[HN Gopher] Earth rotation limits in-body image stabilization to...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Earth rotation limits in-body image stabilization to 6.3 stops
       (2020)
        
       Author : pwnna
       Score  : 137 points
       Date   : 2024-05-16 03:17 UTC (19 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (thecentercolumn.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (thecentercolumn.com)
        
       | kqr wrote:
       | 6.3 stops is a lot, though. That's basically the fully usable
       | aperture range of a kit zoom lens.
        
         | nimbleal wrote:
         | Yes, or considered another way 1/25th shutter vs almost
         | 1/2000th, ie a lot of motion blur vs. virtually nothing will be
         | able to provoke blurring
        
           | siriaan wrote:
           | Except a moving subject, of course.
        
             | SassyBird wrote:
             | At 1/2000th both a running cheetah and a running squirrel
             | are completely frozen. I haven't yet found anything that
             | isn't frozen with that setting. I suspect at that point
             | you're in the domain of bullets, very outstretched springs
             | and the like.
             | 
             | Edit: yeah, a speeding bullet caught at 1/5000th:
             | <https://flickr.com/photos/hoohaaphotos/5587502201/>
        
               | dale_glass wrote:
               | Stabilization doesn't help with subject movement, it only
               | helps with the camera's shake.
               | 
               | So with this level of stabilization, you'll take a
               | picture of a running cheetah at 1/25 as if it were 1/2000
               | only as far as the stability of the camera is concerned.
               | So if you're not tracking the cheetah you'll get a sharp
               | background because the shaking of your hands has been
               | nullified, but the cheetah is still moving within the
               | frame and still blurry.
        
         | noselasd wrote:
         | What are these "stops" in this context, for the non-photo nerds
         | ?
        
           | poulpy123 wrote:
           | it's an abstraction of the aperture size and exposition time.
           | If you expose twice as long it gives the same light than an
           | aperture twice the surface. Those 2 are discrete in camera,
           | so it is abstracted as stops. Exposure time is limited by
           | movement, and aperture size is limited by the optics itself.
           | Sensor stabilization allows to gain "stops" by extending the
           | exposition time before the image becoming blurry from the
           | photographer movement, thus allowing as much more light to
           | come
        
           | formerly_proven wrote:
           | A stop generally is a doubling/halving of light intensity at
           | the sensor. For apertures this means a factor of sqrt(2) on
           | the diameter (because the area is what matters), for exposure
           | times a doubling/halving of the time.
           | 
           | "Stops of stabilization" in this specific context refers to a
           | standardized CIPA test which determines a shutter speed where
           | the image remains acceptably sharp. They then calculate the
           | number of stops to 1/focal-length, which is a rule of thumb
           | for getting sharp images from the 1950s. So if a 200mm lens
           | produced a sharp image at 1/10s in the CIPA test, then that
           | would be 1/10 -> 1/20 -> 1/40 -> 1/80 -> 1/160 -> 1/200 about
           | 4.3 "stops of stabilization".
           | 
           | The results from the CIPA test don't really hold up to the
           | real world though once you move beyond ~4 stops.
        
         | vouaobrasil wrote:
         | However, it's not the aperture range that matters.
         | Theoretically, if earth were not rotating, then 10 stops would
         | still be useful for long-exposure photography. In other words,
         | the stop differences in stabilization are more useful when you
         | think of then in terms of shutter speed, NOT aperture.
        
       | tetris11 wrote:
       | I still don't quite follow the explanation. The duck and I are on
       | the surface of the same body and are rotating together,
       | maintaining a constant distance... why does Earth rotation need
       | to be corrected for?
        
         | aljgz wrote:
         | Let's do a small though experiment: Assume you have fixed your
         | camera and the duck on a surface. Then while taking the photo,
         | you rotate the surface. The motion sensor in the camera tries
         | to cancel out this motion, which is suitable for taking a photo
         | of something that's not fixed on the surface, which means it
         | does not work well for the duck that's moving with the camera.
        
         | seszett wrote:
         | It's explained here:
         | 
         | > _Your camera, which is using its IBIS system to attempt to
         | keep everything as still as possible, may not realize that you
         | are rotating with your subject and will instead try to zero out
         | any rotation of the camera, including that of the Earth_
         | 
         | The problem is that the stabilization system tries to
         | compensate for the rotation of Earth (because it can't make the
         | difference between the rotation of Earth, which shouldn't be
         | compensated for, and the movement of the holder which should
         | be).
         | 
         | So it would work if you were taking a photo of a subject _not_
         | rotating together with the Earth. Like the stars.
        
