Close Menu
First attempt at capturing the Moon, looking for feedback on improving detail and sharpness
Astronomy

First attempt at capturing the Moon, looking for feedback on improving detail and sharpness


I recently started experimenting with basic astrophotography and tried capturing the Moon. This is one of my first attempts, and I’m mainly trying to understand how to improve sharpness and detail.

Acquisition details:

• Device: Smartphone (mounted by hand)

• Lens: No additional telescope/lens (digital zoom used)

• Exposure: Auto

• ISO: Auto

• Location: northern Israel

• Processing: Slight contrast and brightness adjustment

I’m aware the image isn’t perfect, but I’d really appreciate advice on:

• improving focus/sharpness

• reducing noise

• whether a basic telescope or lens attachment would make a big difference

Thanks in advance for any tips!

by SingulusMiner

View 2 Comments

2 Comments

  2. UmbralRaptor on

    * Focus manually set to infinity (Often shown as a ⛰️)
    * ISO low (say 80 or 100)
    * Exposure time short (start at say 1/100 s and go for longer or most likely shorter)
    * Zoom nah. Well, optical zoom is fine, but the digital stuff tends to just blur things out. You can crop the image later.

    Or, 3 things to consider: the moon is far away, very bright (think concrete or asphalt in the middle of the day), and small enough that without a telescope you shouldn’t expect it to be more than a few tens to a few hundred pixels across. A lot of the time a default zoom on a digital camera will have 1 arcminute pixels, and even using the ‘telephoto’ camera on my phone still yields 10 arcsecond ones.