital zoom (which is built into live view). Nothing stops you from taking a photo of the dslr screen with a phone camera, either.
      - dylan604 4y ago
        Except live view is just that, live just like your eye on the scope. To really get the benefits of a DSLR, you want long exposures like 20sec or longer to really pull in those photons. Then you probably want some auto-guiding to get longer to avoid trails, blah blah. So other than planets, live view will just show the same thing you can see through the eyepiece (black and white). If you're zooming in on the digital zoom, maybe you need a larger selection of eyepieces? a nice 9° or similar? I have a scope that was bought specifically for DSO imaging, so when I point it at the moon, the full disc is maybe 25%-30% of my frame in prime photography with my DSLR. Which is still cool as most scopes are so zoomed into the surface you have to scan around to see the full disc, which is also cool in its own right. with a 30° eye piece, the full disc is simply stunning. that same eyepiece looking at jupiter/saturn has them very very small but still easily identifiable. switching to a 15° gets to the point i need ND so the moon doesn't blind you, but brings the planets into a much less disappointing view. but at the end of the day if someone looks at whatever you show them and is engaged, then by all means continue. definitely not suggesting "you're doing it wrong" at all
        dekhn 4y ago
        You use the ISO setting (which is Gain on a webcam, often not a changeable paramter) which is much better than your eye on the scope. For example, looking at M42 through the Live View, you can easily see all the colors and fainter parts that aren't visible through an eyepiece. It's clearly picking up light the eye doesn't process or report to the brain through an eyepiece. I'm not using an eyepiece. I have the DSLR at prime focus. The reason digital zoom works (to give more details) is because the LiveView screen doesn't have the screen resolution to show all the data. Trust me, I spend a lot of time doing this (I build automated telescopes, solarscopes, microscopes for fun). The DSLR sensors beat all the webcam sensors (I'm still trying to find an affordable sensor board with good specs, for example, the Sony StarVis, that I can integrate so I don't need to mount a damn DSLR any longer- they're too big and heavy and need too much power). I think there's two camps- one that really like eyepieces for the amazing results you can get with bright objects, and one that likes to look at digital images in real time, or later.

orbital-decay 4y ago

Skimming the book, most of it isn't terribly specific to smartphones. It's more or less an introductory book on astrophotography in general.

tamiral 4y ago

The amount of nerdiness in this is amazing I’m so excited to read it! Especially with the new crazy zoom functions on phones and aligning them easier with telescopes !

gmiller123456 4y ago

It looks like most of it is just about astrophotography and astronomy in general. There is some specific to smartphones, but even a lot of the example images Hubble/professional images taken with professional equipment. Unless I'm just not seeing it somehow, it seems to be completely lacking in how to affix your phone to your telescope, which would probably the most important thing to know specific to phone photography. Additionally, focusing is a huge issue with phone cameras when dealing with low light astrophotos, and I didn't see anything on that.