DeepSkyCamera
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This app is for astrophotography with your
smartphone. You can take pictures with long exposure times like
classical astrophotography with a DSLR or CCD/CMOS camera.
DeepSkyCamera takes pictures of the stars including a plan. You take the pictures in RAW format. Android uses the format DNG which can be processed with the well-known stacking software (DSS Sequator PI).
The phone must support RAW mode and must support manual settings. The app checks the support of RAW and manual settings during startup. Most of the cheaper phones doesn't support RAW and manual settings (like Samsung A and J Huawei P10 lite). High end phones (Samsung S Huawei P9 P10 and P20 LG G4 to G7) support RAW.
You can take light flats bias and dark frames. Its very similar to take pictures with a classical DSLR oder CCD/CMOS camera. After that you can do the post-processing with the stacking software as well as with Photoshop Gimp or PI.
You do not have to focus the camera - the focus is set automatically to infinity.
The maximum ISO depends on the camera sensor. Most sensors limiting the ISO value to 800. You can type in a higher value but the sensor wil set it to maximum ISO level of the sensor. LG G supports ISO until 6400 Google Pixel until 12800.
Is the same for the exposure time. Most of the sensors limiting the maximum exposure time to 30 seconds. You can type in a higher value but the sensor sets it to the highest possible value. Die LG G and Huawei P supports up to 30 seconds.
DeepSkyCamera takes only pictures. The app is not designed for the post-processing.
The sample picture shows constellation Ursa Major with the LG G4: 256 light frames each 30 sec which results in nearly 2 h exposure time in total. 170 dark framesan 100 flat frames applied. Processed with Sequator and Photoshop CC. The second and third pic shows Cygnus taken with LG G4 and LG G6.
You can use a simple portable mount for travel purposes like iOptron SkyTracker AstroTrac or StarAdventurer. You put a ballhead on the top and add a clip from a small phone tripod. With the preview function (which is automatically visible after start) you can adjust the ballhead according to the brightest stars.
A quick guide is here:
https://www.deepskycamera.de/DeepSkyCameraApp/en/anleitung.php
PROBLEMS WITH SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 / S8 / S9
Samsung Galaxy S7 / S8 / S9 supports RAW but Samsung did their own way in accessing the camera sensor. Samsung implemented the so called Camera2 API from Android/Google and they released a spcific Samsung SDK but the implementation is broken. To get access to the sensor Samsung developed a third secret library (SemCam) which is NOT open to the public. My app runs on the S devices but these are the problems:
Maximum exposure time is 10 seconds.
Maximum exposure time can not be set via Camera2 API or Samsung SDK.
According to Camera2 API or Samsung SDK the maximum exposure time is 0.1 sec.
Same thing with the ISO value
I'm working on it to get the app working on Sasmung S devices
DeepSkyCamera takes pictures of the stars including a plan. You take the pictures in RAW format. Android uses the format DNG which can be processed with the well-known stacking software (DSS Sequator PI).
The phone must support RAW mode and must support manual settings. The app checks the support of RAW and manual settings during startup. Most of the cheaper phones doesn't support RAW and manual settings (like Samsung A and J Huawei P10 lite). High end phones (Samsung S Huawei P9 P10 and P20 LG G4 to G7) support RAW.
You can take light flats bias and dark frames. Its very similar to take pictures with a classical DSLR oder CCD/CMOS camera. After that you can do the post-processing with the stacking software as well as with Photoshop Gimp or PI.
You do not have to focus the camera - the focus is set automatically to infinity.
The maximum ISO depends on the camera sensor. Most sensors limiting the ISO value to 800. You can type in a higher value but the sensor wil set it to maximum ISO level of the sensor. LG G supports ISO until 6400 Google Pixel until 12800.
Is the same for the exposure time. Most of the sensors limiting the maximum exposure time to 30 seconds. You can type in a higher value but the sensor sets it to the highest possible value. Die LG G and Huawei P supports up to 30 seconds.
DeepSkyCamera takes only pictures. The app is not designed for the post-processing.
The sample picture shows constellation Ursa Major with the LG G4: 256 light frames each 30 sec which results in nearly 2 h exposure time in total. 170 dark framesan 100 flat frames applied. Processed with Sequator and Photoshop CC. The second and third pic shows Cygnus taken with LG G4 and LG G6.
You can use a simple portable mount for travel purposes like iOptron SkyTracker AstroTrac or StarAdventurer. You put a ballhead on the top and add a clip from a small phone tripod. With the preview function (which is automatically visible after start) you can adjust the ballhead according to the brightest stars.
A quick guide is here:
https://www.deepskycamera.de/DeepSkyCameraApp/en/anleitung.php
PROBLEMS WITH SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 / S8 / S9
Samsung Galaxy S7 / S8 / S9 supports RAW but Samsung did their own way in accessing the camera sensor. Samsung implemented the so called Camera2 API from Android/Google and they released a spcific Samsung SDK but the implementation is broken. To get access to the sensor Samsung developed a third secret library (SemCam) which is NOT open to the public. My app runs on the S devices but these are the problems:
Maximum exposure time is 10 seconds.
Maximum exposure time can not be set via Camera2 API or Samsung SDK.
According to Camera2 API or Samsung SDK the maximum exposure time is 0.1 sec.
Same thing with the ISO value
I'm working on it to get the app working on Sasmung S devices
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