Phone astrophotography

 Phone cameras have come a long way and are inching closer to the capabilities of DSLR and mirrorless cameras when it comes to astrophotography. Improvements in sensor technology and built in post processing features such as HDR, stacking and star alignment being have made them into a useful backup or even a viable replacement for traditional cameras, especially when used with a tripod. These days, I find myself using my phone more than my DSLR for milky way photography.

The photos that follow are some of my favorite shots of the milky way and landscapes taken using an iPhone 14 pro, on tripod with the maximum 30s exposure in the built-in camera app, and later edited in Lightroom mobile. 

The above was taken at Lerderberg State Park Victoria aiming directly at the zenith around the end of winter. 

These two photos were taken in Point Lonsdale lighthouse. The red light from the lighthouse lit up the surrounding rock formations in red as seen in the top image. What is also interesting is that the second image would not have been possible on a single exposure on a DSLR, as the light from the lighthouse would have washed out the image. It appears that the phone has automatically stacked images of various exposures to create a composite image.

These images were taken at the Gravity Observatory in Perth. While a lot of stars are visible the image contains a lot of noise highlighted during the edits, possibly showing the limits of phone night photography.

The first two phots above were taken at Lake Tyrell, and third at the town of Sea Lake. In the second image, the moon illuminated the surroundings and overpowered the stars, but I was able to capture the reflections of a few stars on lake's calm surface. 

 

These two images are the latest ones taken at Aireys Inlet beach. The last one is my favorite so far since it highlights the details of the milky way as well as the rock formation. I used the flashlight from another phone to briefly light up the rocks while the image was being exposed for 30s, and in my opinion it resulted in perfect exposure of both landscape and the stars. 

While phone cameras have made impressive improvements and deliver impressive results, DSLR and mirrorless systems continue to advance in their own right. Still, smartphones offer unmatched accessibility and portability - and as the saying goes, "the best camera is the one you have with you".

Southern lights in Victoria

It's usually not easy to catch a glimpse of Aurora Australis, the southern lights, from Victoria. Tasmania and New Zealand are better places to be. The occasions when it is visible from in Victoria, it's best seen from the southern coasts of the state and usually appears as a faint glow to the naked eye. My last post on astrophotography had a picture of the southern lights taken from Flinders. But with the intense geomagnetic storm yesterday auroras were expected to be visible from many parts of the world. 

As soon as I got to know this I looked for the closest southernmost point, and being in the west of Melbourne, this was Kirk Point in Point Wilson. While driving there I was amazed to see the green and pink shifting columns of light to the naked eye while still on the highway, and stopped to snap a few pictures as soon as I took the exit. Afterwards we went to my intended location and was treated to the spectacular southern lights show. It waned off around 11pm but was still visible even from my backyard after reaching home around midnight. 

Some pictures are below:

More pictures looking to the heavens

Back in 2017, I wrote a post on beginner astrophotography as I was just getting into the hobby. It was mostly a collection of my very first Milky Way pictures that I took at the time. Since then I have been taking more pictures of the Milky Way, and some occasional pictures of the moon, planets and the aurora. So here's an update of my latest selected pictures in the same format as last time, with details in the caption.

This picture was taken at Cape Schanck, one of my favorite places to capture the stars. It's a single exposure with light painting, so the staircase is out of focus. 

One of may favorite pictures taken under perfect conditions. Moon was out on the opposite side of the Milky Way to illuminate the landscape perfectly. Location: Flinders

This is the first picture in which I was able to capture the reflection of the stars in water. Location: Lake Eildon. 

The daytime moon captured through my telescope. I attached the camera into the eyepiece of the telescope with a lens adapter. 

Two photos of Jupiter and Saturn also taken from my telescope. I recorded a short video and processed it using PIPP and AutoStakkert to create these images. Haven't done planetary imaging since, but I do hope to try it out again sometime soon. 

A photo captured from my balcony one evening showing earthshine on the moon. 

The rising moon captured using a telephoto lens without a tripod. 

My first attempt at capturing star trails. This is a single exposure taken over approximately 12 minutes. Photo taken at Lake Eildon. 

This is my first attempt to capture the Aurora. The pink glow is the Aurora Australis seen from the Southern Coast of Flinders. 

This picture shows the recent lunar eclipse- the blood moon, as seen from Flinders shortly after sunset on 8 November 2022. 

