iPhone Moon Photo Process and Settings with Manual Camera App

This post describes the process and app settings I used to take a properly exposed photo of the moon using an iPhone 6 without additional lenses or digiscoping methods - essentially straight from the camera. This is the process with no external or extra lens attached to the iPhone. I'll break down the process into the sections of Setup, Settings, and Production. So first, let's look at the setup.

Setup

My setup tonight was just my iPhone 6 with no additional lenses - but that doesn't mean no additional gear at all. I used a piece of plastic that I think was originally meant to hold up your phone if you are watching a movie. I also used my headphone volume shutter release made from a pair of iPhone headphones (basically just the headphones with the earbuds cut off but keeping the volume button as a shutter remote).

Settings

Next, let's look at the app and settings. I used an app called Manual - Custom exposure camera by Little Pixels. I manually adjusted the shutter speed to 1/250 seconds and the ISO to 34. I left the focus on Auto. Then I zoomed in by touching 2 fingers to the display area and spreading them apart. I zoomed all the way in to 3x digital zoom. Digital zoom isn't going to make my actual moon photo any bigger, but it will help me see the exposure better before I take my photos.

These settings worked for my waning crescent moon, which is dimmer than a full moon. If the moon is fuller and brighter you'll want to use an even shorter shutter. The moon is relatively bright, and a lot of times people think they need a long shutter to take night photos, but if you use a long shutter on the moon it will be washed out and over exposed.

In the image data, ISO 34 actually shows up at ISO 32, but hey it's close enough!

Production

I took 18 photos back to back quickly with my volume button on the Apple headphones. I uploaded them to Box so I would have them on my laptop.

I opened the photos in a program called Registax, it's free software that lets you stack multiple photos on top of each other to average out the noise in each image leaving a better approximation (the average) of what is truly there beyond the distortion.

I used 3 alignment points because the face of the moon is so small in the iPhone photos. I didn't tweak much, but it did clean up the image a bit.

Stacking the iPhone moon photos wasn't exactly a waste of time, it did manage to clear it up a bit

I normally do a High Pass layer and make all kinds of subtle adjustments in Photoshop, but there just isn't a whole lot to work with here, so I desaturated the moon to get rid of the yellow and that's it!

I measured the diameter of the moon in the iPhone photo at about 78 pixels, let's round up to 80. 

The moon is about 80 pixels in diameter. This is an improvement from when I tried this on the iPhone 5, in which case the moon was about 50 pixels in diameter.

Side by side look at the final product using the iPhone 6 compared to my Canon T5i

As you can see, taking moon photos on the iPhone with the regular camera lens leaves you wanting more. Granted, there isn't much to look at on the waning crescent side of the moon's face, and with a full moon you can at least see a little bit more contrast in the iPhone image. But when you look at it next to a 'regular' moon photo, in this case one taken with my Canon T5i DSLR on the same night, it's painfully obvious that the iPhone is better used for digiscoping the moon and not taking photos outright.

Quick Moongazing and iPhone Digiscoping

We had a nice clear view of a 95% waxing gibbous moon on Thursday evening (8/27/2015), and our friend Kenny said he wanted to check out my telescope. I usually jump all over those suggestions because I loving sharing this hobby! I told him to grab the binoculars first while I got my scope out of the office [side note: I think I'm going to start referring to our third bedroom office as my 'study' because it sounds super sophisticated and intellectual].

We looked through my Meade 285 refractor for a little bit with both my go-to Meade MA 25mm eyepiece, and my more powerful Orion 6mm Expanse eyepiece. I think Kenny was surprised with how quickly the moon appeared to move through the field of view, and I showed him how I had to adjust the scope to compensate since it doesn't have a motor drive. We saw craters along the terminator, and Kenny thought it would be so creepy if we saw lights flashing back at us.

I took a video of how hard it is to keep an iPhone centered over the eyepiece just right in order to look through the telescope. Yes, I do have an adapter that could have made my life easier, but I was trying to do it quick because we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes! I think I got 5 mosquito bites in the short time we were outside - thanks to our record-setting June rainfall.

Handheld through the 6mm eyepiece of my Meade 285 refractor

A video posted by Eric Teske (@ericteske) on Aug 27, 2015 at 8:54pm EDT

September 27-28 Total Lunar Eclipse in Eastern Time

Eastern Daylight Times for 2015 September 27-28 total lunar eclipse visible from North America. Moon images are from the October 8, 2014 lunar eclipse and are only visual approximations of what to expect. Times converted to EDT from NASA eclipse information PDF.

