I tested a camera lens accessory for stargazing — and it wasn’t great

We took some spectacular footage with the OPPO Discover X9 Professional’s Hasselblad lens equipment, and the somewhat spectacular 230 mm lens provides vital distance, which will be prolonged as much as 40x digital zoom, roughly equal to 920 mm. That’s fairly lengthy vary, and as a really, very, very novice astronomer, I puzzled whether or not OPPO’s lens equipment could be a gateway to some much more novice astrophotography. Given the rise of sensible digicam telephones, computational pictures, and devoted astrophotography modes, I got down to reply whether or not smartphones are lastly catching as much as entry-level telescopes for informal sky-watching.

Earlier than I braced myself for the chilly, I did some fast math to set my expectations. “My Newtonian telescope has a 750 mm focal size, simply shiny sufficient to make out nebulae and galaxies on a darkish night time, similar to Andromeda, with a 28mm lens (27x magnification).

OPPO’s lens equipment actually doesn’t have the identical capabilities as a telescope — except we throw some software program zoom on prime. The 230 mm telephoto lens interprets to roughly a 10x zoom in comparison with the telephone’s major 23 mm lens, or roughly 6.6× relative to 35 mm, which is near the sphere of view of the human eye. Digital zoom can push this even additional, as much as round 40x, however software program zoom doesn’t assist in all-important gentle seize.

Moreover, the X9 Professional’s small 1/1.56-inch periscope digicam sensor is round 0.4x smaller than an APS-C sensor and even smaller than the full-frame cameras normally used for novice astrophotography. To not point out, inserting glass and mirrors in entrance of glass and mirrors is a recipe for decreasing gentle seize and introducing artifacts like chromatic aberration and vignetting.

In a nutshell, I’m not anticipating the Hasselblad lens and Discover X9 Professional combo to carry out miracles. However paired with my go-to equatorial mount, I’d a minimum of take pleasure in secure long-term exposures (way more sturdy than software-based astrophotography modes). However what, if something, are you able to see within the night time’s sky with this setup? Properly, moon craters are seen even by way of a pair of binoculars, so I began there.

The publicity is spot on, however the subject of view is comparatively broad, even at 40x, which doesn’t come near filling the sphere of view with the moon. So we have now to crop in, and the mix of optical and digital zoom leaves a lot to be desired by way of element. The craters are there, however there’s hardly any element to talk of. Disappointing, particularly given how clear the night time was. I in all probability would have been higher off attempting to take an image by way of my telescope viewfinder, which doesn’t bode nicely.

After seeing how underwhelming the moon photographs had been with the telephoto extender, I shifted my focus to star clusters: Pleiades and the celebrities within the area of the Orion Nebula (I believe. It wasn’t straightforward to see precisely what the digicam was pointed at, even with my monitoring mount, as a result of the display was basically black).

Whereas I’m fairly impressed at simply how a lot zoom the setup can supply, I discover the outcomes underwhelming — though I wasn’t making an attempt something approaching the intense, colourful footage you’ll see taken with top-tier gear. You may clearly make out the clusters, which is actually a win, and you may make out various stars, because of a little bit of RAW modifying. Nonetheless, even my cleanest photographs are unfocused; stars seem as spherical, processed blobs somewhat than twinkling factors of sunshine, and there isn’t a lot in the way in which of pink or blue colours.

Sadly, OPPO’s digicam app setup isn’t well-suited for this kind of pictures. Whereas you need to use handbook management for longer exposures, distant focus, RAW, and excessive ISO settings, the outcomes got here out unfocused, and the image is mirrored because of the extender. You’re pressured to modify to OPPO’s Tele Lens Extender digicam mode to enhance the main target, however you then lose handbook controls. The perfect I may obtain was a 10-second shutter time, which simply wasn’t adequate to select many stars.

I used to be tempted to experiment with different digicam apps and RAW stacking to see if I may obtain higher outcomes, however my intestine feeling was that I’d be losing my time. What you actually need for even basic-level astrophotography is a pleasant, shiny digicam sensor and lens, strong long-range optics, and software program choices to assist seize and shot stacking. After slightly experimentation, it’s clear {that a} telephoto extender on a smartphone gained’t get me there.

I used to be way more impressed simply capturing bigger parts of the night time’s sky with the digicam’s bigger major sensor with the widest aperture — no telephoto extender connected. The outcomes had been way more corresponding to the Pixel’s astrophotography mode and former snaps I’ve grabbed with the help of Samsung’s Knowledgeable RAW. I additionally grabbed one other moon shot merely holding my telephone as much as my telescope’s eyepiece, which once more actually wasn’t sensible however appears much better than the shot utilizing the lens extender.

Smartphone telephoto extenders gained’t change a correct telescope or giant sensor for severe astrophotography. For informal photographs, a secure tripod and first digicam lens — or mounting the telephone to a telescope — will give much better outcomes. The Hasselblad lens is enjoyable, however the stars stay largely out of attain. Reside and be taught.