#iphoneastrophotography

[reflexletterpress]

Clouds and another headcold kept me indoors for a week, but the binox are back. Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, Jupiter; Saturn; waning gibbous Moon. Don't usually see the waning phases at night, because the Moon rises later and later -- and then later becomes very early -- but I caught this one near the horizon. Nice to see Grimaldi, Aristarchus and Oceanus Procellarum in bright daylight, and the opposite direction of shadow along the Montes Apenninus and Montes Caucasus. #iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #galileanmoons #callisto #ganymede #europa #jupiter #saturn https://www.instagram.com/p/CUTzL6Bgsu7/?utm_medium=tumblr

[mindhuestudio]

The Moon again! I hoped to get some pics yesterday, as it was beautifully clear all day, but by the time I got the Goose to bed there was a high fog enough that there was nothing to see but a vague half circle glowing through the soup. But tonight is a nice early waxing gibbous, always a favorite phase. The telescope/iPhone process is settling down now. For most things I don't like the 3x camera, it makes daylight objects kinda mushy and flat, but it really brings a level of detail out in these lunar shots that the 1x just can't touch. I didn't bother to use the 1x shots tonight, these are all 3x. The one difficulty is that the full disk of the Moon barely fits in the eyepiece field at lowest power, so we're pushing the edge of magnification versus composition. Possibly I'll use a lower power fixed eyepiece for the Moon and reserve the variable eyepiece for planetary observations. But then I won't be able to get a real closeup on crunchy terminator craters like I did here. Although I forgot -- it's best to set the three-second timer on the camera app for these closeups, as that allows the vibrations from me poking the "take picture" button on the screen to die down before anything happens. In other words -- less blur! 🤪 #iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #themoon #shallowskyastronomy #newtonianreflector #telescope #114mm #waxinggibbous https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqb1GTeMMKF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[reflexletterpress]

The Moon again! I hoped to get some pics yesterday, as it was beautifully clear all day, but by the time I got the Goose to bed there was a high fog enough that there was nothing to see but a vague half circle glowing through the soup. But tonight is a nice early waxing gibbous, always a favorite phase. The telescope/iPhone process is settling down now. For most things I don't like the 3x camera, it makes daylight objects kinda mushy and flat, but it really brings a level of detail out in these lunar shots that the 1x just can't touch. I didn't bother to use the 1x shots tonight, these are all 3x. The one difficulty is that the full disk of the Moon barely fits in the eyepiece field at lowest power, so we're pushing the edge of magnification versus composition. Possibly I'll use a lower power fixed eyepiece for the Moon and reserve the variable eyepiece for planetary observations. But then I won't be able to get a real closeup on crunchy terminator craters like I did here. Although I forgot -- it's best to set the three-second timer on the camera app for these closeups, as that allows the vibrations from me poking the "take picture" button on the screen to die down before anything happens. In other words -- less blur! 🤪 #iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #themoon #shallowskyastronomy #newtonianreflector #telescope #114mm #waxinggibbous https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqb07a3L9oy/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[reflexletterpress]

Well, finally. Finally the stars aligned (😏) and it wasn’t raining, snowing, cloudy, foggy, or overcast, and I wasn’t grumpy, tired, weary or asleep. Back out with the telescope! Sadly, in the interim, Jupiter has gone almost to conjunction — I was really pissed that I couldn’t see the Jupiter-Venus-Moon lineup last month — so no Galilean moons for six months. But the Moon always comes through. Thick waxing crescent this evening. Some 1x camera photos, sharp but kinda small, plus some experimental 3x shots, full-frame but kinda muddy. #newtonianreflector #telescope #114mm #iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #themoon #shallowskyastronomy #waxingcrescent #marenectaris https://www.instagram.com/p/CqRkjMVrcsb/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mindhuestudio]

Well, finally. Finally the stars aligned (😏) and it wasn’t raining, snowing, cloudy, foggy, or overcast, and I wasn’t grumpy, tired, weary or asleep. Back out with the telescope! Sadly, in the interim, Jupiter has gone almost to conjunction — I was really pissed that I couldn’t see the Jupiter-Venus-Moon lineup last month — so no Galilean moons for six months. But the Moon always comes through. Thick waxing crescent this evening. Some 1x camera photos, sharp but kinda small, plus some experimental 3x shots, full-frame but kinda muddy. #newtonianreflector #telescope #114mm #iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #themoon #shallowskyastronomy #waxingcrescent #marenectaris https://www.instagram.com/p/CqRkb8ps8P6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[mindhuestudio]

