Moon Crater Atlas and Moon Crater Atlas, Get It?

The lunar crater called "Atlas" was on the March observing list, and I used a moon crater atlas to identify it while I was looking through my telescope. Details for how I took this image with my iPhone are in the original post.

Waxing crescent moon with select craters labeled

Check out the Moon Globe HD app in my iPhone astronomy app recommendations: 12 Best iPhone Astronomy and Astrophotography Apps You'll Use Constantly

New Gear: Tripod Weight and Green Laser Pointer

Ok so my tripod weight isn't NEW, but it is new to this application. I haven't been using anything on the little weight hook on my tripod, so I tied this cheap plastic dumbbell weight to a string and hung it up. It not only adds weight to the overall tripod (decreasing wobble in the wind) but also lowers the center of mass so the tripod is less likely to topple over if bumped.

2.5 lb weight on twine hanging from the tripod as low to the ground as possible

A simple loop of string for this 2.5 lb weight

On flat ground, the weight hangs just above the grass

Next up, I was super pumped when this green laser pointer arrived as a late Christmas present. I should point out, that at 100mW this green (532nm wavelength) laser is far too strong to be sold as a "laser pointer" - in fact, anything above 5mW in the United States cannot be marketed as a "pointer" by FDA regulations.

However, the safety label on the laser does say that the max output is <100mW, that it's a class III laser product, and that it complies with 21CFR (what the heck is that?). So I looked it up:

21 CFR 1040.11(b) and 1040.11(c), limit surveying, leveling, and alignment, and demonstration laser products to Class IIIa. This means that pointers are limited to 5 milliwatts output power in the visible wavelength range from 400 to 710 nanometers. There are also limits for any invisible wavelengths and for short pulses. Pointers may not exceed the accessible emission limits of CDRH Class IIIa or IEC1 Class 3R. (FDA.gov)

Well now I'm confused. The laser was marketed as 100mW but the label says <100mW. It says it complies with 21CFR, but the laser also includes the words "laser pointer" on the metal clip. It states that it is Class III but not whether it is IIIa or IIIb. So which is it?

Is this label illegal for a "pointer" stronger than 5mW?

Either way, this is a potentially dangerous laser product that is capable of lighting a match from 30 cm range, blinding pilots, and causing all kinds of legal problems with the FAA. Let's just say I plan to use it sparingly to point out constellations. I've also read some good tips online, such as always keeping the laser moving and circling stars rather than pointing right at them just in case they are aircraft.

You might also check out this article from Universe Today on the Hazards of Green Laser Pointers, and Some Pointers on the Use of Laser Pointers from Sky & Telescope. Also, I'm not sure if it's the law here, but the Astronomical Society of South Australia recommends carrying your astronomical society membership card with you to show authorities that you are using your laser for educational purposes.

12 Best iPhone Astronomy and Astrophotography Apps You'll Use Constantly

I use Slow Shutter Cam to take photos of the International Space Station streaking overhead, to turn campfire sparks into trails of light, to capture lightning strikes, falling snow, make light paintings, and photograph fireflies. This app does it all!


I used to use The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE) to plan the position of the sun and moon with some success. But once I found out PhotoPills does all that and so much more, I made the permanent switch! PhotoPills includes too many features to list here, but the ones I use most often are sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moon set, twilight times, magic hour times, moon phase calendar, moon position, quick exposure calculator, max exposure to avoid star trails calculator, field of view calculator, and of course the ephemeris. It's on Page 1 of my iPhone, right next to my Astronomy folder (too important to dig for it in the folder).


Also on Page 1 of my iPhone screen, Scope Nights has replaced my folder of weather apps and bookmarks. Although services like meteoblue.com give great detail in their weather forecasts, I prefer the simplicity of color-coded icons for a quick glance at my chances of a clear night. You can set limits on what conditions are too extreme to make observing worthwhile - such as moon phase, temperature, humidity, and wind speed. The app can also notify you if clear conditions are likely that night, giving you a heads up and extra motivation to head out.


Star Walk was one of the first iPhone astronomy apps I got, and it's still one of my favorites. I use it when I'm taking the dog for a walk and want to orient myself or look up a star quickly. I even use it out in the field when I decide I want to photograph a Messier object but hadn't bothered looking up its location ahead of time. I recently used it to find M35 in the foot of Gemini, and its star charts were complete enough to help me zoom in exactly where I needed to. I also use it for some conjunction planning, and to take screen shots for social media comparisons.


