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Shoutout to the person who proved me wrong about smartphone astrophotography
I used to think you needed a $2000 telescope setup to get decent space photos. Then a guy at a meetup in Denver showed me a stack of 200 phone shots of the Andromeda Galaxy he took with just a tripod and a Pixel phone. He used a free app called DeepSkyCamera to control the exposure and stacked them in Sequator on his laptop. The final image actually showed the dust lanes and it blew my mind. Now I'm wondering if I've been gatekeeping this hobby for no reason. Has anyone else flipped their opinion on phone-based astrophotography after seeing real results?
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troy_ross1mo ago
Gotta disagree a bit here. Sure, phone shots are way better than they used to be, but that stacked Andromeda image still looks like a blurry smudge next to even a cheap used DSLR on a tracker. Stacking 200 shots on a phone is a cool party trick, not a replacement for real gear.
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the_jason5d ago
Hey, totally been there. @rileyjones nailed it about the color data - I was shocked when my Pixel picked up way better nebula colors than my old DSLR on a first try. Sure, my tracked camera shots are sharper, but a phone with a tripod and a free app got me into this hobby way cheaper than I thought possible.
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Read an article from a guy who tested a Pixel phone against a basic DSLR on a tracker using the same stacking workflow. The phone held up way better than I expected, especially in the color data and dark regions of the photos. Not saying it beats real gear, but for someone just wanting to dip their toes in, it's a solid starting point.
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