Astrophotography with Smartphones

When doing visual observing at a telescope, I find myself wishing I could record the image.  I know some people sketch but sketching isn’t for me.   Astrophotography with a connected DSLR or dedicated camera is great but that isn’t visual observing.  So, I have been very interested in the concept of afocal astrophotography.  I earlier got an adapter for an old point-and-shot camera but was a lot of work to get the camera positioned and then figure out all the controls.  Again, I could use the DSLR.  But, then I found an article about using a smartphone.  So, I purchased a couple of adapters which sat gathering dust.  But, going to make it a goal to figure out afocal photography using a smartphone.

I first step was to do some researching on the Internet. A number of article I found are below.  Here are my takeaways:

  • Smartphones can take adequate images through the eyepieces.  This is partial due to the increasing technology in each new smartphone model.
  • An adapter is necessary to hold the smartphone steady over the eyepiece.
  • Something is necessary to take the picture to avoid movement
  • Dedicated apps will probably help with the process but curious how the native camera controls do.

The next step will be to re-review the two adapters I have.

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