Visual Physics: Wow! That Was Taken With A Cellphone?

ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
David Sitar, Astronomy Laboratory Instructor (Creator)
Institution
Appalachian State University (ASU )
Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/

Abstract: This raw image of the Sun was taken with a Nokia Lumia 521 cellphone camera held to the back end of a 20-mm eyepiece inserted into a Coronado SolarMax II double stacked 60-mm Hydrogen-Alpha solar telescope. With cellphone camera technology advancing so quickly, solar photography is becoming more accessible to amateurs without the hefty costs of high- or low-end CCD cameras. In fact, decent results can be obtained for even some bright nighttime objects imaged through telescopes with nothing more than a cellphone camera. Therefore, if you have a solar telescope or any type of telescope and a cellphone, try taking an image and see what you get. This is also great for those science teachers out there who have telescopes; you can now send your students away after an observing session with some immediate nicely detailed images. The Sun, Moon, bright planets and stars, and, believe it or not, M42 (the Orion Nebula) are all great candidates.

Additional Information

Publication
Sitar, D. and M. Birchard (2014). "Visual Physics." The Physics Teacher 52(5): 308-308. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4872418. Publisher version of record available at: https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1119/1.4872418
Language: English
Date: 2014
Keywords
Nokia Lumia 521 cellphone camera, solar telescope image

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