           | tetris11 wrote:
           | I guess I couldn't quite grok how IBIS would measure the
           | Earth's rotation whilst being on Earth, but as I've now just
           | learned (through various slaps of the forehead) a perfectly
           | vertical spinning gyroscope will definitely tilt with time
           | due to the Earth's rotation and this is measurable to high
           | degrees of precision.
        
             | anilakar wrote:
             | Not just randomly tilt - it will align itself with the
             | poles of a spinning celestial body. It's used in
             | applications that can't rely on correct magnetic variation,
             | like surveying and aircraft inertial navigation systems.
        
           | thrdbndndn wrote:
           | Why does it stop at Earth's rotation? What about revolution
           | around the Sun?
        
             | blueflow wrote:
             | It doesn't.
        
               | Euphorbium wrote:
               | Eventually we will have to compensate for gallactic
               | rotation.
        
               | viraptor wrote:
               | I never thought of that one. It's fun to think "we know
               | the whole universe isn't spinning very fast, because our
               | gyros are stable". Feels both obvious and somehow bigger-
               | than-life to me.
        
               | zamalek wrote:
               | We are not kinetically bound to the galactic center,
               | there is no friction causing earth to remain "upright" in
               | respect to the galaxy. Earth is also a freely rotating
               | inertial body and, even though wobbly, it is itself a
               | gyroscope.
               | 
               | The next level of stabilization would probably be
               | gravitational waves.
        
               | jerich wrote:
               | Anyone who's read the short story "The Billiard Ball" by
               | Asimov would have taken it into account.
        
             | seszett wrote:
             | It also does track the revolution of the Earth around the
             | Sun, and that of the Sun around the Milky Way, as well as
             | the various influences over the Milky Way that make it go
             | less than straight on its way towards the Great Attractor.
             | 
             | Those movements just happen to be slow enough that they
             | don't limit image stabilization to 6.3 stops.
        
               | thrdbndndn wrote:
               | I still don't quite get it.
               | 
               | Under what definition the Earth's revolution is "slower"
               | than its rotation?
               | 
               | Why can the camera's stabilization system detect the
               | rotation and correct it (and causes undesirable result)
               | but not the revolution?
        
               | _ph_ wrote:
               | The relevant "speed" is the change of the direction you
               | are pointing at. The Earth rotates around itself in 24
               | hours, but around the Sun in 365 days, so the daily
               | rotation is 365x as fast. We also rotate around the
               | center of the Milky Way every couple of hundreds of
               | millions of years.
        
               | thrdbndndn wrote:
               | Ah, so the angle (orientation?) is what actually matters?
               | It makes sense now.
               | 
               | Thanks!
        
               | _ph_ wrote:
               | At least with respect to the influence of the Earths
               | rotation. With respect to compensating actual camera
               | shake, the modern systems correct 5 axis's. 3 for
               | rotation around the 3 space axis's, and 2 translational,
               | which leaves only motion towards or away from the motive
               | uncorrected for (which usually only expresses itself in
               | the need of refocussing, but that usually is far beyond
               | camera shake, except for macro photography).
        
             | zamalek wrote:
             | Per my other comment: Earth isn't attached to the sun, the
             | sun isn't attached to the galactic center (they are
             | orbiting). They are independent rotational frames of
             | reference. They are also gyroscopes in their own right.
             | 
             | As far as taking pictures of other things on Earth, at
             | least. Taking a picture of another planet/star/galaxy would
             | also face similar challenges.
        
               | thrdbndndn wrote:
               | What's the difference between our "attachment" to Earth
               | compared to Earth's attachment to the Sun? Aren't both
               | doing circular motion due to gravity (in us-Earth's case,
               | gravity + support force from the ground) and inertia?
        
               | zamalek wrote:
               | The Earth is in freefall above the sun. We are not in
               | freefall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall
        
         | lolc wrote:
         | The opposite: Earth rotation is measured by the camera and
         | can't be easily distinguished from camera rotation relative to
         | earth. So image stabilization will also correct for earth
         | rotation, which is undesirable.
        
         | yetihehe wrote:
         | It's about actual gyroscopes (motion sensors), not optical
         | stabilisation. Gyroscopes in cameras are now so good they can
         | pick up earth rotation. Perfect for stabilising image of stars,
         | not so good for stabilising imae of duck translating over those
         | stars. For that you would need optical stabilisation. In-body
         | stabilisation is inertial, not optical.
        
