We live nowhere near a light pole. As a result, I’ve never been more aware of the moon’s position through the seasons or cognizant of what constellations I can see at night out my bedroom window.

It was perhaps inevitable that we’d buy a telescope. Naturally, I wanted to try taking pictures of what we saw.

Astrophotography is not easy when you don’t want to buy extra equipment. All I bought was a cheap mount to attach my smartphone to the telescope’s eyepiece. The extra trick is to use a camera app that gives you more control over the settings. The one I found was called Camera FV-5.

Back in 2022, we set up our telescope and bought a few accessories like a moon filter and extra eyepieces and whatnot. It’s been a few years so I don’t remember the combinations or math anymore. I need to brush up, however, because we’re thinking of trying out the telescope again now that the nights are growing longer and the weather cooler.

Back in 2022, though, by trial and error, we did manage a few good shots:

I mean, these were taken with my rather cheap smartphone clamped to the telescope’s eyepiece, with me fiddling with the shutter speed, ISO settings and whatnot in the FV-5 app. I had no idea what I was doing.

Next time around, I want to go in with notes. My husband really wants to try to get a picture of Mars. I’d be happy just to improve my moon shots. It’s a goal for the fall to give astrophotography another go. I’ll share some pix if we’re even mildly successful.