Orion Nebula Captured by Phone: Pushing the Limits of Mobile Astrophotography

It's incredible what can be achieved with a smartphone and a bit of dedication to the night sky! Recently, I managed to capture the magnificent Orion Nebula using just my phone, with a 30-minute total exposure time.

The Process

The journey involved several key steps:

• Acquisition: A single 30-minute exposure was the foundation of this image.
• Stacking: DeepSkyStacker (DSS) was employed to stack the captured frames, a crucial step for reducing noise and enhancing faint details.
• Processing: The stacked image was then refined using GIMP and Snapseed for further adjustments and enhancements.

Location and Conditions

This capture was made from a small village in Czechia, under Bortle scale 4/5 skies. These conditions, while not perfectly dark, provided a good canvas for capturing deep-sky objects.

Seeking Improvement: The Noise Question

While the result is quite stunning, I'm curious about how to achieve even better clarity. The main challenge encountered was the presence of noise. This naturally leads to the question: Can I get better results if I use a longer total exposure?

Longer total exposure times are generally beneficial in astrophotography for several reasons. They allow more photons to be collected by the sensor, which can lead to a higher signal-to-noise ratio. This means fainter details become more apparent, and the overall image can appear smoother and less noisy. For phone astrophotography, where sensor size and light-gathering capabilities are often more limited compared to dedicated astronomical cameras, maximizing exposure time (while managing tracking and noise) can be a key strategy for improvement.

I'm eager to experiment further and push the boundaries of what's possible with mobile astrophotography. Have any of you had similar experiences or tips for reducing noise in phone-based deep-sky captures?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!