Photo of Jupiter's moons with cellphone

In summary: Jupiter, but it was still really cool to see them.In summary, Gliese123 was able to see two moons of Jupiter with a cellphone and binoculars. The results were very similar to what was seen through a telescope with 10 separate frames.
  • #1
Gliese123
144
0
Hi there!
Well, it's not just a photo taken by a cellphone but a cellphone plus a very good binocular. And as surprised as I became by being able to see the moons of Jupiter, I took a photo of them through, yes through the binocular. The result is what you see on the picture. And I wanted to compare so I viewed Stellarium and saw that it more or less looked the same. Just wanted to share it with you guys. Hope you like it :smile::

Moonsbycamera.jpg
 
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  • #2
Not bad for a cellphone and binoculars!
 
  • #3
Gliese123! Cool!
 
  • #4
Drakkith said:
Not bad for a cellphone and binoculars!
Thanks :D It was awesome to see that it was possible! :)
 
  • #5
Bobbywhy said:
Gliese123! Cool!
Thanks a lot :D
 
  • #6
Gliese123 said:
Thanks :D It was awesome to see that it was possible! :)

I wouldn't even have thought of trying that!:cool:
 
  • #7
Byron Chen said:
I wouldn't even have thought of trying that!:cool:
Hah.:biggrin: Well you should try. It's really cool. It works especially good on Gas giants. Saturn & Titan is also available to see with a fairly cheep binocular when possible.
Although, make sure that there's no light pollution since it disturbs a lot. :) My binocular just have 30 x zoom :)

This is done by the same principle but of the Moon :) 30x zoom :)
20121026_215658.jpg
 
  • #8
Gliese123 said:
Hah.:biggrin: Well you should try. It's really cool. It works especially good on Gas giants. Saturn & Titan is also available to see with a fairly cheep binocular when possible.
Although, make sure that there's no light pollution since it disturbs a lot. :) My binocular just have 30 x zoom :)

Haha, wish I could. But I live in a city, it is quite bright and cloudy :(
 
  • #9
Byron Chen said:
Haha, wish I could. But I live in a city, it is quite bright and cloudy :(
Hm well, that's unfortunate :frown: I live practically nowhere :redface: No light pollution. ~50 km to nearest city ;)
 
  • #10
Here's my picture of Jupiter from the night of the Oct 12.
I have a telescope and astrophotography camera, but not one designed to do planets, otherwise it might be a bit better. Stacked 10 frames of each color in RGB.
You probably can't see them on this picture, but in the original frames a couple of moons are barely visible. It's hard to make them stand out when your exposures have to be short so Jupiter isn't washed out.
It came out surprisingly good considering I up-sampled it by 200% when stacking, and then another 200% after stacking, so the original images are 1/4 the resolution.
 

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  • #11
Byron Chen said:
Haha, wish I could. But I live in a city, it is quite bright and cloudy :(

The brightness of the planets is so high that anyone in any city could easily see them and get pictures. (With the exception of Neptune and Uranus) Clouds on the other hand...
 
  • #12
Drakkith said:
Here's my picture of Jupiter from the night of the Oct 12.
I have a telescope and astrophotography camera, but not one designed to do planets, otherwise it might be a bit better. Stacked 10 frames of each color in RGB.
You probably can't see them on this picture, but in the original frames a couple of moons are barely visible. It's hard to make them stand out when your exposures have to be short so Jupiter isn't washed out.
It came out surprisingly good considering I up-sampled it by 200% when stacking, and then another 200% after stacking, so the original images are 1/4 the resolution.

Now that's extraordinary! How would it looks like if you tried Saturn? I assume that one could easily see the rings if so :)
 
  • #13
Gliese123 said:
Now that's extraordinary! How would it looks like if you tried Saturn? I assume that one could easily see the rings if so :)

Like this. :biggrin:
 

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  • #14
Drakkith said:
The brightness of the planets is so high that anyone in any city could easily see them and get pictures. (With the exception of Neptune and Uranus) Clouds on the other hand...

That's my problem, there is too much clouds in my area. Whenever I look out at night, I usually can't see a thing, not even the brightest stars or planets :(
 
  • #15
Byron Chen said:
That's my problem, there is too much clouds in my area. Whenever I look out at night, I usually can't see a thing, not even the brightest stars or planets :(

Well, nothing anyone can do about that. You'll just have to move asap!
 
  • #16
those pictures are SO COOL! especially how you can *actually see* the moons!
 
  • #17
Drakkith said:
Well, nothing anyone can do about that. You'll just have to move asap!

Haha, luckily I'm going on vacation to the countryside soon, so that would give me a couple of good nights if it doesn't rain :)
 
  • #19
Drakkith said:
Like this. :biggrin:
Now that's awesome! :approve:
 
  • #20
SHISHKABOB said:
those pictures are SO COOL! especially how you can *actually see* the moons!
Thanks :D Unfortunately all the moons were on just "one side" of Jupiter.
 