Astrophotography on a budget

Astrophotography is thought to be an expensive hobby to pursue involving lots of high-tech and expensive equipment. I was under the same impression and was concerned of this steep entry barrier. Then I came across this blog-Lonely Speck by Ian Norman, who in my opinion, is a very creative photographer and does an excellent job of explaining the basics of photographing the stars. This blog got me started and I started reading online forums and learning about the hobby.

I gathered that new sensors in most cameras-even entry level ones are perfectly capable of capturing the milky way. Any DSLR or compact camera with manual controls can be used to gather enough light over a long exposure to shoot the night sky. So I bought my first DSLR, a Canon 1300D and a basic tripod for about 500AUD. This is an entry level camera and is one of the cheapest DSLRs in the market. Some blog posts and YouTube videos later I set off in search of dark skies.  

After a couple of attempts I am very happy with my results and have even got better results than some photos that I drew inspiration from. I'm still learning and hoping to improve on my methods and results. The usual process I follow to shoot the stars is, waiting for a day with clear skies, checking the moon phase, the position of the milky way and selecting a dark location without much light pollution.  The pictures below are some of my best shots taken up to now, with a little description on the story behind the shot. 

My first attempt at shooting the Milky Way. The stars are out of focus and not a very good image, but was a valuable learning experience. Location:Paradise beach Gippsland

These three shots were taken at Silvan Dam Olinda. The first using the 18mm kit lens and the other two using a 50mm prime lens at f2.0 borrowed from a friend.  

My first shot of the galactic core taken at the Cape Schanck beach. It was a misty day with plenty of moonlight to illuminate the landscape. But the milky way was very faint. 

Clearly visible galactic core taken at Olinda

Another shot of the galactic core taken at Wilsons Prom under moonlight.

This shot was also taken at Wilsons Prom after the moon set. This was the best naked eye view of the Milky Way I've experienced up to now. 

This shot taken at Olinda is one of my favorites because of the unintentional effect of light painting. A car passed by during exposure and it illuminated the tree and a power line nearby, giving the photo a more balanced look.  

Asteroids as a Resource

Recently, the company planetary resources unveiled their plan to mine asteroids. Their approach to this extremely challenging task by trying to get there in 4 different stages, seems to be a practical. They are planning to mine asteroids for platinum group metals and water. With all this attention to mining from outer space it is worthwhile to consider whether asteroids actually have the potential to be a resource that is economical to exploit.

There is no denying that asteroids contain valuable metals and water in abundance. But these are even found on earth. At the moment there is no shortage of platinum here on earth although it is quite expensive due to the costly extraction process. Unless platinum occurs as pure metal on asteroids, processing will still have to be done, and doing it in outer space is going to be even more difficult.

Looking at this situation it might seem a better option to invest on the existing platinum mining and processing here on earth in order to make it more efficient. However mining from asteroids has the advantage of avoiding the environmental damage created by mining on earth. Also if the platinum demand rises sharply within the next few decades and if it becomes increasingly difficult and costly to mine for platinum on earth, mining it from asteroids will be the best solution.

Although lots of minerals and metals are found in the crust of the earth, most of the heavier metals such as iron and nickel lie inside the core of the earth due to the gradual gravitational sinking of these metals during the formation of the earth. Asteroids however are mostly of small sizes and therefore in most cases the metals are somewhat evenly distributed throughout the volume of the asteroid. This makes mining easier. Even in larger asteroids where metals have settled like on earth, accessing it will be easier.

The other important resource that is planned to mine form asteroids is water. A source of water outside earth is valuable because it would no longer be necessary to carry a heavy load of water in future space missions. It would also pave the way to colonization in space since one of the main challenges faced in such a situation is finding access to an appreciable reserve of water.

If the constituents of water, Hydrogen and Oxygen are separated, they can be used to power rockets. This could also one day lead to fuel stations in space which will not only reduce the cost of space travel but also widen our reach in space. Having both fuel and water readily available in space, our dream to colonize in space will come closer to us.

Mining asteroids seems a far fetched idea and it might not look like it is economical at a first glance. But this situation will change in the future and sometimes asteroid mining might be the only option. We will be able to advance only if we plan for the future and act accordingly. We should remember that before the internal combustion engine was invented, commercial drilling of petroleum seemed unnecessary..

image from : wikipedia

Mining Asteroids

Industries based on space exploration have received a lot of attention lately. Companies are already in the process of introducing commercial spaceflights to the general public. Among these new "space age" industries, is a new start up called Planetary Resources that focuses on mining Asteroids. Although it seems like a far fetched idea, the recently founded company Planetary Resources claim that they have a plan. They also have got some serious investors like Larry Page, co founder of Google to back them.

