The moon--cell phone attached to a telescope
Dec 9, 2016 10:08:43 #
ssymeono wrote:
Are you serious? These are as good as those made by Regis! Please explain in some detail how you do it.
I'd like to know what you used for a mount. The full moon is coming up, and I'd like to capture it with my Bushnell and S7 Edge.
Those are great pictures.
Dec 9, 2016 10:12:42 #
dlmorris
Loc: Loma Linda, Ca
The one shown is the Orion 80 ED, but what I used for those shots was a SkyWatcher 120. Slightly better resolution.
Dec 9, 2016 10:15:15 #
dlmorris
Loc: Loma Linda, Ca
The mount is an old SkyView pro, from Orion. Any reasonable EQ mount would work. The adapter for the phone is also from Orion Telescopes.
Dec 9, 2016 10:18:29 #
I wanted to ask the same question- which telescope? Also, how did you trigger the exposure without moving the setup? Self timer?
I just tested a new 2x Kenko pro300 on the 150-600mm Sigma contemporary last night and got similar sharpness results, but without the chromatic aberration.
I was considering buying an adapter myself and trying the same thing on my 8" Celestron.
Nice job!
I just tested a new 2x Kenko pro300 on the 150-600mm Sigma contemporary last night and got similar sharpness results, but without the chromatic aberration.
I was considering buying an adapter myself and trying the same thing on my 8" Celestron.
Nice job!
Dec 9, 2016 10:32:18 #
dlmorris
Loc: Loma Linda, Ca
As for triggering the camera/phone, I thought about using a selfi stick trigger, then forgot all about it and simply touched the phone very carefully! The same technique should work well on the 8". You'll get more interesting shots if you take them before the moon is full.
Dec 9, 2016 11:17:59 #
While the phone images of the moon are simply amazing, there is an obvious and ironic question for this photography forum, namely the use of our amazing cameras with a telescope. Even in the days of the Hubble Telescope, we are likely to get special satisfaction in making our own space images and -just maybe- even discover something new. I, for one, wonder whether among the millions of craters on the moon there might be neat rows of identical impacts that may indicate periodic events, meaning that there are sources of meteorites that regularly collide with the moon (?).
Dec 9, 2016 12:53:39 #
dlmorris
Loc: Loma Linda, Ca
ssymeono wrote:
While the phone images of the moon are simply amaz... (show quote)
I'm not aware of any such features. But there may be some somewhere, but I think it would be caused by a single event. Perhaps a very small asteroid or collection of rocks that would be pulled apart by the gravity of the moon shortly before crash into it, similar to what happened when the comet crashed into Jupiter several years ago. Otherwise, there are too many variables... The moon rotates on it's axis as it orbits the earth, the earth/moon system orbits the sun, stuff moves through space....
Dec 9, 2016 13:48:32 #
Such a great picture, that adapter looks so simple. Looks like something, I can hack in my shop in about 1 hr!!
Dec 9, 2016 14:33:10 #
Wonderful. Did you use any filters? I almost always find the Moon to be too bright to look at directly through a telescope. I have to say though, keeping up with the Moon is a bit of a challenge because it is always on the move. Seems that once you have it in focus it has already moved out of frame. My small Orion 100mm MAK would do well with a cell phone.
Dec 9, 2016 14:49:41 #
Very impressive for a cellphone. I believe the images have somehow been flipped horizontally. That can happen with telescopes. Not a complaint, an observation.
Dec 9, 2016 14:51:10 #
Very impressive for a cellphone. I believe the images have somehow been flipped horizontally. That can happen with telescopes. Not a complaint, an observation.
Dec 9, 2016 15:18:30 #
Straight Shooter wrote:
Very impressive for a cellphone. I believe the images have somehow been flipped horizontally. That can happen with telescopes. Not a complaint, an observation.
That is a universal (pun intended) occurrence when using astronomical telescopes, unless you use an erecting eyepiece adaptor.
Dec 9, 2016 15:39:14 #
Dec 9, 2016 16:39:29 #
dlmorris
Loc: Loma Linda, Ca
Thanks again to those who looked and commented! As for the orientation of the images, an eyepiece with a diagonal gives a correct view, but if you tip the diagonal sideways, or mount the phone in some rotated direction, then who knows what you will get. The images in my samples are *somewhat* correct.... And yes, the moon moves quite quickly in any type of scope, so you will need some sort of tracking. Not so much because the shutter speed is too slow, but because once you get everything focused, centered and framed the way you like it, and reach for the shutter release, it's moved....
Dec 9, 2016 16:48:21 #
dlmorris
Loc: Loma Linda, Ca
That little MAC 100 should work well. 1/2 way between my Orion 80 and the SkyWatcher 120. Remember the image on the phone may still be too small so you may have to zoom it up a bit in order to get the exposure to be correct. Even at that, I had a little trouble getting the exposure correct when using the larger scope, and maybe a filter would have helped.
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