  • #22
Gliese123 said:
I want one of those! :D NOW :D

Just don't expect such amazing results if you have a pair of binoculars, or a telescope with an aperture less than about 8 inches. Part of my problem is my 8 inch scope is already hitting the resolution limit even before I try to put a barlow lens in and magnify the planets a bit more.
 
  • #23
Did you really take that picture of Saturn with your phone and binoculars?? This really is fantastic. Going to give this a try soon!
 
  • #24
Shahil said:
Did you really take that picture of Saturn with your phone and binoculars?? This really is fantastic. Going to give this a try soon!

The only picture of Saturn here is the one I took with my telescope and astrophotography camera.
 
  • #25
Amazing stuff. I think these small noisy photos are more relatable than anything NASA takes, in the sense that we can see them for what they are down here. It's hard to fathom how close spacecraft have to be from here to take the photos they do.
 
  • #26
EBENEZR said:
Amazing stuff. I think these small noisy photos are more relatable than anything NASA takes, in the sense that we can see them for what they are down here. It's hard to fathom how close spacecraft have to be from here to take the photos they do.
Well, we "common" people are more able to achieve results than people think. I wonder if not probably more than 60% + of the people at the streets thinks that, that bright spot is probably a star which it certainly is not.
 
  • #27
Gliese123 said:
Well, we "common" people are more able to achieve results than people think. I wonder if not probably more than 60% + of the people at the streets thinks that, that bright spot is probably a star which it certainly is not.

Oh definitely and it's encouraging for anyone who wants to get into astrophotography. Or even looking for planets generally. Obviously it's expensive but the fact that it is possibilities opens doors. I've recently moved out to a rural area and I can't wait to get my dads binoculars out (when it stops raining).
 
  • #28
EBENEZR said:
Oh definitely and it's encouraging for anyone who wants to get into astrophotography. Or even looking for planets generally. Obviously it's expensive but the fact that it is possibilities opens doors. I've recently moved out to a rural area and I can't wait to get my dads binoculars out (when it stops raining).
How nice :D Do you live in the northern or southern hemisphere? The moon's absolutely gorgeous to look at with a simple binocular. By the way, Jupiter sure is the planet who desire attention as it shines bright (oh and Venus too but it's not that astonishing to look at with binoculars). And Saturn does not show up where I live unfortunately. :(
 
  • #29
Gliese123 said:
How nice :D Do you live in the northern or southern hemisphere? The moon's absolutely gorgeous to look at with a simple binocular. By the way, Jupiter sure is the planet who desire attention as it shines bright (oh and Venus too but it's not that astonishing to look at with binoculars). And Saturn does not show up where I live unfortunately. :(

I'm in the UK. Last night we had a SPECTACULAR orange Moon. I tried taking a photo with my phone and it ended up looking like a sodium streetlight haha. Then again I've got a decent digital camera so next time! I don't know the location of the planets yet so that'll be something to learn :) My head is in the stars and I wish to become a mechanical engineer and work with spacecraft .

Where do you live?
 
  • #30
EBENEZR said:
I'm in the UK. Last night we had a SPECTACULAR orange Moon. I tried taking a photo with my phone and it ended up looking like a sodium streetlight haha. Then again I've got a decent digital camera so next time! I don't know the location of the planets yet so that'll be something to learn :) My head is in the stars and I wish to become a mechanical engineer and work with spacecraft .

Where do you live?
That's at least something. LOL. Well. I've tried that too but without success. Cellphone's not that good when one mix darkness and a single light source. I could barely see the difference between a lamppost and the moon. xD Oh in the UK? I live in Sweden! :) So that's more or less the same view for us both then :) Have you tried Stellarium? I would have been lost if not that program was available. There's also Google skymap :)
Working with spacecraft ? Now that's something I would like to do as well :) I wonder if there'a ny jobs here for that xD
 
  • #31
Gliese123 said:
That's at least something. LOL. Well. I've tried that too but without success. Cellphone's not that good when one mix darkness and a single light source. I could barely see the difference between a lamppost and the moon. xD Oh in the UK? I live in Sweden! :) So that's more or less the same view for us both then :) Have you tried Stellarium? I would have been lost if not that program was available. There's also Google skymap :)
Working with spacecraft ? Now that's something I would like to do as well :) I wonder if there'a ny jobs here for that xD

Well UCL do a Masters in Engineering specifically with spacecraft . I'm not even in uni yet so I'm indulging in fantasy a little. I've downloaded Stellarium today actually but not had a chance to use it. If I worked as an engineer I'd take a path that allowed me to apply for such opportunities. Probably contracts with spaceX or virgin galactic. What do you do for a living, anything science related?
 