The total lunar eclipse of September 28, 2015 occurs the night of Sept 27-28 in North America. The entire continental United States will get a view of the total eclipse. Out west, the moon will be entering the Earth's umbra (darkest shadow) while the moon is rising. Everyone east of Missouri will get to see the entire eclipse process from start to finish. It's the LAST total lunar eclipse visible from Indiana until January 21, 2019!

My composite photo of the lunar eclipse from October 8, 2014 - the second in the tetrad of 4 total eclipses between 2014-2015. This photo is hanging on my living room wall!

The composite photo above is from the 2nd total lunar eclipse in the tetrad. A tetrad is literally a "group of four" and is often used to refer to the series of consecutive lunar eclipses in this relatively short period between 2014-2015.

The above photo shows essentially the first half of a full eclipse progression, as the moon enters the Earth's penumbra (lighter shadow) it begins to dim. This part isn't all that impressive to the casual observer but it does show up in photos.

Next, the moon enters the Earth's umbra (darker shadow) and this is when the moon looks like it is being eaten. This is the most dramatic part to watch for observers.

Finally, when the eclipse becomes total when the moon is entirely inside the Earth's umbra. To observers, the moon will look very dark and eerie - a cool and unique sight to see. It really only gets that rusty red color in photographs that have the ability to collect more light than your eyes can.

In October 2014, the moon set before it came all the way out of the Earth's shadow - but this time, on the night of September 27-28 it will be visible for the entire process from start to finish.

One of my photos from the 3rd lunar eclipse in the tetrad on April 4, 2015. In Indiana, this one set before going into total eclipse.

I'm really looking forward to this total lunar eclipse to start on September 27. Here are just a few of the reasons:

• It lasts from 8:11pm to 1:22am so it's not too late at night!
• The moon will be high in the sky during the total eclipse, which means clearer photos with less distortion from the atmosphere.
• It's happening in September so we won't have to deal with mosquitoes or sub-zero temperatures.
• It's the LAST total lunar eclipse of the 2014-2015 tetrad. 
• It's the LAST total lunar eclipse visible from Indiana until January 21, 2019.

Back in Action with 8 Perseids Caught on Camera

My star gazing sabbatical is over, and I'm once again borrowing my mother-in-law's DSLR lenses. I actually had a co-worker ask me the other day why I stopped posting night sky photos! Chris' brother dropped the lenses off last week, just in time for the tail end of the Perseid meteor shower. I put my camera out in my (now fenced-in) back yard with a shutter lock taking 15 sec exposures until the battery died.

I got 550 shots and started sifting through them on Friday morning before work. I found a total of 8 confirmed Perseid meteors originating from the radiant, all with javelin shape, and no light trails in the frames before or after (eliminating other satellites and planes). I also saw 2 other anomalies that are either non-Perseid meteors, or some other kind of flare.

Canon T5i, Composite, 8 Perseid meteors and 2 others, 15 sec, ISO 800, f/4.0, 18mm

I made a rushed composite before work, planning to come home and fix it later. When I tried, I ran into a lot of problems. The light changed over the course of the night with a very thin haze, so layering the brightest pixels from my other images into one composite wasn't very straight forward. Trying to match the background color led to some very faint fuzzy halos around the meteor streaks where you can tell I cut them out. I'm not sure how to get rid of them without dimming the already faint meteors.

At least I got one meteor that stands on its own, this bright one that starts out greenish. A nice catch!

As always, the bonus prize after a night of meteor watching is a nice batch for star trails (in addition to 5 bug bites). I took the time to remove airplanes in this one by simply painting over them with black. Since the black isn't counted when each light pixel is added, it doesn't need to be blended or clean at all. Removing the planes really turned this decent star trail into probably my best, longest north-facing trails. It makes me think of a time warp! I still need to add more foreground objects to compose my photos better, but it's good to be back!

Canon T5i, 522 images stacked in StarStaX, planes removed in Photoshop before stacking with brush tool, each at ISO 800, f/4.0, 18mm, 15 sec, do dark frames, bright Perseid visible in bottom right

Returning Borrowed Equipment

I've been borrowing my mother-in-law's DSLR lenses and camera bag (and camera body until I got my T5i) for a GROSS amount of time. No, literally, it's been 144 weeks - get it? Today I'm returning the camera bag, charger, and lenses so she can bring them on vacation.

It's getting me thinking again about what kind of lens I would/need to buy for myself. And eventually I'll need my own bag - maybe I've been putting it off long enough. We'll see, there's lots to spend money on around the house and yard, so it might have to be a birthday/Xmas ask. I might even try BorrowLenses.com, I keep thinking about it.

Interesting how returning borrowed equipment can be an impetus that gets your mind racing.