         | Gravityloss wrote:
         | There was an escape system in the Soyuz rocket that fired if
         | the rocket tilted too much. It was based on gyroscopes.
         | 
         | Once, a launch was aborted just before liftoff. The rocket
         | stayed on the pad and the cosmonauts were sitting in the
         | spacecraft for some time. Suddenly the abort system fired and
         | pulled the capsule from the rocket. They landed safely on
         | parachutes.
         | 
         | It was discovered that earth had rotated and the gyroscope had
         | detected the tilt of the rocket, so it fired the escape system.
        
           | aspenmayer wrote:
           | I think you're mixing up different launches: Soyuz 7K-OK No.1
           | and Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L
           | 
           | Soyuz 7K-OK No.1 was uncrewed and likely had the quirk with
           | the gyros. One person near the launch on the ground was
           | killed.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_7K-OK_No.1
           | 
           | > Initially, it was suspected that the booster had been
           | bumped when the gantry tower was put back in place following
           | the abort and that this somehow managed to trigger the LES,
           | but a more thorough investigation found a different cause.
           | During the attempted launch, the booster switched from
           | external to internal power as it normally would do, which
           | then activated the abort sensing system. The Earth's rotation
           | caused the rate gyros to register an approximately 8deg tilt
           | 27 minutes after the aborted liftoff, which the abort sensing
           | system then interpreted as meaning that the booster had
           | deviated from its flight path, and thus it activated the LES.
           | The abort sensing system in the Soyuz was thus redesigned to
           | prevent a recurrence of this unanticipated design flaw. On
           | the other hand, the LES had also worked flawlessly and
           | demonstrated its ability to safely pull cosmonauts from the
           | booster should an emergency arise as it did years later in
           | the Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L abort (26 September 1983).
           | 
           | The emergency condition of the Soyuz 7K-ST No.16L abort was
           | not caused by rotation of the Earth, but by multiple failures
           | that caused damage to the launch vehicle:
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_7K-ST_No.16L
           | 
           | > The crew was sitting on the pad awaiting fueling of the
           | Soyuz-U booster to complete prior to liftoff. Approximately
           | 90 seconds before the intended launch, a bad valve caused
           | nitrogen pressurisation gas to enter the RP-1 turbopump of
           | the Blok B strap-on. The pump began spinning up, but with no
           | propellant in it, the speed of rotation quickly exceeded its
           | design limits which caused it to rupture and allow RP-1 to
           | leak out and start a fire which quickly engulfed the base of
           | the launch vehicle. Titov and Strekalov could not see what
           | was happening outside, but they felt unusual vibrations and
           | realized that something was amiss. The launch control team
           | activated the escape system but the control cables had
           | already burned through, and the Soyuz crew could not activate
           | or control the escape system themselves. The backup radio
           | command to fire the LES required 2 independent operators to
           | receive separate commands to do so and each act within 5
           | seconds, which took several seconds to occur. Then explosive
           | bolts fired to separate the descent module from the service
           | module and the upper launch payload shroud from the lower,
           | the escape system motor fired, dragging the orbital module
           | and descent module, encased within the upper shroud, free of
           | the booster with an acceleration of 14 to 17g (137 to 167
           | m/s2) for five seconds. According to Titov, "We could feel
           | the booster swaying from side to side. Then there was a
           | sudden vibration and a jerking sensation as the LES
           | activated".
        
         | zamalek wrote:
         | In terms of flatland:
         | 
         | Ignore the camera. Instead you have a planet (a circle in
         | flatland), a gyroscope (an arrow that always points in the same
         | direction _on the page_ in flatland), and Mr Square.
         | --> [.]                  |             /----\             |
         | |             \----/
         | 
         | Start off at noon, with Mr Square and the arrow at the top of
         | the planet, the gyroscope to the left of Mr Square pointing at
         | him. Now progress time by 6 hours, by rotating the planet
         | clockwise by 90 degrees. Mr Square and the gyroscope will move
         | with the surface of the planet, resulting in them being on the
         | right side of the circle on the page (the gyroscope above Mr
         | Square on the page). Mr Square's feet will be on the surface of
         | the planet, meaning his rotation matched the planet. However,
         | the gyroscope always points in the same direction _on the
         | page._ It 's now pointing at the sky.
         | /----\             |    | -->             \----/-[.]
         | 
         | In conclusion: both Mr Square and the gyroscope move with the
         | surface of the planet - in exactly the same way. However, Mr
         | Square will always be standing (along with everything else on
         | the planet), while the gyroscope always points in the same
         | direction on the page (irrespective of the time of day). A
         | camera using the gyroscope would have to account for that.
         | 
         | We wouldn't have the same issue on a (non-rotating) space
         | station. That's why planetary rotation is blamed.
        
