Smartphone Night scaping
WE ARE ON THE CUSP of a new revolution in astrophotography. Much like the digital revolution of the 1990s when CCD technology overtook film as the popular media for picture-taking, casual astrophotography is about to change forever. The device that is driving this change is probably in almost every reader’s pocket at this very moment — a smartphone.
The mobile phone revolution is a booming business, creating some of the most valuable companies in the world. And as such, the pressure to produce better models is driving improvements at breakneck speed. Not only are smartphones becoming powerful computers that can do practically anything your old desktop model could do, but they also now boast remarkably versatile cameras that open up many possibilities for photography, particularly nightscape imaging.
A pocket camera and more
The app industry that grew in support of smartphones has long provided users the ability to run planetarium programs and observing-planning apps, as well as to take some rudimentary control of a device’s camera Aug/Sep 2019, p. 56).
