cellphone mounts

[tripleped]

starting  to do a little  moon AP with iphone / goto Dob.  Anyone have  recommendations  on the  best  iphone  holders  for this ? They all look pretty much the same online  so didn't  know  if  any certain ones  stand  out in other's experiences.  Thanks  a lot! 

[Roy Challen]

Never tried any of them but the Celestron NeXYZ looks pretty good, at least, that's the one I'd buy if it were my money.

[Spile]

The Celestron NeXYZ is not cheap but is well built and the best  of its type IMHO.

[johninderby]

Best built one I’ve found so far is the TS optics one although it only fits to eyepieces with threaded tops. All aluminium except for the phone clamp arms. Really solid. 👍🏻

The NeXYZ has some annoying design flaws. A bit floppy and only one of the clamping jaws has a rubber surface. The other is hard plastic. Fitting some self adhesive foam rubber to the jaw without rubber is a big improvement in clamping. The biggest flaw though is the adjusters don’t have locks and so are easily knocked out of adjustment. Irritating.🤬 Time for a NeXYZ mk2 I think.

My smartphone holder collection. 😁

Edited March 12, 2021 by johninderby

[SaberJeff]

Just choose the one with the highest price.

[Stu]

10 minutes ago, SaberJeff said:

Just choose the one with the highest price.

Really?

I tend to agree with John’s comments about the NeXYZ. It could be great, but needs a few tweaks to be that mount. It is still the one I use most though probably.

The Orion Steadypix EZ is another good one, better in some ways although it doesn’t have the Z axis adjustment.

[SaberJeff]

USE  NeXYZ

[PeterStudz]

Interestingly I’ve found that for me the cheapest has been best.

I have the NeXYZ but as has been pointed out it has annoying flaws. It’s also damn heavy at 293 grams. By the time a smartphone is added it starts to pull on the eyepiece ever so slightly but enough to effectively take it just a bit but annoyingly out of collimation. Although I have a small telescope so you might be OK with something larger. I also find that the weight puts everything way out of balance.

For me I have StarGuiders. I’ve found that with the eyecup removed this cheap lightweight (£6, 78 gram) holder works perfectly. And grips very securely. I can also get Z-axis adjustment by moving the screw-out eyecup. It’s the holder top-left in the above post.

 

 

[Spile]

I think all these mounts are going to be limited due to what that are attempting to do but the Celestron gets positive reviews. I personally have no issues with it, apart from the angle (see below) that the phone is held. I have solved this by fixing a small fibre pad under the phone to tilt it so that it sits parallel to the EP.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Spile