           | legulere wrote:
           | I asked myself how the gyroscope manages to point always to
           | point to the same direction. The answer is that only objects
           | moving translational form an inertial frame, rotating objects
           | don't:
           | 
           | > Due to Earth's rotation, its surface is not an inertial
           | frame of reference. The Coriolis effect can deflect certain
           | forms of motion as seen from Earth, and the centrifugal force
           | will reduce the effective gravity at the equator.
           | Nevertheless, it is a good approximation of an inertial
           | reference frame in many low precision applications.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_frame_of_reference
        
         | contravariant wrote:
         | Well if it keeps pointing in the exact same direction then it
         | would stay fixed on whatever star it is currently pointing
         | towards.
         | 
         | Which is normally not a problem, but relative to something on
         | the surface of the Earth the stars do move.
         | 
         | So I guess you should ask people to stand directly in front of
         | Polaris if at all possible.
        
       | quonn wrote:
       | Would it be possible to correct for the rotation by counter
       | rotating if the orientation of the camera is known (or determined
       | by GPS + compass)?
        
       | isoprophlex wrote:
       | > The second solution is much more plausible, but still very
       | difficult. The user would have to be pointing the camera at the
       | subject for long enough such that the drift in their aim at the
       | subject is smaller than the drift from the rotation of the earth.
       | This is also implausible. What is concerning though, is that this
       | second method is one that could work very well to cancel out
       | Earth's rotation on the CIPA specified stabilization test
       | apparatus.
       | 
       | So, basically dieselgate but for image stabilization
        
         | nick7376182 wrote:
         | It seems the camera could use optical flow to get a baseline
         | reading and calibrate the inertial frame offsets. They don't
         | need to point accurately for a long time?
         | 
         | Or maybe that is the method they assume for the second solution
         | and they calculated that it's infeasible.
        
       | DoctorOetker wrote:
       | This can be fixed in software:
       | 
       | you can back calculate orientations with high pass filterd gyro
       | data, to rotate the unfiltered gyro date into the current
       | reference frame, then low pass the unfiltered but rotation
       | corrected gyro data to get the earth rotation axis in the current
       | reference frame, then one can estimate the expected rotation that
       | should be ignored.
        
       | t0mas88 wrote:
       | You don't need GPS to figure out the correction for this.
       | Inertial navigation systems in aircraft (which use very
       | stabilised platforms with a lot of math involved) worked before
       | GPS was available.
       | 
       | It helps to have a rough indication of the current latitude on
       | startup, but you can also figure it out from the gyro outputs.
       | Just takes longer.
       | 
       | With modern sensors (solid state laser gyroscopes) it has all
       | become a lot smaller so if you really want to you can do this in
       | a camera. It's just probably going to be too expensive for what
       | it brings, because 6+ stops of stabilisation is a lot already.
        
         | crubier wrote:
         | Aerospace grade laser gyroscopes are incredibly expensive (and
         | bulky), and even then, they still have massive drift after
         | several hours. If you don't have GPS to relocalize precisely at
         | least every day, there is no way you can know the location of
         | the camera on earth for more than a day, even with state of the
         | art aerospace stuff
        
           | TaylorAlexander wrote:
           | Realistically GPS is the answer, but it's notable that you
           | could also use a simple light sensor combined with accurate
           | clocks to get your position on earth:
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_level_geolocator
        
             | vmfunction wrote:
             | > Recording light levels over time Wonder how much time is
             | needed to determine location.
        
               | TaylorAlexander wrote:
               | You just need to determine the time of sunrise and sunset
               | relative to a known location and you get a rough idea of
               | latitude and longitude.
        
           | labcomputer wrote:
           | > they still have massive drift after several hours. If you
           | don't have GPS to relocalize precisely at least every day
           | 
           | I think you may be confusing two concepts: Measurement of
           | true north and latitude via gyro (what the GP is talking
           | about) and inertial navigation systems (which, yes, do
           | drift).
           | 
           | You can measure those two things with just a single-axis gyro
           | and no external references using a technique called "gyro-
           | compassing". In fact, most internal navigation systems use
           | gyro-compassing to directly measure true north and latitude
           | to align the system on initial startup.
        
           | t0mas88 wrote:
           | But the location of the camera doesn't matter. You only need
           | to figure out very roughly at which latitude you are to know
           | by how much to compensate for earth rotation. And you can do
           | that with the sensors that you're already using to do the
           | stabilisation. That was my point... no need for GPS.
        