Asteroids are found in abundance in space and contain vast quantities of valuable minerals and metals. Asteroids also contain large amounts of water in them. Being much smaller than planets, the minerals in  an asteroid are distributed evenly throughout the entire body of the asteroid, unlike in planets where the large gravitation causes the heavier minerals to sink towards the core of the planet. This makes it easier to mine because deep excavation will not be necessary to access the resources of an asteroid.

Although the idea of mining asteroids for useful resources has been around for quite some time, this is the first time that it is actually being attempted. According to Planetary Resources, the final goal of the company which is mining asteroids commercially will take about a decade to accomplish. Despite this fact the company is set to generate revenue during the process, even before the actual mining takes takes place. In fact, one of its co-founders has claimed that Planetary resources is already a "positive cash-flow company".

Planetary resources plans to mine asteroids in 4 stages. The first stage is the "Arkyd Series100" in which a set of space telescopes known as "Leo space telescopes" will be launched. These telescopes which will be in low earth orbit and will be used to gather data about asteroids. The telescopes can also be pointed at other objects in space such as the moon  and planets as well as the earth itself. This capability gives the company the opportunity to rent out these telescopes to universities and other private and government organizations for research purposes. This is one avenue the company aims to profit in.

The second stage is the "Arkyd Series 200" also known as the interceptor in which further developed telescopes will be stationed in a higher orbit to obtain better access to asteroids and to gather data. These telescopes will also be equipped with micro propulsion mechanisms enabling them to move into different positions.

The third stage - "Arkyd Series 300" AKA Rendezvous Prospector will incorporate swarms of spacecraft capable of communicating with each other to move on to more distant asteroids and obtain specialized data regarding constituents, size shape, rotation etc while orbiting the asteroid. The technology developed during this stage is expected to generate revenue for the company by providing means of inter-planetary space flight to interested parties such as NASA and other agencies.

The fourth and final Stage is the Asteroid Mining itself. Mining will also be done using swarming robots with the ability to communicate and coordinate like in the previous stage. Several technological challenges will have to be addressed in this stage. For example whether the the processing of mined material is done on site or brought to earth before being processed. Both these methods have their advantages and disadvantages depending on the mineral to gangue ratio in the mined ore. Furthermore asteroids being situated at quite a distance from the sun, exploiting solar energy would be difficult. This creates the need for improvement of existing solar technology or the use of some other energy source. In addition to the technological issues, the legal matters pertaining to mining from outer space will have to be considered.

Planetary Resources plans mainly to extract platinum group metals and water from asteroids. Extracting water from asteroids can be very useful in future manned spaceflights and space stations because taking water from earth will not be necessary. Also the chemical constituents of water, Hydrogen and Oxygen if separated can be used as fuel for the space craft as well. This could lead to fueling stations in space and ultimately reduce the cost of space flight significantly.

The founding of Planetary Resources has redefined the limits of possibilities in the field of energy and resources. If it turns out to be successful it is bound to be the beginning of a revolutionary and extremely profitable industry while opening the doors to colonization in space. Most importantly it will be a great achievement of the human race.

images from : planetaryresources.com

Sky Observation at the Arthur C. Clarke Institute

After the first semester examination in our University, We were supposed to study 3 non technical modules-two of  which were compulsory and one of our own choice. The module I chose was Astronomy. The reasons for my choice were the interest I had in Astronomy, The interesting course contents and most importantly, The observation sessions.

We had two observation sessions at the Arthur C. Clarke Institute. One in the night for the observation of the Moon and the Planets and one session in the morning for observation of the Sun.
The telescope at the Arthur C. Clarke Institute, is the largest telescope in Sri Lanka. It is a Cassegrain Reflector type telescope and has a primary mirror of diameter 45cm. It uses an Equatorial Mount and is moved using computer controlled servo motors. It uses CCD cameras as the main imaging device.

It was unfortunate that the on the night we had our moon observation, the sky was very cloudy and not a single star could be seen. Also it was lightning. Because of this we couldn't use the Cassegrain reflector that night. Instead we used a much smaller reflector to look at the moon. The image of the moon was not clear due to the obstructing clouds.

The following day was better. We viewed the sun through the filtered Cassegrain telescope and saw two Sunspots. We also saw the Chromosphere of the Sun through an H-alpha filter.

The two sessions at the institute were very interesting and educational. It was a truly memorable experience.