The Game Boy Camera was never designed for astrophotography. Released in 1998, it captures a 128-pixel image using four shades of gray. That did not stop musician and director Chris Graue from attaching one to the 60-inch telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory and pointing it toward Jupiter.
Mount Wilson’s telescope has an equivalent focal length of roughly 24,384mm in its current configuration. Attached to the tiny sensor inside the Game Boy Camera, the setup effectively became a 730,000mm lens.
Graue first pointed it toward the Moon, but the Moon was actually too close for the setup. Jupiter worked better. The final image is unmistakably a Game Boy photograph: grainy, monochrome, and barely holding together. Look closely, and the edge of the planet and its famous bands are visible.
Getting there required more than simply holding the camera up to an eyepiece. Graue used a modified Game Boy Camera case designed for C-mount lenses, then worked with a friend to build an adapter for the telescope. A chain of additional adapters connected the small camera to the observatory’s four-inch eyepiece.
After capturing Jupiter, he printed the image through a Game Boy Printer.
Countless modern cameras could produce a cleaner result with far less effort. That is not the point. The limitations are what make the project memorable. A piece of consumer technology built as a playful accessory almost 30 years ago becomes part of a serious scientific instrument, and both objects feel more interesting because of the mismatch.
Old hardware does not have to remain frozen in its original purpose. Sometimes preservation means keeping a device exactly as it was. Other times it means finding a completely new reason to turn it on again.
See the full project at PetaPixel.
Image: Chris Graue via PetaPixel.