         | throw0101c wrote:
         | > _You don 't need GPS to figure out the correction for this._
         | 
         | Perhaps not, but a lot of cameras already have it for
         | geotagging purposes (EXIF), so why not use it:
         | 
         | *
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cameras_which_provide_...
         | 
         | * https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/best-
         | camera...
        
         | Rinzler89 wrote:
         | _> Inertial navigation systems in aircraft (which use very
         | stabilised platforms with a lot of math involved) worked before
         | GPS was available._
         | 
         | Inertial measurement units for aircrafts and submarines cost as
         | much as a house in California. Good luck putting those in a
         | phone.
        
           | ben_w wrote:
           | The IMUs that existed on aircraft _before the invention of
           | GPS_ have been superseded by the ones which actually are in
           | your phone, in much the same way and for much the same reason
           | that a $20 Casio F-91w keeps better time than a fancy Rolex
           | that costs more than a house in California: electronics are
           | cheaper and better than mechanical systems.
           | 
           | We have, naturally, _also_ made better IMUs for places where
           | it matters, ones which won 't fit in your phone.
           | 
           | The question is therefore not suited to "aircraft grade, yes
           | or no?", it's "how expensive is the cheapest IMU that's good
           | enough for the specific need?" which in this case itself
           | depends on how many stops is desired.
        
             | wkat4242 wrote:
             | Actually that F91W does not keep very good time.
             | 
             | There pretty excellent if you keep them on a shelf bit if
             | you run around outside in the hot and cold (you know, like
             | people use a watch) they'll deviate quickly. Because they
             | don't have a temperature controlled (or even compensated)
             | oscillator. A real TXCO (basically putting the crystal
             | inside a temp calibrated oven) is not feasible on a watch
             | battery but compensation sure would be.
        
               | ben_w wrote:
               | I picked it not because it's good, but to illustrate the
               | cheapest digital is still better than any analog
               | mechanism that money can buy.
        
           | labcomputer wrote:
           | Well, that, and there's no such thing as a "solid state laser
           | gyro". I believe the GP is confusing MEMS solid-state gyros
           | and laser-ring gyros (which _can_ use a solid state laser,
           | but AFAIK aren 't ever called "solid state laser gyro").
           | 
           | MEMS gyros have too much bias drift (both on a unit basis due
           | to fab processes and on a temperature basis) to be
           | practically useful here. You _can_ measure the earth 's
           | rotation with a MEMS gyro, but you're really at the limit.
        
             | jjk166 wrote:
             | Laser ring gyros are referred to as solid state laser
             | gyros.
        
             | tonyarkles wrote:
             | Heh, while I get what you're saying... despite being
             | somewhat pedantic... there are in fact MEMS FOGs now too
             | :). https://www.anellophotonics.com/technology
        
         | svalorzen wrote:
         | I mean, surely if you are doing something that requires this
         | level of precision, you could just ask the user to input its
         | current known location? I doubt that even if the user misdialed
         | by ten or twenty meters the difference in compensation would
         | matter (or even if the camera was actually moving around).
        
         | akira2501 wrote:
         | > worked before GPS was available.
         | 
         | Worked makes it seem like you throw a switch and it just gives
         | you position data. Those units take anywhere from 6 to 10
         | minutes to align, if you move the platform, it will error out
         | and you must restart the alignment. The current systems take
         | their initial fix from GPS, but the initial systems, the
         | operator had to manually know and then key that information
         | into the unit.
         | 
         | "Worked" with extreme care operated by a qualified
         | professional.
        
       | Asraelite wrote:
       | > The first isn't a good solution for many reasons. Don't have
       | GPS signal? Shooting next to a magnet? Your system won't work.
       | 
       | These seem trivial to work around. Just store the last known
       | position and use that. It's rare that you'll be without a GPS
       | signal or beside a magnet, and you certainly won't be traveling
       | long distances in those conditions. And since when do magnets
       | block GPS signals?
        
         | sokoloff wrote:
         | It's not that a magnet blocks GPS signals, but it does affect
         | the compass in the context of using 6 of the 9 degrees of
         | freedom in the first proposed solution: "Use the camera's GPS,
         | accelerometer, and compass to calculate exactly where it is
         | pointed and its latitude. " (This solution should also do
         | sensor fusion with the gyroscope, not just accelerometer and
         | compass for orientation from a 9DoF system.)
        
       | GuB-42 wrote:
       | On the other hand, that should be awesome for astrophotography.
        