Clear evening, not too windy, not yet -4°, so time to get the telescope out. And the crazy thing is, it was as if — wait for it — the stars had aligned. This session went smoothly and swimmingly. 🤯 First of all, I figured out how to get the iPhone adapter snugly secured to the zoom eyepiece. Not having your phone randomly fall off the telescope helps a whole lot with your observing satisfaction. Second of all, I inadvertently discovered that I could let the autofocus algorithm make whatever neural net weighted average arbitrary decision it wanted to… THEN ADJUST THE TELESCOPE FOCUS TO COMPENSATE. 🤔😮🎉 Suddenly I was getting crisp detail without screaming and tearing my hair. 🥳What a glorious discovery. Having trouble with stupid AI? Let the dumb programming find its own level then use a physical process to do the real work. Problem solved! So I was able to get three planets and a bunch of Moon pics in quick succession. Venus is still too bright for the camera to really deal with but that’s a definite gibbous phase there. Callisto-Jupiter-Europa-Ganymede this evening; this new zoom eyepiece is really quite nice, I could see two cloud belts on Jupiter’s disk with my eyes but couldn’t get them to resolve in the camera even with the exposure cranked down really far. If this new protocol continues to work smoothly I’ll try to tweak things before Jupiter disappears into solar conjunction. And I got a pretty good disk on Mars, which was another surprise. This autofocus hack really made imaging the Moon a pleasure. Got a good crisp full disk, a detail shot of Tycho, crunchy terminator craters, various maria on the eastern limb, and a really nice closeup of dawn at Aristarchus. Yay zoom eyepiece! It makes it easy to get the telescope pointed correctly, then zoom in for detail shots without losing what you’re looking at while you fumble for another eyepiece. So — pretty awesome evening! 😁 #Iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #themoon #waxinggibbous #shallowskyastronomy #galileanmoons #jupiter #io #europa #ganymede #callisto #newtonianreflector #telescope #114mm #venus https://www.instagram.com/p/CoLw2DhMRAq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[reflexletterpress]

Clear evening, not too windy, not yet -4°, so time to get the telescope out. And the crazy thing is, it was as if — wait for it — the stars had aligned. This session went smoothly and swimmingly. 🤯 First of all, I figured out how to get the iPhone adapter snugly secured to the zoom eyepiece. Not having your phone randomly fall off the telescope helps a whole lot with your observing satisfaction. Second of all, I inadvertently discovered that I could let the autofocus algorithm make whatever neural net weighted average arbitrary decision it wanted to… THEN ADJUST THE TELESCOPE FOCUS TO COMPENSATE. 🤔😮🎉 Suddenly I was getting crisp detail without screaming and tearing my hair. 🥳What a glorious discovery. Having trouble with stupid AI? Let the dumb programming find its own level then use a physical process to do the real work. Problem solved! So I was able to get three planets and a bunch of Moon pics in quick succession. Venus is still too bright for the camera to really deal with but that’s a definite gibbous phase there. Callisto-Jupiter-Europa-Ganymede this evening; this new zoom eyepiece is really quite nice, I could see two cloud belts on Jupiter’s disk with my eyes but couldn’t get them to resolve in the camera even with the exposure cranked down really far. If this new protocol continues to work smoothly I’ll try to tweak things before Jupiter disappears into solar conjunction. And I got a pretty good disk on Mars, which was another surprise. This autofocus hack really made imaging the Moon a pleasure. Got a good crisp full disk, a detail shot of Tycho, crunchy terminator craters, various maria on the eastern limb, and a really nice closeup of dawn at Aristarchus. Yay zoom eyepiece! It makes it easy to get the telescope pointed correctly, then zoom in for detail shots without losing what you’re looking at while you fumble for another eyepiece. So — pretty awesome evening! 😁 #Iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #themoon #waxinggibbous #shallowskyastronomy #galileanmoons #jupiter #io #europa #ganymede #callisto #newtonianreflector #telescope #114mm #venus https://www.instagram.com/p/CoLwjUIO5G8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[reflexletterpress]

Finally a clear night, although there’s too much gloppy snow around to drag the telescope out. 20x binox to the rescue! I think Venus is still at gibbous phase but at 20x you’re not gonna see that. Have an angelic choir style image of Hesperus the Evening Star instead. Thin crescent Moon with Crisium nicely outlined and some polar mountains catching the light. Bonus Earthshine for you, and Phi-3 Aquarii as the bright star to the left. And Ganymede-Jupiter-Io-Europa this evening, Callisto is in eclipse. So all of these were done using the Halide app and the 3x iPhone telephoto, amazingly it was pretty smooth sailing, nothing to gripe about. #iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #themoon #20xbinoculars #shallowskyastronomy #galileanmoons #jupiter #io #europa #ganymede #callisto #venus #eveningstar #hesperus #marecrisium #waxingcrescent #earthshine https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn0jTFYrQbl/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=