523 replies to this topic

[AJK 547]

1) The Naylor Observatory has Bortle 5 skies, more or less, but light pollution has been getting progressively worse with each passing year.

 

https://www.cleardar....html?Mn=optics

 

2) I assume that the 17" classical Cassegrain has at least 1/8th wave optics.  It was built by Mike Dudley of D & G Optical back in the late 1980s I believe.

 

http://www.dgoptical.../cassegrain.htm

 

3) I have not and I don't know if one has ever been done.

 

4) I've tried to resolve the Vallis Alpes rille a number of times but have never been successful. 

Thanks so much for your responses Dave!  FWIW,  I myself have been only able to detect fleeting ‘albedo’ artifacts of the VA rille @ 451X with the C8-A + TV4.5D (under Avg+ seeing with VG+ transparency).  I’m trying for Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin (along with the Vallis Alpes rille) when I get those 1-2 nights/summer of excellent conditions here in Chicago or at my dark skies Lake Home...

 

Clear, steady nights.

[Dave Mitsky]

You're welcome.

Here's another afocal photograph that I took on Friday night (actually Saturday morning) using the 56mm Meade eyepiece.  It's been cropped quite a bit.

Plato can be seen at the very top of the photo.

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[rkelley8493]

Here's a couple more I found on my phone.. I don't think I've posted these anywhere yet

 

[John_Moore]

Super shots above all.

 

I have a query, as the pixel count of cameras seems to be getting better every year -- the latest one, I see has a 108MP sensor -- is this an advantage for producing higher quality images at the eyepiece, or, is it just a factor of the scope type being used (seeing conditions...etc., aside)?

 

Sorry, if it seems a stupid question, as I have a very cheap cell/mobile phone that does me good enough for every day work, but I do have an excellent DSLR, which I've used in the past at the scope.

 

John Moore

Edited by John_Moore, 16 February 2020 - 05:38 PM.

[Dave Mitsky]

Here's a couple more I found on my phone.. I don't think I've posted these anywhere yet

 

luna1.jpg

Luna4.7Ethos.jpg

copernicus .jpg

Your close-up shot of Copernicus is very good.

[rkelley8493]

Here's a couple that I enhanced

 

[Lukes1040]

Couple of my favorites. 

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[Lukes1040]

These were cool for a different reason. 

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[Lukes1040]

Nice catch of Hadley Rille! Did you do any cropping or was it taken with ‘native’ mag. at the ep?

Clear, steady nights.

Thanks!

That one was taken a while back. I believe it was taken through an ES 4.7mm 82 deg eyepiece. But on that one I zoomed in using my phone also. Took me a long time to get a shot that wasn’t completely blurry.

[Tfer]

4.5 hours before the Super Moon earlier this month.  Slight shadowing and undulations along the limb.

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Edited by Tfer, 16 February 2020 - 08:55 PM.

[AJK 547]

Super shots above all.

 

I have a query, as the pixel count of cameras seems to be getting better every year -- the latest one, I see has a 108MP sensor -- is this an advantage for producing higher quality images at the eyepiece, or, is it just a factor of the scope type being used (seeing conditions...etc., aside)?

 

Sorry, if it seems a stupid question, as I have a very cheap cell/mobile phone that does me good enough for every day work, but I do have an excellent DSLR, which I've used in the past at the scope.

 

John Moore

Great question John.  I too have wondered this since I have a Canon EOS 5D3 DSLR (but have never used it for afocal image capture in AP).  I started to look into CCD vs CMOS chip design (my 5D3 utilizes 22.3 MP CMOS (full frame) technology) vs higher end AP sensors utilizing CCD technology.  It seems that the inherent CCD chip design, 12bit vs 16bit, packet capture and transfer algorithms, etc. favor CCD tech (albeit at a much higher cost than CMOS tech at the present time).  The gap seems to be closing where high Megapixel CMOS sensors at a lower cost will displace the more desirable... higher cost... CCD tech in the next few years, but it is evolutionary as you know.  
 

it seems to come down to a ‘marriage’ of once again hdwe and sftw evolution being driven to lower costs.  When I compare my iPhone 8 Plus images to my wife’s iPhone XS, there are significant differences in improvement in the ‘quality’ of the capture.  It seems the actual sensors are identical, but the OIS and Neural Engine processing algorithms are improving the end result to a greater degree...  Hopefully, some of our members with a much greater understanding of the sensor/software engineering will chime in!  😊

 

I included a recent comparison of 2 afocal images (C6 + BHZ) taken with my iPhone 8Plus and my wife’s XS of M42 ‘Trapezium’ to see if I could capture anything.  The results show SIGNIFICANT differences between sftw advances.  Again, I only include these images of the DSO for reference.

