The camera’s that are now showing up in cellphones and action cameras such as GoPros have come a long way over the years. You’ve probably seen the TV commercials for the Google Pixel producing some amazing star-filled photos. In this article I’ll focus on using a GoPro rather than a cellphone to capture astronomical images and time lapse videos.
I have a GoPro HERO 8 Black and while it does have limitations it can produced some pretty cool astro images.
The HERO 8 Black at this writing is now a couple of years old and the HERO 10 is the latest model offered. If you are in the market for a GoPro I’d recommend the HERO 9 or 10. I have heard that the hot pixel issue discussed later in this article has been addressed or is not near as prominent in those newer models.
The HERO 8 is a waterproof (down to 33ft) action camera with HyperSmooth 2.0 video stabilization. It has a 12 megapixel camera that is capable of shooting 4K video at 60 fps. Other built-in features include Time lapse, Time warp and Night lapse modes. There are also digital lens options including Narrow, Linear, Wide and Super View allowing the user to select the best view size for the setting.