I first got into high ISO iPhone photography with Night Modes but soon adopted NightCap as my go to dark photography iPhone app because of its ability to take high quality TIFF images, and take infinite back to back exposures (the only way to go for true iPhone star trail images). I also used NightCap to take my best raw iPhone camera image of the moon with no additional lenses, and other night scenes.


When it comes to iPhone time lapse photography, TimeLapse stands alone. It's the only app I use to take timelapse photos with my phone. I've used it for nature shots, a pine cone experiment, numerous sunsets, cloud videos, crowd videos, and some twilight moon shots.


Moon Globe HD comes in handy for some lunar geography out in the field, or even while I write blog posts on my laptop. It's a quick and easy reference. I use it to identify features for my observing challenges, and look up news items.


Satellite Tracker Plus is great when you're waiting for an ISS pass outside. I don't use it as my primary resource - because nothing beats Heavens Above - but once I know when to go out, it helps me know when and where to start looking or to plan a camera angle ahead of time.


Precise Time gives you live UTC time alongside your local time, which saves the trouble of converting times given in press releases or other websites into local time. It's super simple, extremely accurate, and helped me predict the ISS appearing to the second.


Dark Sky is a great way to look up dark sky maps on the go, or to check the light pollution in an area as you drive through it. It seems to use the same data as Dark Sky Finder, which is a little dated, but nicely integrated into Google Maps.


SkyWeek Plus is what I look at when I'm bored, or when I want to make sure I haven't overlooked any cool night sky objects coming up. It has a dark vision mode, and lets you instantly add things to your phone's calendar. Very nice!


Theodolite is a nice little tool that has a lot of uses. You can use it to reverse look-up the elevation of night sky objects in degrees (point it at the moon and read the degrees rather than look up what elevation the moon is supposed to be at). You can use it as a level for instruments, or as a protractor to determine the angle of your camera or scope. It's also a compass, camera, has zoom, and dark vision modes.


Update: Finally finally finally! New iOS apps like this one let you adjust the ISO exposure settings manually, so you don't have to trick the camera into the right setting by locking it on another target. This is going to make things a lot easier!


That's all for now! Honorable mentions coming soon - but I wanted to cap the list at a dozen.  I'm thinking of doing away with my astronomy app folder and dedicating an entire page to these wonderful apps.

Also, it was fun checking out what was in my app folder almost a year ago to the day. There have been quite a few new additions since then, but definitely some tried and true favorites. 

Hopefully the next year brings even more cool and useful apps for appreciating and playing with the night sky.

iPhone Timelapse Video of Sunset with Crescent Moon (March 3, 2014)

Here is the timelapse video I referred to in an earlier post about the sunset on March 3, 2014 that includes the setting crescent moon. I took this timelapse on my iPhone using the TimeLapse app and then went to the gym. When we got back from the gym the moon was very low over the building next door and I got some nice photos of it with my Canon T5i.

iPhone with the Glif tripod mount on my balcony railing (plugged in so it won't die in the cold)

Turning an iPhone Video into a Sharp Moon Photo

Final product, 5 second iPhone MOV converted to AVI and stacked in Registax

I used my homemade iPhone telescope adapter mount to hold my phone over the eyepiece (digiscoping). I used a 9mm eyepiece on a vintage Meade 285 (60mm, 900mm, f/15). I took the video on March 6, 2014 at 10:32pm ET.

Next, I converted the iPhone MOV file to AVI to work with it in Registax. I also have a blog post outlining that process using the conversion software Streamclip MPEG.

Once it's an AVI file, you can "stack" the video in Registax similar to a stack of still photos.

Here is a short video I put together with slides of my mount construction, the raw MOV file (very shaky because I was actually holding it in the right position over the eyepiece), and the final product. It's amazing how Registax is able to pick out the best bits and align them even with a shaky video like this!

Obviously the moon photo needed to be flipped horizontally to compensate for the angled mirror in the neck of the telescope just before the eyepiece. Hmmm, I bet this has a technical name. [Looking it up] It does! A star diagonal - how pretty.