DIY iPhone Adapter

[soundwave 245]

Hello all!

I know this build is nothing compared to anything posted on this forum but still I thought it might be fun to share it... (don't laugh  lol)

I don't usually modify and build stuff, but since my brother won't bring the DSLR until the weekend, I thought I might make a simple iPhone adapter for the fun of it 

So I found this guide about a great idea on how to make one: http://telescopenewbie.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/iphone-telescope-adapter-smartphone.html

I grabbed (and cleaned) a wide plastic bottle cap, and checked if it fits my eyepiece:

(it does perfectly)

The guide I followed used an iPhone case with a plastic back, but I didn't have one... but I did have a couple of "bumper" cases. 

So I just super-glued a plastic sheet that I've cut out from a case that some other product came in, and I've cut a hole in the plastic sheet where the camera lens is.

Then I've cut a hole in the bottle cap, and super-glued it to the plastic sheet.. trying to center it as much as I could...

Later I'll add a strip of paper around the inner-edges of the cap, to protect the eyepiece rubber.

So the iPhone goes in the case, and the case with the cap goes on the eyepiece, and the eyepiece goes in the telescope... pretty simple and effective... but will it hold? 

I haven't tried it outside yet, as the moon is already down and the sky is cloudy anyway...

but first stress-tests seem to indicate that it holds the iPhone pretty well...

The real test will be next night (hopefully).

But it seems like I managed to get it centered kinda well... here's a full frame shot that I took with an eyepiece connected to the adapter (pointing it close to another bumper case)...

Hopefully it will make it easier to take a quick snapshot of what I'm observing (maybe for a quick share on Twitter or something  ). 

Test images (and maybe a story on how my iPhone got shattered on the ground).. coming tomorrow night    

[Sandraj 165]

Looks pretty good, fingers crossed the second part doesn't include a broken phone   it could and should work ok, my husband made a similar setup for my Note 3 and it works well on my spotting scope, so long as you don't zoom in to far.

[Robny 374]

Looks good, will be interested to see your results, I've seen some good stuff posted from phones recently.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[soundwave 245]

Thanks

Robny, I suspect my pictures with this adapter won't be much better than the ones I've managed to take here: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/217299-got-my-skywatcher-250-flextube/?p=2331488

But they would certainly be a lot easier to take (and probably a bit less shaky). But I might be surprised, who knows...

So I gave it a shot through one of the windows (daytime).

It holds up really well. Doesn't seem like it's about to fall off any second  so it got that going for it..

I tried to "pad" the inside of the cap with a paper strip, but it makes it too narrow for the eyepiece to fit in (because of the intruding screw-lines).

I also noticed that when I put the cap on, the cap's screw-lines make the case look at the eyepiece at a slight angle (very slight, though), so it's hard to center the FOV right in the middle.

Here's the daytime test (with the 25mm eyepiece [48x]).

I aimed the telescope at that heater on the rooftop.

- The iPhone seemed to be sitting comfortably... especially when I rotated it with the home-button facing upwards.

- The low angle of the scope kinda made it drift downwards a bit, unless I tightened the locking handles on the dob mount very tight (which I did for a minute or so).

Seems okay so far, although I just realized that the cap only fits my 25mm [48x] and 10mm [120x] eyepieces 

[soundwave 245]

So.. first light for the adapter

The moon is up, but the sky is a bit hazy, but not too bad at the vicinity of the moon, luckily. (other parts of the sky are just uniform gray).

The adapter holds up great, but it's not very center-aligned.. (and it really shows with the 10mm eyepiece [see pics at the bottom]).

It was much easier to actually take a pic, and (more importantly) it was much easier to set (and lock) a correct exposure and focus.

That's the only reason I would say that these images look better than these older ones.. (which I took by holding the iPhone to the eyepiece and trying to find a correct position)

Since it was stable on the eyepiece, I could do a (digital) zoom-in, to set the Focus on the focuser correctly for the camera, and then I aimed it at the brightest part of the moon, and locked the exposure to that area...

Then I zoomed back out, and took a quick snapshot.

Images:

These are the images after using the iPhone's edit option to crop the image to center the object.

25mm (the entire moon)

10mm (120x mag)

To show how it looks like before cropping, here's a full-frame overview.

Notice the mis-alignments...

 

I'm pretty pleased with it for what it is... (something I did to kill some time  )

but it will probably come in handy from time to time (maybe.....)

When the conditions will allow it, I'll try to use the 10mm on Saturn or Jupiter... it will be small, but I wonder how it will turn out with the adapter...

[Robny 374]

These look great, well done - just goes to show what is possible!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

[Sandraj 165]

Great pictures, seems like you got things just right.

[nightfisher 7,481]

brilliant, the simple things are the best

[purdo 375]

Well done, you must be very pleased.

[knobby 3,663]

Nice job, well done