Hints

Here are some hints on using DeepSkyCamera app

For every device

1. Before you take your first pictures of the night sky with my app please test the app during daylight. Setup a plan, 10 pics each frame 30 sec (or other values for the exposure time. That depends on your phone). Start the plan and check after finish the DNG or JPG files on your device. Don't wait until night to use the app for the first time. Use the app for the first time during daylight and learn how to use the app. Clear nights are rare and you should not waste your time with setting problems or understanding problems.

2. DNG files and JPEG files are stored here per default:

Android/data/de.seebi.deepskycamera/files/Pictures

You can change the path in the menu "Settings".

3. If you don't find DNG files in the directory mentioned above please select type "RAW+JEPG". This should work all the time.

4. Because most of the devices have apertures from 1.6 - 2.2 you should not go higher than ISO 800. I use on LG G ISO 800, on Huawei P ISO 400.

5. Use a powerbank or use an ac/dc adaptor. Because taken pictures with long exposure times is energy consuming!

6.Set your device in airplane mode. The app works when your device receives a call but you can avoid that with the airplan mode.

7. For tracking stars you should use a portable mount: Skywatcher StarAdventurer, iOptron SkyTracker or SkyGuider.

8. Exit the app via menu "Exit". The java process will be killed and teh app does not use any resources. Restart the app as usually.

9. The preview area from the camera sensor is not updated when taking pictures. The preview area seems to be frozen. But thats ok because the camera sensor is busy and can not do two things at the same time. After taking pictures the preview will be shown again.

10. When you press the Stop button during an imaging session it can takes several seconds until the preview shows up again. Android needs some time to cancel the current imaging session and close the camera sensor. It can take up to 10 sec (depends on the phone). Please be patient.

11. Please update to Android 8 or 9 if its possible on your phone. Especially with Android 6 there are some problems when pressing the Stop button during an imaging session. These problems do not exist with Android 7 or higher. The app runs with Android 6 but I think I will stop the support for Android 6 next year.

12. The menu upper right is disabled during an imaging session. The menu is enabled after the imaging session or when you press the Stop button.

Huawei P

Huawei P 9, P10, P20 and P20 Pro: due to the energy saving functions of Huawei the app is set to a hibernate mode when the display is off. The result is that the app can not take pictures anymore. To avoid that please turn the disply always on. You can do that in the settings menu.

On huawei choose RAW+JPEG and set pause to maximum of 15 sec. The app has enough time to read the data from the camera sensor and converts the data into DNG and JPEG.
When the pause is short (e.g. 1 sec) the next pictures is taken while the app reads data from the sensor. As a result no data are written to your device!

Samsung S

On Samsung set pause to 10 sec or more. The app has enough time to read the data from the camera sensor and converts the data into DNG and JPEG.
When the pause is short (e.g. 1 sec) the next picture is taken while the app reads data from the sensor. As a result no data are written to your device!



OnePlus

On OnePlus set pause break to maximum value 30 sec. The app has enough time to read the data from the camera sensor and converts the data into DNG and JPEG.
When the pause is short (e.g. 1 sec) the next pictures is taken while the app reads data from the sensor. As a result no data are written to your device!



Xiaomi

With app version 1.2.9 or higher the interval between two pics can be 5 sec. For app versions until 1.2.8 do this: When you take pictures with an exposure time of 15 sec or longer (especially on Mi8 and Pocophone) you must set the interval between two pics to a high value. E.g. you take pics with 15 sec you should set the interval to 20 sec. When you shoot with the longest exposure time (on Pocophone: 35 sec), the interval must be 70 sec. When the interval is too fast (e.g. 1 sec) the next picture is taken while the app reads data from the sensor. As a result no data are written to your device! Please do experiments what is the correct value of the interval for writing all your pics to the internal memory.



This is only a workaround, until I've fixed this behaviour on Xiaomi devices.


Custom ROMs

DeepSkyCamera app may run with a Custom ROM. But I can not guarantee that the app runs on your Custom ROM without problems. I got reports from users with a Custom ROM that the app runs fine (Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 with Custom Android 8.1/MIUI Pro). But I got also reports from users with Custom ROM that the app does not work (Xiaomi Pocophone F1 with custom ROM, the oroginal Android from Xiaomi works) or the app has other problems (Samsung S6 with Custom ROM: max exposure time 0.0 sec). You have to test your Custom ROM with the app.