Astrophotography The Game Boy Camera Way
July 05, 2017
The limited photographic capabilities offered by Nintendo's 1998 Game Boy Camera accessory have long since been surpassed by even the most basic digital camera, but there is still a hobbyist community out there exploring new ways to use the monochromatic camera for interesting things. Consider this astrophotography project from Alexander Pietrow, an astronomy and instrumentation student of Leiden University in the Netherlands. He recently used a Game Boy Camera combined with a telescope to capture images of the Moon and infinities beyond.
I wondered if it would be possible to do astrophotography with this camera. Searching the internet I was surprised that nobody had tried this before and decided to give it a go. Using the 1838 6'' Fraunhofer telescope in the Old Observatory of Leiden in combination with a 'Gosky Universal Cell Phone Adapter', it was relatively easy to properly align the camera with the telescope eyepiece. The biggest issue was a typical Dutch one: waiting for a cloudless night.
A few weeks later the clouds finally broke up and the Moon was high in the sky together with Jupiter. Not wanting to pass up on this opportunity, I rushed to the observatory and clicked away. The Moon was observed trough the viewfinder for a more zoomed out image and the main telescope for detailed shots. The viewfinder images are not very impressive, although the phase of the moon is clearly visible, especially when compared with a Stellarium image of that night. (Note that telscopes flip the image.) The second moon series was much better, especially when looking at the border between the light and dark sides. We can clearly see craters on the Moon.
He has actual photos of celestial objects that you absolutely must see. I love a good "because I could" vintage technology project and this has to be one of the most "because I could" projects I've ever seen. I don't know what possible use this telescope application has beyond being an interesting lark, but my compliments to Pietrow for his ingenuity. I hope that word of this reaches the Game Boy Camera's original development staff. I bet they would be pleased to learn that their own "because I could" project has been used to photograph other planets.
(Link via Reddit, photo via Alexander Pietrow)