Home made iPhone holder

[Stevp]

Hi guys and girls, ok I havent been on here for quite some time now, new job, new hobbies, new friends and most recently..... New telescope!

Yesterday i took delivery of a new skywatcher evostar 90 on an AZ3 mount. I bought this specifically as a grab and go, something very portable and simple.

After it arrived I revisited an old project to make a holder for iphone afocal photography, something i tried in the past without much luck. So i enlisted the help of my more mechanically minded brother to make something more useful. Have you seen the cost of the ones available to buy!

So now armed with my new telescope and new iphone holder I was expecting a cloudy night. Around 10pm there was a reasonable break in the clouds, and here i would like to share my results.

This picture is a single shot, afocal image, taken through my not so clean double glazing, inside a warm room, using the stock skywatcher 25mm eyepiece and very thin misty cloud.

In all, im pretty pleased with my testing! That pleased I had to share!

Cant wait to get outside and test it properly!!

[robbie c]

Great A/F shot with your iphone stevp any chance of seeing some pics of your homemade iphone holder would be intresting to see what it looks like

[Matt Scunthorpe]

thats a very good shot for phone picture. Its amazing what images you can get with the basic equipment.

[breezy]

I have looked at price of these adapters on Internet , would defo be interested in how you made yours mate

[Stevp]

Hi everyone,

I'll get some pictures of it up later.

I got a hardbacked iphone case, I think it came from amazon, but im not too sure which. Then i fastened a bolt straight out of the back, just attached with some superglue.

The i fastened the lot to a an old clip that was kicking about in the shed, it looks like the sort of thing to fasten a bell to bicycle. With this, and a. Ouple of holes later, i can put the bolt in position so that the camera sits right above the eyepiece.

I'm planning on an improved model, which i will document better!

In the mean time;

Here is the moon, taken outside, still with the stock skywatcher 25mm eyepiece

And here is todays effort, the sun, through a home made solar filter (astrosolar film) and the same 25mm skywatcher eyepiece. Not the best but some sunspots clearly visible!

Pictures finally uploaded; homemade iphone holder version 1.

Enjoy.

Stevp

[breezy]

right that looks easy enough, gonna have a go myself i think, nice one matey

[spektrumdx8]

It's true when they say the simplest idea's are the best !!

Thank you very much for posting this- in fact,I think I could even use my iphone as a sort of goto system what with the amount of free apps that are available

[Stevp]

Good luck with your attempts. Please share the outcome, and let me know if you come up with any improvements.

Cheers

Stevp