Astrophotography from a Smartphone

[Corey Koval]

I tried porting this earlier in the week, but apparently posts are limited to 8MB. I've attached a few highlights to the message, but the rest are available here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Jxco5gUgbFG1oc6CA

November 2nd was the first night of my Idaho trip, but my astrophotography equipment hadn't arrived yet. It was a beautiful clear night and I wasn't going to let a lack of gear spoil the fun. Pixel phones have an astrophotography mode that will take several exposures over a 4 minute period and build a surprisingly decent picture. No real effort was done on my part to get the pictures on this post, I just leaned my phone against a water bottle and let the software do the rest.

The images by themselves aren't all that impressive, but I think it's impressive they came from a phone with zero human intervention. There are a couple shots of the Milky Way, one where I got Andromeda and Pleiades in one frame, one kinda zoomed in on Andromeda, and one kinda zoomed in on Pleiades. The best part is, these images are pretty close to what you see with the naked eye out here.

For those of you with a Pixel phone that want to try this out, here's how you do it:

Open the camera app and switch to night sight mode. Don't rely on it go to night sight automatically, you have to manually switch to it.

Prop your phone up against something in a way that still gives you access to the screen. Don't touch your phone for about 10 seconds, the "shutter button" or whatever you want to call it will go from having a picture of a crescent moon to having a picture of a few stars. Very carefully press the shutter button, and let it do it's thing for 4 minutes. That's it! 

[Chas Argent]

Amazing. 

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[Jim Tomney]

Wow Corey – some amazing shots here given the minimalist approach taken. Lots of DSOs in the wide angle shot of Andromeda – Pleaides, and surprisingly good fidelity to star color. All with minimal trailing. Of course, those wonderfully dark skies were a big part of it I’m sure! 😊

 

The two shots with trails – assuming that since they appear as single points that they are satellites? Did you get impacted by that very much in your astrophotography while out there?

 

Jim

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[Corey Koval]

I'm pretty sure the amber trail in the Pleiades shot is an airplane, the cool white trail in the Milky Way shot is probably a satellite. 

I've only had one clear night with my real AP gear, satellites weren't a problem at all. I think wind is going to be more if an issue than anything else. I got beautiful subs of M31 and M45, a I'm very happy with what I see in the preview stretches. I'll probably process them for real when I get back. It's going to be clear tonight, and I'll be shooting the Flaming Star Nebula.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/001101d7d3ca%242e9af240%248bd0d6c0%24%40tomney.com.

[Dietmar Tietz]

Hi Corey,

It is good to see an example for doing astrophotography without investing thousands of dollars and spending endless hours with image processing.

You mention that the phone takes pictures over a period of 4 min with the phone leaned against a water bottle. Apparently no German equatorial mount for guidance involved. Therefore, it seems the phone applies an algorithm to accommodate for the Earth's rotation, correct?

Regards,

Dietmar

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From: "Corey Koval" <cko...@gmail.com>
To: "howardastro" <howar...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 6, 2021 10:48:15 PM

Subject: [howardastro] Astrophotography from a Smartphone

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[Dietmar Tietz]

Conducting a quick Web search, I found this article abvout iPhone astrophotography:

https://www.idownloadblog.com/2021/10/08/iphone-astrophotography-milky-way-proraw/

iPhones do not yet have an astrophotography mode, but the RAW images can be processed to reveal quite remarkable results, even though it does not quite compare to expensive rig results.

Dietmar

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From: "Corey Koval" <cko...@gmail.com>
To: "howardastro" <howar...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Sunday, November 7, 2021 8:22:39 AM
Subject: Re: [howardastro] Astrophotography from a Smartphone

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/CAK2RzWx_r1vhhOjgJ9rT%2BfVLTASndtrQ1OHk7%3D2hTkvbdHX6MA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Bruce Elliott]

Corey,

Those are great shots, and they do show the capabilities of this phone. Which model Pixel did you use?

I took my very first astrophotographs using Night Sight mode on my Night Pixel 2XL a little over a year ago, and the results were what convinced me that astrophotography was the only way for me to see many targets in the night sky in light-polluted Ellicott City.

One thing to note: older Pixel phones (like mine) limit the length and number of exposures in the Night Sight mode. I think it's around 6 one second exposures if the phone's very still, since it was mainly intended for terrestrial subjects at night. More recent phones have added the full Astrophotography mode, which takes longer exposures. I ordered a Pixel 6 Pro to replace my aging Pixel 2XL just last night, and I'm really looking forward to using it with my Omegon Minitrack LX2 star tracker.

Bruce

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/1253182460.3201963.1636298811831.JavaMail.zimbra%40his.com.

[Corey Koval]

Dietmar,

The astrophotography mode will take several 15 to 17 second exposures over the 4 minute period, then stack them accounting for the drift. This is actually a common method used with a DSLR on a fixed tripod. Of course it won't be as good as a single 4 minute exposure, but sometimes you just have to work with what you've got.

Bruce,

I have the Pixel 5. It sounds like we have a similar origin story for AP. I took a picture of Orion back in early 2020 with my Pixel 2, decided I wanted more, bought a DSLR, then a tracker, then another DSLR I was comfortable modifying, then I just kept getting better and more equipment from there. I had a modified version of the camera app on my pixel 2 that allowed for the proper AP mode.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/howardastro/CAOMRRPMKSs0n8vsrVm8tGb4H8U6Qm2fQMgF5Uy29VCcVtn10uw%40mail.gmail.com.

[CheekyGeek]

There is an entire Facebook group dedicated to Smartphone astrophotography for Beginners and you don't have to have a Pixel to do it. There is an Android app called DeepSkyCamera that opens up a lot of possibilities for your smartphone camera. It is mentioned (with photo examples) in this NASA publication: https://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/SMBooks/AstrophotographyV1.pdf

Cheekius Geekus

Kearney, Nebraska