Astroblog: Moon Images from the 100 Hours of Astronomy

Sunday, February 03, 2019

Moon Images from the 100 Hours of Astronomy


Moon image at 10:12 pm ACDST 10 Jan using a 10mm eyepiece with an unguided 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/250 second exposure ASA 800. Click to embiggen	Moon image at 10:21 pm ACDST 11 Jan using a 10mm eyepiece with an unguided 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/1000 second exposure ASA 3200.Click to embiggen	Moon image at 10:21 pm ACDST 11 Jan using a 10mm eyepiece with an unguided 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/1000 second exposure ASA 1600. Click to embiggen

On the 100 days of astronomy, I had a chance to play around with my mobile phone and its telescope adapter. I too a variety of images with different exposure conditions and different eyepieces. I had a mostly good run with the Moon. the images I took on the 10th were badly affected by turbulence, and it set shortly after, so I had no chance to do 25 mm eyepiece images. On the 12th I started after the Moon had set, so no images then. But I still now have a better idea of how to balance high iso (allowing for short exposures but less crispness in the images) and fast shutter speed.


Moon image at 10:15 pm ACDST 11 Jan using a 25mm eyepiece with a 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/1000 second exposure ASA 800. Click to embiggen	Moon image at 8:54 pm ACDST 13 Jan using a 25mm eyepiece with a 114mm Newtonian and a Sony Xperia mobile phone. 1/2000 second exposure ASA 800.Click to embiggen

Atmospheric turbulence is a beggar, especially on unguided mounts, even with really shot exposure times. So I have to time my imaging when the moon is much higher (not always practical with family). I will also have to try my hand using the guided 8" Newtonian. But that takes a lot more set-up so I can't be as spontaneous.


Moon on 11-01-19 overlay of 2ximages using 10 mm eyepiece. Click to embiggen (compare to the 25mm shot above)	Moon on 13-01-19 . overlay of 2ximages using 10 mm eyepiece.Click to embiggen. (compare to the 25mm shot above)

I was able to do some mosaics with the 10mm images, but field rotation makes overly a pain in the bottom. I will have to be more caerful in timing to get better overlap of the images.

But overall, not bad for my first serious imaging attempt with the mobile phone. Images of Nebula and clusters to come.

Labels: astrophotography, mobile Phone, Moon, public outreach