         | SamBam wrote:
         | I believe that fancy astrophotography tripods already do that
         | rotation for you, right?
         | 
         | I think that for astrophotography, the shutter times are so
         | long that you _have_ to build it into the tripod, instead of
         | relying on the tiny amount of stabilization that can be done
         | in-camera.
         | 
         | Although maybe it would be helpful to cancel out some motor
         | noise of vibrations from the tripod. But probably the existing
         | image stabilization already does this.
        
           | matthew-wegner wrote:
           | Pentax cameras take a different approach with stabilization--
           | rather than stabilize inside lens, which means every lens is
           | shipping its own stabilization solution, they stabilize the
           | sensor itself.
           | 
           | It limits stabilization to two axes, but now any lens is
           | essentially stabilized. And it also lets them do some tricks,
           | since it's so integrated. One is to do sub-pixel sensor
           | shifts for higher res photos, and another is to do
           | astrophotography tracking when GPS data is available.
           | 
           | Much more limited in scope than a full tracking gimbal, but
           | not bad considering it's built into the camera (earlier
           | bodies had a GPS attachment that slotted into the hot shoe
           | connector): https://www.lonelyspeck.com/pentax-k-1-mark-ii-
           | astrophotogra...
        
             | Espressosaurus wrote:
             | Most cameras these days--other than the low end and the
             | very high end--have IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization)
             | built in, and then stabilization built into the longer
             | lenses (typically > 100mm). In higher-end/more recent
             | cameras that both IBIS and lens stabilization can work
             | together to improve how effectively the system works. I
             | don't know if it's true of universally, but the recent
             | cameras in Nikon's ecosystem which I'm familiar with use a
             | 5-axis IBIS unit. A quick search suggests the K-1ii and
             | some other Pentax cameras also moved to 5-axis IBIS--
             | probably one of the reasons most brands are claiming 5+
             | stops in-body these days.
             | 
             | OM-1, formerly Olympus, does has some very cool tricks
             | using the tiny micro 4/3s sensor combined with a sick IBIS
             | unit allowing hand-held astrophotography that the larger
             | companies haven't bothered with.
        
             | shagie wrote:
             | This is also how any IS lenses for film cameras work since
             | moving the film around isn't entirely practical.
             | 
             | Nikon: https://www.nikonusa.com/learn-and-
             | explore/c/products-and-in...
             | 
             | You can see the VR lens element there.
             | 
             | The Canon version: https://www.canon-
             | europe.com/pro/infobank/image-stabilisatio...
        
           | Espressosaurus wrote:
           | Fancy astrophotography tripods--really, the mount--do that
           | rotation for you. That's why they exist. Even fancier ones
           | exist that permit close-to-arbitrary slewing. Those can be
           | used as a go-to-mount where with the right software, it can
           | image wherever in the sky you're pointed, take the current
           | time, and plate solve for where it's pointed, then finally
           | point at whatever target you actually want to shoot.
           | 
           | For the very long exposure times, you can also hook a second
           | camera up and run closed loop control on a specific star to
           | keep your primary image sensor trained on the correct target
           | to even tighter tolerances. There's companies making cameras
           | that combine both the primary and secondary camera into a
           | single housing so you don't need to fit a second camera +
           | lens to your setup, or insert a prism to pick off part of the
           | image to go to a second camera.
           | 
           | Amateur astrophotography today does tricks you needed access
           | to a dedicated lab to do in previous decades. It's amazing!
        
           | throw0101d wrote:
           | > _I believe that fancy astrophotography tripods already do
           | that rotation for you, right?_
           | 
           | There are various types of mounts, and each type can be
           | either basic or fancy. The specific type of mount that deals
           | with rotation of the sky (around the north/south stars):
           | 
           | * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_mount
           | 
           | You can can get non-fancy ones (US$ 240):
           | 
           | * https://optcorp.com/collections/equatorial-
           | mounts/products/o...
           | 
           | Or fancy ones ($20K):
           | 
           | * https://optcorp.com/collections/equatorial-
           | mounts/products/a...
        
         | dakr wrote:
         | The issue is rotation of the sky about the line of sight axis.
         | Whether the exposures are short or long, over time the sky will
         | rotate more than what an in-camera system can compensate for
         | (the amount of rotation depends on location/time/direction).
         | Over these timescales a rotator that can perform larger
         | movements is needed. This can be provided by an equatorial
         | mount or an internal rotator.
        
         | bongodongobob wrote:
         | It has no bearing. Tracking is how you keep stars from
         | smearing, not stabilization.
        
