Have you ever wished you could take pictures at night with the sweet Raspberry Pi High Quality (HQ) Camera?

Using the raspistill command line program is tricky because the auto setting determination usually results in a black picture.

Now, though, with a little Python, you can take pictures up to six seconds long at ISO 800! That'll turn a dark night lit only by a few house lights into a bright, well-saturated picture!

This image was taken at one in the morning with a Pi4 and HQ Camera with 6mm lens.

There are a wide range of options you can use to implement this. I wanted a compact, portable system to do astrophotography, so I built the system specifically to do that. If you want, you can just use the code with an HQ Camera setup you already have. It's totally up to you how sophisticated you want to be. (For example, I don't go into motorized star tracker equatorial mounts even though I'm doing astrophotography.) The mounting solution is up to you, again, depending on your use cases!

Parts

Angled shot of Raspberry Pi 4
The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B is the newest Raspberry Pi computer made, and the Pi Foundation knows you can always make a good thing better! And what could make the Pi 4 better...
$55.00
In Stock
Top view of Raspberry Pi HQ camera module.
Snap, snap! There's a new official camera board released by the Raspberry Pi Foundation!The Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera is the latest camera accessory...
$50.00
In Stock
16mm 10MP Telephoto Lens for Raspberry Pi HQ Camera
This is the 16mm 10MP Telephoto Lens, an essential for the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera. It has a wide...
$50.00
In Stock
Angled shot of Pimoroni Mini Black HAT Hack3r
A nifty little breakout from our friends at Pimoroni that lets you access all of the GPIO pins while also running a
Out of Stock
Pimoroni HyperPixel 4.0 Square - Hi-Res Display for Raspberry Pi - Non-Touch - PIM475. Display showing a desktop like image of the  Pimoroni product on the adafruit website.
It's hip to be square with the Pimoroni's HyperPixel 4.0 Square Display for Raspberry Pi computers. This display has all the great features of their
Out of Stock
1 x 10000 mAh Li-Ion Battery Pack
USB Battery Pack for Raspberry Pi - 10000 mAh
1 x USB A to USB C Cable
USB Type A to Type C Cable - approx 1 meter / 3 ft long
1 x Stacking GPIO Header
Stacking 2x20 Extra Tall Header
1 x Keyboard
Official Raspberry Pi Keyboard
1 x Mouse
Official Raspberry Pi Mouse
1 x Male/Female Jumper Wires
Premium Male-Female Jumper Wires, 3 inches
1 x ICE Tower Cooling System
GeeekPi Raspberry Pi 4 Cooling Tower
1 x M2.5 Brass Standoff Kit
M2.5 Brass Standoff Kit
1 x Raspberry Pi Mounting Plate Pro
Raspberry Pi Mounting Plate for High Quality Camera
1 x 128GB Flash Drive
Samsung 128GB Flash Drive

This guide was first published on May 18, 2021. It was last updated on May 18, 2021.

This page (Overview) was last updated on May 11, 2021.

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