I attempted my first ever astrophotography pics last night.
Viewing conditions were horrible, was cloudy, hot and humid.
I own a 10" dob and bought a phone mount i wanted to test out.
This was taken with a samsung galaxy s24+ and an 8mm eyepiece
I tried a few shots of jupiter and also mars, mars was quite close to horizon
Tyrone,
Good on you! - I bet you are chuffed to get a result.
I remember starting off with the planets using my then 8” dob.
It’s an exciting prospect to capture the planets. Try to capture say 15sec capture and stack a video avi file to get a better picture.
You can force centre the image as the planet drifts through the field of view.
Keep nudging the dob to keep the planet in view.
If you have a zoom option on the camera try getting as bigger picture as possible or try using a compact camera with a zoom option.
Well done!
A
There’s nothing quite like the wonder and pride of that first photo. Mine was the moon with my iPhone through the eyepiece of an early C8. I still have that photo :-)
Great first attempt and under less than favourable conditions too! As Anthony has suggested, rather than take single shots with your phone, set it to video mode and take up to 90 seconds worth (for Jupiter, longer for Mars) if you can. The planet will drift through the field of view without a tracking mount. This will limit the amount of video frames you will take but try chasing it manually to keep it in the FOV during your exposure. There are free stacking programs you can download off the Net which will select the best frames from your video take and stack them to create a single picture with better detail.
Great stuff Tyrone. Your pics are much much better than my first attempts.
Watch out for the photographic bug and aperture fever, they sort of creep up on you. Also avoid old gear as obsolescence is just around the corner.
Great first effort mate, my first via phone was horrible, I am working with moon pics to try and get better now. But great to see others on the journey too.
