Here’s a picture I took of the Milky Way with my phone. My telescope rig is out of commission until I get my new (used) observatory up and running. I need to install the dome rotator, but I’m waiting on a part to arrive before I can finish.

This is all I’ve got for now. I took this last weekend with my Pixel phone in astrophotography mode.

If you want to see my older images, I have quite a few posted on Astrobin here: https://www.astrobin.com/users/BensAstroStuff/

  • lud@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Very cool!

    I wish he had less light pollution where I live.

  • Parzival@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Did not know the phones could do this! What’s your setup like? How long did the shutter need to be open for this?

    • Ben@beehaw.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      I think this was ~4 minutes worth of exposure time. I took this with my Pixel phone and Google’s astrophotography mode, which is part of the Night Sight setting. When the phone realizes it’s completely still, like on a tripod, and it’s looking at the sky, it gives you the option of taking pictures like this. It actually takes a lot of short exposures and stacks them. It’s a very automated process, so there’s not much tweaking to do. I do wish they gave the user more control.

      The setup for this picture was just my Pixel 6 Pro on a tripod pointing up. :)

      • Nate@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’ve got a pixel 7 pro and I can immediately recognize pixel’s astrophotography online. There’s something about it that nothing else replicates

        • reric88🧩@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          I have a pixel 7 pro and never used this feature. I’m going to give it a shot tonight! Disappointed I didn’t try during peak meteor showers…

  • calhoon2005
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Can you get Google’s astrophotography mode on non pixel devices?

    • Ben@beehaw.orgOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I think so, but I’m not sure how. I think some other phones are compatible and will ‘just work’ with Google’s camera app. Others need some configuration with 3rd party software. I’ve never done it.