Sky & Telescope - July 2019 - 29

You'll have better luck with either your
smartphone or a pocket camera if you mount
it on a tripod and use the camera's timer
function to allow any vibrations to die down
before the photo is taken. A tracking mount
will also make framing up the Moon and
keeping it centered effortless, as well as allow
you to take many individual images that you
can later transfer into a planetary stacking
program such as RegiStax 6 or Autostakkert!3
to achieve a sharper result. I'll discuss more on stacking later.
Stepping up to a DSLR or MIL (mirrorless interchangeablelens) camera with a quality telephoto lens will permit you
to take even better lunar photos. It also simpliﬁes attaching
your camera to a telescope.

UNLESS NOTED, A LL PHOTOS PROVIDED BY AU THOR; M OON SK E TCH:
LE AH TISCIONE / S&T; M OON A ND CLOUDS: JA NE WA LK ER

More Aperture
The next leap most take when shooting the Moon is to shoot
pictures through their telescope - a natural progression,
because users can think of their telescope as a long telephoto
lens. In fact, a good telescope is often sharper than most
camera lenses, and it generally costs much less per inch of
aperture. Just make sure that your scope is collimated before
attaching your camera (S&T: Feb. 2018, p. 28 for Cassegrain
telescopes, and S&T: Apr. 2019, p. 68 for Newtonians).
Getting started with this technique is only slightly more
challenging than holding your phone up to the sky and snapping away. The difference is you'll need to hold your phone's
camera close to the eyepiece of your telescope - a technique
known as eyepiece projection. While it is possible to do, you'll
have a far easier time if you pick up one of the many inexpensive adapters available that can connect your phone to the
eyepiece on your telescope. While most major manufacturers
offer smartphone adapters, it's important to consider which
one works best for your particular phone. I've used models
from a variety of manufacturers, though I prefer the ones
offered by Celestron (celestron.com), Orion Telescope &
Binoculars (telescope.com), and Tele Vue (televue.com).
One note about eyepiece projection: The eyepiece you
choose to project the image of the Moon into your smartphone will have a noticeable effect on the quality of your
images. Using a Huygens or other simple eyepiece design will
introduce aberrations into your images; these are particularly
noticeable on the high-contrast limb of the Moon. Simple
eyepiece designs can add color fringing along the lunar limb
even when you're shooting through a Newtonian reﬂector or
an apochromatic refractor. Consider upgrading your eyepiece
choice if you intend to get the most out of this technique.
Attaching your phone or camera to a telescope complicates
things a bit. If your scope is on a simple manual alt-azimuth
mount as a Dobsonian is, aiming and focusing may be particularly frustrating. Having a solid tracking mount with slowmotion controls eliminates much of the problem by keeping
your target centered while you focus and change exposure
settings. An electronic focuser will also make focusing much

t CAMERA AS
EYEPIECE With the
addition of a T-adapter
and lens bayonet, a
DSLR or MIL (mirrorless
interchangeable-lens)
camera can replace the
eyepiece on your telescope.
This is known as prime focus
photography.

less frustrating, because you won't have to touch the telescope
at all, potentially imparting jiggles that are highly magniﬁed
by your telescope's long focal length.
Adding a tracking mount also permits you to take longer
exposures to record earthshine without the Moon trailing
during the exposure, or to record the Moon during a total
lunar eclipse, which often requires exposures of several seconds during totality.
A side beneﬁt of using your tracking telescope with a
smartphone attached is that the combination also offers
a great way to share views of the Moon with others. Your
phone acts like a small video screen and permits everyone to
see the image without having to lead visitors to the eyepiece
or change focus.

Prime Focus
If eyepiece projection with your smartphone has whetted
your appetite for better results, you could move up to primefocus photography using a DSLR or MIL camera. Prime focus
is when your camera replaces the eyepiece on your telescope,
and light coming through the instrument is focused directly
q EASY PEASY Modern smartphones can capture the lunar maria even
in handheld shots. The author's wife took this photo using a Samsung
Galaxy 9+ simply by holding her phone steady in evening twilight.

s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e . c o m * J U LY 2 0 1 9

http://www.celestron.com http://www.telescope.com http://www.televue.com http://www.skyandtelescope.com

Sky & Telescope - July 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - July 2019