       | moi2388 wrote:
       | Can somebody ELI5 this to me?
       | 
       | The image with the 2 earths.. that only works if the camera is
       | not also on the ground, but it is? How is the rotation of the
       | object and the camera not identical? Why would it rotate
       | 'upwards'?
       | 
       | Also, if the issue is relative motion or rotation between camera
       | and object, wouldn't two sensors, one on the camera and one on
       | the subject be able to solve this, since we can see if their
       | rotations/movement match up or not?
        
         | SamBam wrote:
         | Imagine the camera _were_ floating just above the surface of
         | the Earth, and also that it had perfect image stabilization.
         | This image stabilization would keep the camera always oriented
         | in the same direction. Same direction relative to what? To the
         | rest of the universe. So if it was pointing right at a star, it
         | would continue pointing directly at that star as it went around
         | and around the Earth. From our perspective on the surface, the
         | camera would appear to be flipping over itself as it kept
         | pointing at that star.
         | 
         | Unfortunately, this would be pretty bad for taking a picture of
         | something that was right in front of the camera (relative to
         | the surface of the Earth). You'd be in front of the camera,
         | ready for your picture, and the camera would appear start
         | rotating as it kept that distant star in view.
         | 
         | So with a perfect image stabilizer, this is what the camera is
         | actually trying to do, even when standing on the Earth with a
         | tripod. It actually senses the rotation of the Earth, and tries
         | to cancel it out, just like it would cancel out your hands
         | shaking. But while it's good to cancel out your hands shaking
         | (because that's a motion that's independent of the subject of
         | the photo), it's not good to cancel out the rotation of the
         | Earth (because the subject of the photo is actually moving with
         | you).
        
           | thrdbndndn wrote:
           | > Same direction relative to what? To the rest of the
           | universe
           | 
           | By this logic, the Earth's revolution would also cause
           | similar issue, and even worse. But in reality only the
           | rotation does.
           | 
           | I think at least some part of your explanation does not
           | calculate.
        
             | Filligree wrote:
             | The Earth's revolution around the sun? What makes you think
             | it doesn't? It's just that the effect is 1/365 the size, on
             | the same axis as the rotation.
        
               | Karellen wrote:
               | The same axis of rotation? Pretty sure they're about
               | 23deg off.
        
               | Filligree wrote:
               | Alright, close-ish to the same axis.
        
             | SamBam wrote:
             | It does. A perfect gyro will remain on a single axis
             | relative to the rest of the universe while the Earth goes
             | around the sun, and while the galaxies swirl around.
             | 
             | I'll leave it to you to figure out how "perfect" it would
             | need to be, and what the actual error that the stabilizer
             | would need to account for if the gyroscope is accurate
             | enough to detect the motion of the Earth around the sun,
             | compared with the error created by the Earth's rotation.
        
         | llm_trw wrote:
         | The position of the gyro is attached to the earth surface but
         | its orientation is not. See Foucault's Pendulum.
        
         | exitb wrote:
         | https://youtu.be/1zJ9FnQXmJI
        
         | mikewarot wrote:
         | We all want to keep missiles out of the hands of bad people.
         | 
         | Parts to make _really good_ cameras could be taken out and used
         | in missiles, to tell them where to go.
         | 
         | So we now have laws to keep those really good parts out of
         | cameras, for safety. Cameras still work fine, but you need a
         | tripod to get good pictures when it's dark out.
        
       | imglorp wrote:
       | Is a plain phone gyroscope enough to detect Earth rotation? Is
       | there an app for that?
        
       | Delmololo wrote:
       | You should be able to calculate it out by telling the user to
       | press a button and after this, not rotating the camera away.
       | 
       | Right?
       | 
       | Might just not be practical at all.
       | 
       | On the other hand, shouldn't the earth rotate fast enough to
       | figure this out in a short timeframe while the photographer
       | starts looking through the finder?
        
         | mikhailfranco wrote:
         | Yes, basically Method (2) with stable measurement window. Just
         | put the camera down on a stable surface, click button. Let
         | system wait some ms to allow click disturbance to pass, then
         | integrate signal over some fixed time to establish the
         | rotation, then pick up and continue...
        
       | gwill wrote:
       | i'm curious how the OM-1 MK2 gets around this to achieve 8.5
       | stops.
       | 
       | https://explore.omsystem.com/us/en/om-1-mark-ii
        
       | eggy wrote:
       | Well, if we're nitpicking here, it is not 86,000s/day (24 hours *
       | 3600s/hour) and 7.27x10^-5 radians/s, but 86,164.091s and
       | 7.29x10^-5 radians/s.
       | 
       | 24 hours is the time it takes the sun to return to the same spot
       | in the sky due to earth having to rotate for another 3m56s to
       | make up for angle gained by revolving around the sun in the same
       | direction as the rotation of the Earth. This applies for the
       | other planets that also rotate and revolve in the same direction
       | - Mercury, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. A sidereal
       | day is 23h 56m 4.091s for distant stars to return to the same
       | spot in the sky.
       | 
       | Damn, I knew that is why I botched my 6-stop exposure at my
       | daughter's graduation! She can't blame me now! Thank you HN!
        
