Homemade iPhone 6 adapter to a telescope?
So for this weekends project I want to build a homemade telescope adapter for my iPhone 6. I found what seems to be a good model somewhere on the internet. Has anyone else tried this at home? How'd it turn out? I also saw some people talking about an astrophotography software, would I still be able to get a good image without it? Reason I ask is because I want to use a different app while shooting my video of the cosmos, that wouldn't allow me to use another app/software at the same time. Any other additional information I should know would be greatly appreciated as well!
Save yourself a lot of grief and get an Orion USB "Starshoot" camera for $55.
The optics of a cell phone camera are much different from what you need to record an image from a telescope. The image produced by a 4 inch to 12 inch diameter amateur telescope is less than 10 mm across. Your iPhone 6 is not designed to image such a small object, so you'll need additional optics, essentially a collimator which must be rigidly mounted to the telescope and rigidly hold the cellphone. So it's an optical design and construction project and even if done well the result will be poor compared to an integrating CCD.
If you insist on trying to do this, the best way forward would be to use an eyepiece as a collimator. You can then mount the iPhone lens where your eye would go.
The setup will work sort of OK for solar system objects, but poorly for deep sky stuff - nebula, galaxies and the like.
For that, you need a way bigger sensor, such as those found on a DSLR. Then the object will be magnified enough to actually see detail.
And the cameras shutter needs to stay open seconds, if not minutes, at a time to snag enough photons. It also helps to take multiple images of the same object and then stack them together, so that you can get a better detailed image, and in case an airplane flies through, or there's an equipment problem, you only one image out of several - not just the one long exposure image.
It's also highly recommended that you have a a mount that counteracts the Earth's rotation and can track the object using computer controlled guidance.
" I want to use a different app while shooting my video of the cosmos, that wouldn't allow me to use another app/software at the same time."
I have no idea what that means!
Doing public outreach sessions I've noticed that a lot of people like to look through a 'scope and then try and take a picture through the eyepiece with their smartphones. Results have been varied, but where people have been able to hold their phones steady and in the right position the results have been surprisingly good. To help these casual astrophotographers I've made a hole in a block of expanded polystyrene such that the eyepiece is a snug fit. People rest their phones on the block, which keeps them steady and normal to the eyepiece. Horizontal and vertical line, crossing over the eyepiece, help to put the camera lens in the right position. It's very crude, but it works (with a little practice).
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