smartphone telescope

[alphamone]

I've been thinking of getting a smartphone-attaching mini-telescope/monocular to film the upcoming eclipse in the US (used in combination with a solar filter of course).

I have found a few cheap-ish ones that I could order from china. It's just that the one I have my eye on is 25 US dollars (and another 20 for shipping to make sure it arrives in time to take it with me), so I am torn on whether I should purchase the scope or just use my point-and-shoot camera that has decent optical zoom.

So if anyone has information about how smartphone-scopes perform on filtered-solar/lunar viewing, or possibly information on where I can order one from slightly closer to home (or at least without multi-week deliver times), the help would be greatly appreciated.

(I didn't link to the product page as I am not sure of the rules about doing so, and it might set off the spam filter)

[Wavytone]

Try photographing the moon to see what size the image will be - I think you will find it is disappointingly small, the point being the sun is slightly smaller at about 0.5 degree.

Your iPhone has a field of view over 60 degrees. The attachment needs at least 10X and ideally 20X magnification to make an interesting pic of the sun. Same applies to a superzoom compact, i.e. they will need to give 500mm or more (35mm equivalent) focal length.

[alphamone]

It claims to by 18x, though cheap telescope magnification claims are to be taken with a grain of salt. And being a cheap Chinese import, might not have such great quality optics (though a youtube search did bring up a video using the monocular that looked decent enough).

Looking back at my previous eclipse photos I took with the same camera, the sun had enough zoom to (barely) show up prominances and baileys beads (about 200 pixels wide on a 3456 pixel wide image).

Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that I need to pay 20 US dollars shipping to get it delivered on time, I would have already bought it.

[sil]

did you try B&H for something to do the job? I'm yet to see ANY "lens for phone" that wasn't utter crap optically regardless of price. buy a monocular from any camping store or binoculars and use one side. besides you're cheaping out at the last minute so you're going to waste probably the only chance you'll ever get to take a good photo, otherwise you'd have bought the proper tool long ago and been practicing in the mean time.

[OzEclipse]

Most phones have the camera lens top centre or top off centre. If it is top centre, a rubber band could easily be used to hold the lens over the eyepiece of a pair of decent small binoculars eg 8x25.

Do you have exposure control? Auto won't cut it.

Even if you buy this gadget, you could simulate it with the rubber band and binoculars I've suggested.

Joe

[alphamone]

Decided not to buy it, my mum has a slightly different model of camera that can take lens addons (and has slightly better zoom even without them) that she is letting me take.

[brian nordstrom]

:thumbsup: Best decision you have made all year !!! these things are nothing but a joke .You know the old saying " If it looks to good to be true ,, it usually is " and these things fall right into that basket .

I get asked this all the time by people I know and their friend's and relations about "should I buy on of these ? " toy's as well , that's all they are ' Toy's ' , and all I tell them is basically what the good people here have already said .

Just look at the advertising photos ,,, :question::question::question: , yes the moon will look like that at 100x ,,, ever tried hand holding a telescope at 100x ,,, nada ,, man , you need a mount for anything over 20x :eyepop: true .

But thanks for the thread and I hope it saves many from wasting their money there .

Thanks again . :thumbsup:

Brian.