Chris Graue Captures Jupiter With 1998 Game Boy Camera Through 103-Year-Old Hooker Telescope
Updated
Updated · frvr.com · Jun 26
Chris Graue Captures Jupiter With 1998 Game Boy Camera Through 103-Year-Old Hooker Telescope
3 articles · Updated · frvr.com · Jun 26
Summary
Mount Wilson Observatory let Chris Graue mount a 1998 Game Boy Camera on its telescopes, producing what he called the device’s furthest space photos, including Jupiter about 484 million miles away.
Graue built a 3D-printed case for C-mount lenses and custom adapters to fit the Hooker Telescope’s 1.25-inch eyepiece and the observatory’s older 60-inch telescope from 1908.
Moon tests showed the setup’s limits: the telescopes were too powerful for such a nearby target, and the camera’s 128-pixel, four-shade grayscale sensor captured only small, rough slices of the lunar surface.
Jupiter worked better despite the heavy crop, with the low-resolution images still showing recognizable features such as the planet’s banded stripes.
The experiment pairs Nintendo’s archaic handheld camera with historic observatory hardware, extending a fan modding scene that has long tried to push the Game Boy Camera beyond its original design.