Ideas for totally raw beginners

[Baurice]

I see a lot of posts here from people on this forum who have IMO intermediate or even advanced equipment.

But what about beginners who have nothing more than the 'phone in their pocket? On their behalf, I have been doing some experimenting.

My attempts to catch lunar and solar surface details have failed - dismally!

I can capture the lunar phase but it is underwhelming, if you have a DSLR and telescope.

What I HAVE been able to to is capture planetary and lunar/planetary conjunctions. True, I have done a lot of photo processing but the tools I use (GraXpert and GIMP) are free to download.

A couple of recent examples are here:





So a budget of a few grand helps but is not totally necessary to make a start in astrophotography.

[Ylem]

Those are very nice images!

I always recommend the 3 axis Celestron phone holder, I don't recall it's exact name mine is packed away because of my move.

It's 3x the price of the regular ones but worth every penny.

[JayTee]

In anyone's attempt at starting AP, it should include circumpolar star trails. If you have a phone, a phone holder, and a tripod you can easily accomplish this. You don't need exposure times longer than 30 seconds to start your quest for star trails.

This link should get you started.

https://capturetheatlas.com/star-trails ... ht%20photo.

[messier 111]

Those are very nice images!

I always recommend the 3 axis Celestron phone holder, I don't recall it's exact name mine is packed away because of my move.

It's 3x the price of the regular ones but worth every penny.

Hi Jeff,
are you talking about this?

https://www.celestron.com/products/nexy ... ne-adapter

[Juno16]

Very nice images and post Baurice!

[pakarinen]

I'd suggest they download the free Nocturne app for wide field shots. Here's one I took during my last dark site visit (to show the light dome to the SE) and one with StarryCam (Venus, Mars, Castor, Pollux) which is also free.
.

[Ylem]

Those are very nice images!

I always recommend the 3 axis Celestron phone holder, I don't recall it's exact name mine is packed away because of my move.

It's 3x the price of the regular ones but worth every penny.

Hi Jeff,
are you talking about this?

https://www.celestron.com/products/nexy ... ne-adapter

Yep

That is the only one that I have owned that actually worked.

Not only do you get left/right, up/down, but also in/out.

Nicely made also
Worth every penny

[Baurice]

Is there an app that you can install on a phone to control exposure times, ISO, etc?

This would be a great help to beginners.

[pakarinen]

Is there an app that you can install on a phone to control exposure times, ISO, etc?

This would be a great help to beginners.

Nightcap does that. There's a tutorial online. You can manually set exposure, white balance, focus, ISO, averaging interval, shutter delay, etc. The UI is not very intuitive though - I just reread the tutorial b/c I took some Jupiter pictures with it that were complete rubbish. RTFM.

[Graeme1858]

Is there an app that you can install on a phone to control exposure times, ISO, etc?

This would be a great help to beginners.

The default camera app on my Android has a Pro setting (hidden under "More"!) that allows control of ISO, WB, +/-, AF, AE, etc.

Graeme

[Baurice]

Unfortunately, my camera has a limit of 1/10 second exposure, which is rather limiting but, hopefully, others have better cameras. I will probably still use the app for planetary conjunctions. I was hoping to get some meteor shots but can only get the brightest ones.

[JayTee]

Hi Philip,

There is an Android app you may be able to install that would allow you to get around your 1/10 second limitation. It's called DeepSky Camera. It is the app I use to take long exposures on my Samsung.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... pskycamera

What camera/smartphone are you using?

[Baurice]

Unfortunately, I tried that as well. Next time I get a new camera I will try to find out about exposure times.