         | trhway wrote:
         | >Damn, I knew that is why I botched my 6-stop exposure at my
         | daughter's graduation!
         | 
         | how about driving for 6-stop before taking the shot a tank with
         | stabilized gun trained to the target. Now the tank gunner has
         | the excuse too.
        
           | eggy wrote:
           | I shot competitively in JROTC and after, but never out to
           | 1000 yards (914 m), only 500 yards. The Earth's rotation
           | affects your trajectory significantly particularly if you are
           | shooting longitudinally at a target at a higher or lower
           | latitude. The Coriolis effect. I had more issues with varying
           | winds or being consistent across shots.
        
       | _ph_ wrote:
       | Version 2 sounds to me as the probably reason for the ability of
       | Cameras like the OM1-2 to go over 8 stops. Yes, it is probably
       | not a simple task to measure the earths drift with the
       | gyroscopes, but there is one thing that might help: the frequency
       | of that drift is exactly known - it is the speed of the earths
       | rotation. So it should be possible to tune a very narrow filter
       | to that frequency and only analyze the gyroscope signal for that
       | frequency. With that one could at least partially compensate for
       | the drift.
        
       | pixelpoet wrote:
       | Yet another example of b0rked / unescaped TeX, specifically log
       | vs \log in this case. Blows my mind that nobody sees it...
        
       | cesaref wrote:
       | This is analogous to astro-photography problems with keeping
       | stars as points rather than as blurred lines in long exposures.
       | If you think about it, if a long exposure at night has a static
       | landscape but moving stars, the IBIS equivalent would have static
       | stars and a moving landscape :)
        
       | sib wrote:
       | Nikon claims 8.0 stops of "VR image stabilization" for their Zf
       | camera (released late in 2023).
       | 
       | https://www.nikonusa.com/p/z-f/1761/overview
       | 
       | ("Based on CIPA standards; when using the telephoto end of the
       | NIKKOR Z 24-120mm f/4 S" - for clarity, that lens does _not_ have
       | optical VR in the lens itself, so this is all based on in-body
       | stabilization.)
        
       | aidenn0 wrote:
       | You should be able to exceed 6.3 stops if you are pointing
       | north/south rather than east/west, right? Maybe they are just
       | measuring it pointing north/south.
        
       | chris_va wrote:
       | Solution (2) as written seems to imply that the camera can only
       | use the gyroscope signal while the camera is pointed at the
       | subject, but I cannot see why that is a strong limitation.
       | 
       | In theory, you can take the last N seconds of data from the
       | gyroscope (I assume it is running while the camera is active) to
       | get the overall drift, even if it is tumbling around for a while
       | before being pointed at the subject... Assuming the tumbling has
       | enough periods of time that are correlated with the earth's
       | rotation (e.g. someone carrying it, not pointing it an an
       | aircraft or something moving EW for the window duration that is
       | anticorrelated with the rotation).
        
         | felixhandte wrote:
         | That would only work in the case that the camera is fixed on a
         | tripod and has a long period of stable / rigid pointing before
         | the exposure during which to collect this data. This is
         | sometimes the situation in which image stabilization is used.
         | (But if you can be that stable for that long on a tripod, you
         | may not actually need image stabilization.)
         | 
         | By far the more common case for image stabilization is one in
         | which the photographer is hand-holding the camera and may not
         | frame the subject until the moment before the exposure begins.
         | The camera movement will likely be _several_ orders of
         | magnitude (~4 to 7) larger than the drift that you want to
         | measure. A low pass filter will tell you nothing at all.
         | 
         | At a certain point we can just start using guide stars [0].
         | 
         | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guide_star
        
       | mrandish wrote:
       | Perhaps in some camera firmware bug database there's a closed bug
       | marked: "Won't fix. Tested working in orbit."
        
       | mikewarot wrote:
       | Bullshit. It's ITAR, they don't want parts floating around in the
       | world that can make a dead nuts accurate INS - inertial
       | navigation system, as this enables weapons we don't want in the
       | wild.
       | 
       | You can stabilize out everything and account for the rotation by
       | simply watching the vector of gravity over time.
        
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