 

Can you guess which image is the 8 Plus vs XS?  I was surprised at the differences!

 

Clear, steady nights.

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Edited by AJK 547, 17 February 2020 - 12:30 PM.

[StarDust1]

Here is a photo of the Copernicus crater taken with a 4” apo with a Samsung Galaxy S6 handheld. The photo’s are straight out of the phone, no editing done.

 

The purple fringing in the photo's I could not detect it visually...

 

Scope: Takahashi FS-102

Eyepiece: Vixen HR 2mm,

Barlow: Baader VIP 2x

Magnification: 820x

Seeing: excellent

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Edited by StarDust1, 17 February 2020 - 12:43 PM.

[John_Moore]

Thanks for the reply AJK 547, and very helpful information re: your cell phone experiments.

 

As to which is which...errm...I'd guess the second image is the 8 Plus phone, as there seems to be less digitization in it, and it looks more natural in colour, too.

 

Re: My initial query above. I was wondering that if using a cell phone at the telescope eyepiece, then isn't that like having two eyepieces, which combined together might reduce image quality in the end. So, I was wondering if that having a higher-end mega-pixel cell phone as the final image exit be a good option to achieve better results?  

 

Btw, I've tried the cell phone setup on my own 6" refractor, and achieved one or two descent images awhile back, but I didn't have the phone-holder gadget, so, of course, they were a bit blurry due to hand-shake...etc.

 

Also, I recently acquired a good-quality car dashcam, and put it up to the eyepiece (handheld, and shakes again). It wasn't at all bad -- with natural streaming video. I don't know if there is a connector out there to suit dashcams to eyepieces results, but it is there producing them.

John

John Moore

Edited by John_Moore, 18 February 2020 - 01:06 AM.

[AJK 547]

John, the 1st image (with somewhat natural color of M42 is with my iPhone 8 Plus.  The 2nd image is with my wife’s iPhone XS.  To me, I can see better smoothing... tighter star patterns...slightly resolving dimmer stars... more natural color observed at the eyepiece with the XS.  The 8 Plus surprisingly gave me a more saturated color as if I took a longer exposure time.  I enhanced the 8Plus image a bit further with saturation to bring out the colors of M42.  I tried the same with images of M42 with the XS and enhanced color saturation didn’t reproduce the colors of the XS....Interesting isn’t it!  I further researched that the iPhone XS processes the AWB to a ‘cooler’ image rendition.  The iPhone 8Plus AWB processing is ‘warmer’... as can be seen in the two images above.

 

My take, is if our eyes are 20/20 ( or better) we naturally view in SUHD without the camera lens, sensor or processing limitations.  My own Canon 5DIII sensor doesn’t give me the sensitive dynamic range in high contrast landscape images as does my 8Plus or the XS.  Technology and software is rapidly advancing isn’t it!

 

All the images I’ve posted are strictly ‘hand-held’ with no device.  Image stabilization is a feature of these phones.  I probably will try the cell phone holder device to make the images a little more resolved.

 

Clear, steady nights.

Edited by AJK 547, 17 February 2020 - 11:36 AM.

[astrochef]

     Thought I would add my "highlights" collage from the 2019 lunar eclipse. This was such a great night.  A clear night in January when there was an actual event that I wanted to observe, seeing was decent, (never mind that it was -10F here) and my, then 16 year old, daughter joined me for about three hours in the frigid driveway to watch the event unfold. (she never even pulled out her phone to see what her friends were up to)  We enjoyed the eclipse with the Z-10 dob, 10x50s, 7x35s and naked eye.  My plan was to observe some DSOs while the Moon was fully eclipsed but my focuser was so frozen by that point that I just stuck with Luna till the clouds rolled in and shut me down.  

Just a special night on many levels.

 

 

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[John_Moore]

Such great nights too, astrochef, where a very close friend, and I, set up a telescope, in a public square, for views of the Moon only. Some used a cell phone.

