Tag Archives: plossl

AstroBlog 2019.005.2 – Imaging the Moon

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
July 5 2019

Continuing my imaging attempts on June 11th, I did some more of the moon from my backyard. All of the images are single frames with the iPhone, only flipped horizontally (I have a diagonal so have to flip the image to get it “right” looking). For all photos, I’m using:

  • Celestron NexStar 8SE
  • 25mm Plossl
  • iPhone XS Max, f/1.8 lens
  • Night Cap software

Settings of ISO 24 and 1/250s were the sweet spot for me for the night given the brightness of the moon. I did a series of single frames, and this was the best:

Then, because I had a series, I tried stacking them in various software packages. This was the best one I got, but way too pale, I will need to work on that if I want to get true 3D depth in some of the images.

For fun, I used the zoom feature on the iPhone just to see what I would get, and I took three shots, capturing the craters Plato, Copernicus and Tycho.  » Read the rest

AstroBlog 2019.005.1 – Imaging Jupiter

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
July 5 2019

Back on June 11th, I did some more testing of my imaging capabilities in my backyard, going for Jupiter initially. All of the images are single frames with the iPhone, only lightly tweaked in various edit photos and flipped horizontally (I have a diagonal so have to flip the image to get it “right” looking). For all photos, I’m using:

  • Celestron NexStar 8SE
  • 25mm Plossl
  • iPhone XS Max, f/1.8 lens
  • Night Cap software

The first image is okay, and I’d love to know what the settings were, but for some reason, the EXIF data didn’t save it. I have no idea why as I didn’t change anything and all the others record it. Some banding, plus a visible moon.

If I crop it, not much different but the black doesn’t overwhelm it as much.

For the next batch, I set my ISO to 24 and then I played with duration a bit.  » Read the rest

AstroBlog 2019.004.9 Imaging Nebulae – Scope, iPhone and 25mm plossl

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
June 13 2019

When I bought my new iPhone, I chose one that would allow me to do astrophotography with my telescope. If you’ve been seeing my last few posts, you see some of the results. The moon was easy. Planets? Not so much, but I’ll get there, even if I have to use filters or stack some images or shoot video. Stars are not as easy as I hoped, still getting a lot of blurry results on the bright ones. But as per my last post, I was able to get globular clusters. I had high hopes for that, as I got something previously with my wife’s iPhone 6 plus and the default software; with my new iPhone and Night Cap software, I knew I would “get there” eventually, just was pleasantly surprised to get there on the first real go at it. I still need to hone my technique, but it’s good enough for me for now.  » Read the rest

AstroBlog 2019.004.8 Imaging Globular Clusters – Scope, iPhone and 25mm plossl

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
June 13 2019

I love viewing globular clusters — big giant collections of stars all together. Although they tend to be bright, when I tried to image them on my old Android phone, it couldn’t even DETECT any light coming in from them. I did get one image from my wife’s old iPhone 6 Plus a year ago (ISO 7200, 10s, f/2.2):

So I knew it was possible. And with my new iPhone, these globulars were high on my imaging list, but I honestly didn’t know what to expect. For Messier 4, I tried ISO 9200 and a 10s burst, which didn’t turn out too shabby:

M5 with the same settings was much more compact and bright:

For Messier 9, I bumped ISO to 10K, still 10s, and it is easily found, albeit a bit faint:

For Messier 10, I continued at ISO 10K, 10s burst, but I did it twice about 90 minutes apart:

A little better contrast in the second, but not a huge difference.  » Read the rest

AstroBlog 2019.004.7 Imaging Stars and Asteroids – Scope, iPhone and 25mm plossl

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
June 12 2019

I tried imaging some stars, and I thought it would be relatively straight-forward. People online basically tell you to use a magnifying glass to look at your phone screen, zoom in, make sure they are pinpoints, and BAM! You’re good to go.

I’ve always loved looking at Antares, and the way it twinkles red, gold, and blue at times. It was putting on a show on Saturday the 8th, and my wife loved it. I tried imaging it later at ISO 2304 (why?) and duration of 10s (a setting a friend online has had a lot of success with). Anyway, it did NOT turn out like my wife was used to seeing it:

I tried to grab Polaris too with a 10s duration, but for some idiotic reason, I forgot to put the ISO back down to normal and instead, it went at 9000+:

And finally, just for fun, I tried for Ceres.  » Read the rest