Over the past year, I've used the S23 Ultra for astrophotos and written several web-site articles to hopefully demonstrate how powerful this smartphone is. All the photos were taken in a medium light-polution Bortle 5 (suburban) location. Some articles are a bit more technical involving pushing the limits of what can be achieved with the S23 Ultra.
The potential of this type of smartphone for introducing many to the wonderful hobby of amateur astronomy is astounding imo. There is no lack of publications available on amateur astronomy covering a wide range of interests and equipment at one's disposal. Recently, the Edmund Optics company made freely available for download some of the most useful starter guides for anyone wanting to learn their way around the stars (without today's automated tracking technology). This is how I started my journey back in the 60s. If you are interested, the three wonderful freely available books, still exceptionally useful, from the former Edmund's Scientific Company are available here (along with many others):
I've always believed in starting small (eyes, camera and binoculars) ... these tools and a thirst to familiarize yourself with the night skies and all its wonders can keep you busy and excited for many years. Then if the bug hits, you can migrate to a telescope (I currently don't have a telesope but smaller is usually better for practical reasons ... )