 

The response by passers-by was never recorded (didn't have good cells back then, and where individuals weren't really interested...just a fad), but was amazing any case.

 

However, this modern-based YouTube vid reflects on our public viewer experience somewhat (one viewer haphazardly putting his phone to the eyepiece -- at approx. 3:18). 

 

John Moore

Edited by John_Moore, 18 February 2020 - 01:00 AM.

[Tfer]

Because of a forest on my southern horizon, I was unable to see the occultation of Mars this morning until about 10 minutes after it reappeared, but even then, the view was badly obstructed by trees.  I took this about 70 minutes after Mars reappeared, in the morning twilight.

 

6SE with a 0.63 reducer and a 24mm Panoptic eyepiece.  iPhone XS mounted on a Celestron NeXYZ.  

 

Mars at far right.

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[Tfer]

Such great nights too, astrochef, where a very close friend, and I, set up a telescope, in a public square, for views of the Moon only. Some used a cell phone.

 

The response by passers-by was never recorded (didn't have good cells back then, and where individuals weren't really interested...just a fad), but was amazing any case.

 

However, this modern-based YouTube vid reflects on our public viewer experience somewhat (one viewer haphazardly putting his phone to the eyepiece -- at approx. 3:18). 

 

John Moore

Just watched the video.

 

Perfection.

 

Shared it on my Facebook page.  Love the responses!

Edited by Tfer, 18 February 2020 - 11:03 AM.

[AJK 547]

Such great nights too, astrochef, where a very close friend, and I, set up a telescope, in a public square, for views of the Moon only. Some used a cell phone.

 

The response by passers-by was never recorded (didn't have good cells back then, and where individuals weren't really interested...just a fad), but was amazing any case.

 

However, this modern-based YouTube vid reflects on our public viewer experience somewhat (one viewer haphazardly putting his phone to the eyepiece -- at approx. 3:18). 

 

John Moore

Thanks so much for sharing John...  I just luv the human reactions to truly ‘seeing’ the heavens for the 1st time....  
 

Clear, steady nights.

[AJK 547]

Because of a forest on my southern horizon, I was unable to see the occultation of Mars this morning until about 10 minutes after it reappeared, but even then, the view was badly obstructed by trees.  I took this about 70 minutes after Mars reappeared, in the morning twilight.

 

6SE with a 0.63 reducer and a 24mm Panoptic eyepiece.  iPhone XS mounted on a Celestron NeXYZ.  

 

Mars at far right.

Excellent capture Tfer!  Very impressive!

 

Question: how do you like the Celestron NeXYZ holder?  Is it easy to use?

 

Clear, steady nights.

[Tfer]

Excellent capture Tfer!  Very impressive!

 

Question: how do you like the Celestron NeXYZ holder?  Is it easy to use?

 

Clear, steady nights.

I tried a couple of the cheaper models, but they didn't work at all for me.  The NeXYZ is very stable and easy to use.  The only issue, is a slight 'lever' effect from heavier phones; the weight of the bottom of the phone forces the top (where the camera is generally located) away from the eyepiece at a slight angle.  You can snug up the screws on the cradle which does help, but the problem still exists.

 

Aside from that, I use the timer feature in the camera app (I've tried NightCap, but for use at the eyepiece, I prefer the app called Camera+ - it is a manual control app that defaults to RAW and as a result is much more flexible) so that shakes from touching the screen have a chance to die down before the image is taken.

[Dave Mitsky]

It wasn't done with a smart phone but here's a hand-held afocal photograph of the Lunar X and Lunar V that I took on the evening of 2/17/2013 using a 6" f/8 Orion SkyQuest XT6 Dob and a Canon PowerShot SD980 IS camera.  Lunar north is up in this image.

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[rkelley8493]

Beautiful Lunar videos, courtesy of NASA and the LRO:

 

https://youtu.be/cFC71rFejvo

https://youtu.be/nr5Pj6GQL2o

[j.gardavsky]

Here are some afocal shots with a vest pocket 12Mp camera, I no more have,

 

Blood Moon eclipse on 27th July, 2018, from Lillinghof Airfield

 

 

Lunae X, V and Black C features

 

and just a Moon

 

I sometimes take afocal pics, just to document the observing session,

JG

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lukes1040]

Found my lunar x and v shots. I haven’t seen them since!

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