ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY WITH CELL PHONES Last updated: 31 October 2008

Mike here: On 28 October 2008, I mentioned that a photo of Jupiter that I took with my iPhone made the news on "the iPod Observer". Well, that article was picked up by "Discover Magazine". Then "Modern Science" ran a story about it. And now today, CNET ran an article about it. And doing a Google search for "Jupiter + iPhone + astrophotography" yields many more mentions. Hard to believe that a photo I took with my little iPhone cell phone camera captured the imagination of so many people. But then I'm glad it did promote interest in astronomy!

Mike here: I took a photo of Jupiter and three of its moons using my Apple iPhone. It made the news on "the iPod Observer" web site.

Mike here: I don't know if this is the first ever astrophotograph taken with the Apple iPhone but it is my first one! I finally unpacked some of my telescopes (one is still in CA; it will be picked up later this week when I drive back there). This was taken on Christmas Eve 2007 afocally with my ETX-70 with a 9mm eyepiece (39X). The Moon had just risen above the mountains so I went out onto the second-story patio (of our temporary home in Oro Valley, Arizona) and took the shot.

If you have an iPhone don't forget to check out the NOAO astrophotograph iPhone wallpaper at:

http://www.noao.edu/outreach/iPhone/

I use the Horsehead Nebula photo on my iPhone.

Mike

Subject:	Lastest sunspot pics
Sent:	Saturday, December 16, 2006 09:46:38
From:	Thomas Ogletree (t-ambo@msn.com)
I love your site. I have directed many folks here for help. Please find
attached a pic from 12-10-06. I used my 125UHTC, a IR filter and a 25mm
or smaller EP. I used my Treo 650 Palm Phone hand held to the ep.

Subject:	ETX 125 Moon shots with a mobile phone
Sent:	Sunday, March 5, 2006 15:23:44
From:	Lee R (divine-assassin-kai@hotmail.co.uk)
i just thought you might like to see these, I took about 10 shots but
these were the clearest of the lot. They were taken at 21:30....
05/03/06 with a Nokia 6230i mobile phone held over the eyepiece of my
ETX 125 with it's 26mm ploosl and a meade broadband filter as well.. Not
bad for a mobile phone lol... Wishing you all the clear skies possible
from Lee R  Dover Kent UK...

Subject:	Etx. fun
Sent:	Saturday, September 25, 2004 20:04:20
From:	7143494831@vzwpix.com (7143494831@vzwpix.com)
The moon through a phone camera and a 32Mm barlowed etx 90    
chris brown



This message was sent using Picture/Video Messaging from Verizon
Wireless!

I sent you a pic using my new my cell-phone of the moon, taken through
the phone-cam through my etx-90...

The phone has a 3.3mm lens (f2.8!) and I have been able to get pretty
good moon shots with it through my XT-8 and my etx-90...

It does require a good moon filter (parks, in this case), and you need a
steady hand, alot of eye-relief, and a wide exit pupil to catch it in
"hand-held" mode...my 32mm Sirius Plossl with ultima barlow does the
trick!! I'm still playing with the phone-camera's settings...

I may even wake up at 4:00am to try to catch Saturn with this combo!!

Regards,
Chris Brown

Subject:	My first ETX 70 moon photo
Sent:	Friday, May 28, 2004 08:24:53
From:	RGDavies@aol.com (RGDavies@aol.com)
Great site! 

I've recently bought my first telescope a Meade ETX 70 AT which I'm very
impressed by I've wanted a telescope for years and I'm not disappointed
although getting the autostar to work took a while! Anyway I took a
photo of the moon using the camera on my mobile phone, I know it's not
very professional but I wonder if anyone else has tried it? I dont think
it looks too bad!

Subject:	First attempt at Astrophotography....
Sent:	Friday, February 21, 2003 3:23:18
From:	vampirelestatsoulreaver@msn.com (Vampire Le Stat)
Attached is my first attempt at photography. As I'm afraid of the cold I
set the scope up in my front room with a 6.4mm 4000 series super plossl
eyepiece, looking through windows coated with brick dust (construction
work going on at the moment) at the moon as it sat at about 30 degrees
Elevation from the horizon. To cap it all, the photo was taken with my
Nokia 7650 cellular phone! I'm pretty impressed, considering the setup.

Thanks for the help.

Vamp

Subject:	A couple of pics from my ETX
Sent:	Thursday, September 18, 2003 10:44:09
From:	tezsl@blueyonder.co.uk (Terry)
I've attached a couple of pictures that may be of interest for your fun
section .

I showed these to Rachel from Sky View Optics (very helpfull folk at
S.K.V. by the way) who suggested that I should send them to you.

The pictures were taken through my new ETX 125, with the std 26mm eye
piece (RA/Dec N/A) and my Nokia 7250i mobile phone!!

 

Hope you like.

Terry

Return to the top of this page.

Go back to the Astrophotography Page.

Go back to my ETX Home Page.