Astrophotography Tests

  My new Samsung  Galaxy S25 is said to be suited for decent astrophotography. I suppose for anyone with dark skies, that would be the case. Here we have light pollution that pretty much ruins any attempt. I am Bortle Class 5 and that is halfway between the darkest and the brightest night skies. Not good ... but also not impossible,

 Bortle Class 5 is considered "suburban". It's a challenge to get anything photographed at night but for  the moon, planets and brighter stars. But that doesn't mean I won't try.

 My first try on August 14 looking northeast. I was aimed roughly towards Cassiopeia in hopes of seeing a smudge for the Andromeda Galaxy. I didn't. Looking NE puts me directly in line with Dayton so that is my most unfavorable direction,

 My second try on August 18. This is looking due north and the Big Dipper can be seen centered in the lower part of this shot. The "green" coloration can be removed by adjusting the white balance but this is what I get with no changes.

On Sunday (08/24) I adjusted the white balance to get rid of the green and I shot in the direction of Sagittarius to see if I might be able to capture the center of the Milky Way  galaxy. 

 Though I'm posting just the JPG versions of each photo, I'm also taking them in RAW. And that gives me a little more resolution if I ever get a decent photo editing program (such as Lightroom). You can see that the green is gone and replaced with a more natural view of the night sky. Unfortunately the light pollution is still there.

 The Milky Way is in the upper right portion of this picture.

 So what happens when I zoom in on the Milky Way and do a little adjusting?

 That makes a big difference (even with the free photo editor I'm using - IrfanView). The Milky Way can be seen streaming across the top of this shot. By the way, the sky was clear and cloudless when I took this picture.

 So, bottom line, the astronomical wonders are there, just hidden behind Dayton's light.

 Winter might be a better time to take pictures, just after the passage of a cold front which should clear the air and give me as good a condition that is possible here.