Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2014 18:11:12 GMT
Great work, Curtis! Look forward to seeing the other objects you'll be targeting.
Don
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2014 4:02:11 GMT
So with clouds up, I just wanted to give an update, I've done some research into smart phone cameras and as expected most of them are likely using an IR filter, this will limit the DSO capability of the camera, but the goal for me has always been the planets & Moon.
The iPhone camera chip, as far as I can tell is a variant of the ISX014, but made with larger pixels of 1.5 micron size. Also note that it is possible that the camera optics aperture is so small that the chip is over-sampling past the limits (supposedly 3 micron). So Apple is doing well by not shrinking the pixels further. That said, for live viewing this is turing out to be a fortunate exercise since it's very likely a dedicated astro stacking/registration app will be popular. (Basically lucky imaging on a smart phone)
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2014 5:01:42 GMT
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2014 3:48:43 GMT
Did M13 and M31 tonight. They were much better, partly due to skies, and also due to NOT USING BINOVIEWERS. Eyepiece used was 8-24mm Celestron zoom. Scope is uncollimated AT8IN on CGEM. First screen shot is what I was broadcasting while the camera app was continuing to take 1/2 second exposures at the max ISO setting. Note the noise level. Next screen shot is when the 'bulb mode' stacking feature is enabled, after several seconds the noise is smoothed out substantially and more background stars are visible. My conclusion using the iPhone 5s on M 13 is that brighter globulars are withing reach of the phone without much issue. If I had correct polar alignment it might be possible to maybe go slightly deeper, but this for me is about semi-live viewing and I'm very happy with this view that 100% beats my naked eye view.
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Oct 17, 2014 9:08:16 GMT
Wow Curtis, I opened both images and flick between the two and the difference is amazing.
Well done. The Bulb version is great.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2014 22:21:21 GMT
Thanks Ken,
I'm really curious about how it will do on M42 and Jupiter. Especially now that I have a decent eyepiece and mechanical stability figured out. I'm probably not at the best focus, but that's something I can work on in the future. If you compare the M13 I just did with the one I did early on using binoviewers it's a large difference for sure, so M42 should be much better than it was as well. With Jupiter I'm wondering if the native app or NightCap Pro will be better, for sure I will need to get focus right and use as high of a power as I can get.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2014 11:02:05 GMT
Ok, so I was up a bit late tonight and was able to take a fair shot at M42 finally. Here are the results, both are screen shots of what was broadcast live on NSN. The second exposure was allowed to go a bit longer, and there was no significant streaking because I took the time to redo my polar alignment right before starting. It's a bit of work to do, but well worth it in my opinion. In addition I have yet to collimate the scope and I am starting to think that it might be a good idea to do so, especially when I'm getting detail like the above on my phone. While the phone seems to be ok for such a bright nebula as M42, the next challenge will be Jupiter, and maybe some of the other globulars. Also, please compare the images of M42 here to those taken before, you will see that NOT using binoviewers made a huge difference. In addition, just using the 1 button auto-enhance of the iPhones iPhoto app really brought out the extended nebulosity of M42 quite nicely. This leads me to think that a dedicated astro-video/photo app would be able to do even better. Later, I noticed that Jupiter was rising and got a chance to take the following shot: Because of the awkward position of the focuser I was not able to reach my phone well in order to try and manipulate exposure & ISO back down, so the above teaser will be all we have for now, but I did manage to zoom in with the camera app and the 8mm setting on my zoom eyepiece and the size of the planet looked like it would work out just fine once I get the access issue resolved. In addition I could always include the 2x 2" barlow if required. That is yet to be determined.
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Oct 19, 2014 14:49:06 GMT
Great result Curtis!!! That Jupiter view would freak out people on a Public Outreach night. Imagine seeing the Moons of Jupiter 'Live' on a Phone
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2014 22:48:12 GMT
Thanks Ken! I'm looking forward to doing better with Jupiter. Going to rotate the scope and re-do polar alignment the next time I get Jupiter. I think putting in the Barlow will help as well.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2014 20:00:46 GMT
So I was able to fInd and PM and got a response of the author of Nightcap Pro on CN. It turns out that on some of the exposures I was using light trails mode instead of long exposure mode. Light trails mode has the star with a really long tail, where as long exposure mode has a shorter tail. M42 is mainly the one I goofed up on, even so, it turned out better than before. So I'll need to give M42 another shot the next chance I get.
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Oct 24, 2014 1:56:30 GMT
Sounds good Curtis. It sounds like your efforts will improve each time.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2014 20:56:00 GMT
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2014 16:52:58 GMT
After this weekend the clouds should clear here and give me another chance to use the iPhone. A couple of things I've figured out. First is something I mentioned before, that I was using the wrong setting in NightCap Pro. Second, I was looking at some of the pictures and captures and realized that the secondary shadow is showing, this means I am only getting a fraction of the light into the camera, so obviously I need to optimize the distance and re-take some of the low light pictures.
|
|
|
Post by Dragon Man on Nov 16, 2014 5:20:37 GMT
You'll get it all nutted out Curtis. And then we'll see some amazing 'Phone' photos!!! Correction: these are already amazing for a Phone. We'll see some Mind-blowing photos!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2014 23:11:04 GMT
Thanks Ken. Crazy winds here last night, still moving. Motorcycle cover came off scope, only had one og three legs clamped. Learned my lesson, good news is there was no rain involved. Updated to OSX 10.10, will update Phone iOS soon as well.
|
|
|
Post by Rick in NWArk on Nov 17, 2014 4:26:38 GMT
Really looking forward to your new results, Curtis!!
--Rick
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2014 1:44:26 GMT
Me too, but it looks like clouds this week. Maybe I'll do white light during the weekend.
|
|
|
Post by Rick in NWArk on Nov 18, 2014 4:04:08 GMT
I am hoping the weekend will give me a chance to do my first white light broadcast!!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 16:12:46 GMT
It's been a while since I've been able to do anything with the iPhone. The good news is that I finally updated to iOS 8 and will be able to try some of the manual controls that are opened up by other apps.
In addition, I now have an AT12IN that I call 'Spider House', that I can use. Sure your typical beginner won't be putting a 12" newt on a GEM, but that's not my purpose, I'm just seeing how far the phone can go and also wanting to use it primarily for planetary/lunar + brighter DSOs.
All of that with the lessons learned should get us a bit further. The main lessons were to use the right mode in NightCap Pro and also I noticed that some captures showed the secondary shadow, which means I was not at the best distance from the eyepiece to grab the light cone and illuminate the sensor, lastly my Newtonian was not collimated. These things can make a huge difference in the outcome.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 19:18:36 GMT
If you can get your App to do long exposures you may have a real winner. Put a long lens on the iPhone then put the iPhone on something like iOptron's SkyTracker. A few people might be interested in a contraption like that. I may even consider upgrading my ten to fifteen year old cell phone to something a little newer.
|
|