  • #32
EBENEZR said:
Well UCL do a Masters in Engineering specifically with spacecraft . I'm not even in uni yet so I'm indulging in fantasy a little. I've downloaded Stellarium today actually but not had a chance to use it. If I worked as an engineer I'd take a path that allowed me to apply for such opportunities. Probably contracts with spaceX or virgin galactic. What do you do for a living, anything science related?
Well, same here. Still struggle with high school subjects. Or as it's called here: Gymnasium. Basically the same but we choose what we like a bit earlier, but basically the same. Oh well, I've been into the astronomy path for some time now but since that field isn't that vast expanded here as it is in the UK, the US, France or any other bigger nation - then the chances are smaller to get a job. And I don't know if I would to consider moving abroad for such thing. Don't know really. But it's good that we have dreams after all :)
 
  • #33
Gliese123 said:
Well, same here. Still struggle with high school subjects. Or as it's called here: Gymnasium. Basically the same but we choose what we like a bit earlier, but basically the same. Oh well, I've been into the astronomy path for some time now but since that field isn't that vast expanded here as it is in the UK, the US, France or any other bigger nation - then the chances are smaller to get a job. And I don't know if I would to consider moving abroad for such thing. Don't know really. But it's good that we have dreams after all :)

Ahh right. Well, I'm a mature student so I'm taking pre-uni qualifications (I left school without any). Sorry I'm derailing the thread a little. Nice choice of name btw!
 
  • #34
EBENEZR said:
Ahh right. Well, I'm a mature student so I'm taking pre-uni qualifications (I left school without any). Sorry I'm derailing the thread a little. Nice choice of name btw!
Thank you ^^/ No problem that we go of topic :) Well I wish you luck in the future :)
 
  • #35
Gliese123 said:
Thank you ^^/ No problem that we go of topic :) Well I wish you luck in the future :)

You too!
 
<h2>1. How was the photo of Jupiter's moons taken with a cellphone?</h2><p>The photo of Jupiter's moons was taken using a technique called afocal photography. This involves holding the cellphone camera up to the eyepiece of a telescope and adjusting the focus and exposure settings to capture the image.</p><h2>2. What equipment is needed to take a photo of Jupiter's moons with a cellphone?</h2><p>You will need a telescope, a cellphone with a camera, and an adapter or mount to attach the cellphone to the telescope. It is also helpful to have a tripod to stabilize the telescope.</p><h2>3. Can a regular cellphone camera capture clear photos of Jupiter's moons?</h2><p>Yes, with the right equipment and technique, a regular cellphone camera can capture clear photos of Jupiter's moons. However, the quality of the photo may not be as high as those taken with a professional camera or through a telescope with a built-in camera.</p><h2>4. How many of Jupiter's moons can be seen in the photo taken with a cellphone?</h2><p>The number of moons visible in the photo will depend on the magnification of the telescope and the clarity of the atmosphere. On average, a cellphone photo can capture 2-4 of Jupiter's largest moons, including Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.</p><h2>5. Can a photo of Jupiter's moons taken with a cellphone be used for scientific research?</h2><p>While a photo taken with a cellphone may not have the same level of detail and precision as photos taken with professional equipment, it can still be used for scientific research. These photos can provide valuable information about the positions and orbits of Jupiter's moons and can be used in conjunction with other data to study the gas giant and its moons.</p>

1. How was the photo of Jupiter's moons taken with a cellphone?

The photo of Jupiter's moons was taken using a technique called afocal photography. This involves holding the cellphone camera up to the eyepiece of a telescope and adjusting the focus and exposure settings to capture the image.

2. What equipment is needed to take a photo of Jupiter's moons with a cellphone?

You will need a telescope, a cellphone with a camera, and an adapter or mount to attach the cellphone to the telescope. It is also helpful to have a tripod to stabilize the telescope.

3. Can a regular cellphone camera capture clear photos of Jupiter's moons?

Yes, with the right equipment and technique, a regular cellphone camera can capture clear photos of Jupiter's moons. However, the quality of the photo may not be as high as those taken with a professional camera or through a telescope with a built-in camera.

4. How many of Jupiter's moons can be seen in the photo taken with a cellphone?

The number of moons visible in the photo will depend on the magnification of the telescope and the clarity of the atmosphere. On average, a cellphone photo can capture 2-4 of Jupiter's largest moons, including Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

5. Can a photo of Jupiter's moons taken with a cellphone be used for scientific research?

While a photo taken with a cellphone may not have the same level of detail and precision as photos taken with professional equipment, it can still be used for scientific research. These photos can provide valuable information about the positions and orbits of Jupiter's moons and can be used in conjunction with other data to study the gas giant and its moons.

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