iPhone Pocket Telescope

IPHONE POCKET TELESCOPE

As put together by Humanoido in the new Astro Aeronautics Lab, the iPhone pocket telescope is designed as a small portable telescope that can shoot great images without a tripod or special mounting. This is accomplished using electronic and combined software image stabilization and the additional camera features of the new iPhone 6 Plus.

iPhone view with stock lens

The phone, telescope tube assembly, and telescope clip all fit easily into a pocket. The US$13 telescope is a barrel, with focus, that threads into a clip which attaches it to the iPhone.

The tube rotates with a scale from 3 meters to infinity. The iPhone provides auto focus which works well through the telescope.

The photos shown here are all from the unit hand held. Note the remarkable sharpness obtained as a product of the mobile phone and the lens quality.

Telescope view at 8x

The telescope, made of coated precision glass lenses, has 8x magnification at F1.1 and the iPhone has 3X zoom, giving EFL values ranging from 8 to 24X on a sliding scale. Astronomically speaking, this should be enough scale to detect rings around Saturn, cloud belts on Jupiter, the Galilean Moons, and great detail on the Earth's Moon. It will also be exceptionally handy for capturing special selected events like occultations of stars, planets, and moons plus solar and lunar eclipses. Note: solar eclipses will require the use of special heat absorbing and light absorbing features.

Our first test zeroed in on a spherical water tank off in the

The telescope at 24x using 3x zoom

distance. This was shot with the iPhone's normal camera lens, the telescope at its standard 8x and the phones 3x zoom. The round tank is visible approximately in the center of the photo.

The next photo shows the tank view at 8x through the telescope with no zoom. As the telescope is fitted, there is some vignetting though very slight near the edges. The depth of field is focused directly on the tank.

The telescope view at 24x using the Apple camera zoom is remarkable for a hand held image, showing sharpness. The camera cost NT$398 and was missing the tripod and the mobile phone mount. This prompted the discovery of the telescope to function well in a hand held mode.

In the future, the telescope and camera pair will be paced during the first clear nights when the Moon and brighter planets are visible.

Venus Jupiter Aldebaran Study

Venus Jupiter Aldebaran Conjunction

Venus-Jupiter-Aldebaran

NOTE: YOU CAN View this ongoing planetary conjunction of Venus and Jupiter with the star Aldebaran all throughout the month of July 2012.

IMPROVING CONJUNCTIVE VIEW STUDY

Tuesday July 10th 2012

Several factors improved images of the ongoing planetary conjunction with Venus, Jupiter and the star Aldebaran in the constellation Hyades. An earlier observation time led to a darker sky and better contrast and fewer clouds compared to the previous observation made the event appear spectacular. In this view, the focus is slightly offset to successfully make larger planetary dots and more accurately represent visual brightness levels. Jupiter is above Venus and the star is very close to Venus at the bottom right. The first photo shows both planets appearing very bright but does not come close to representing the human eye view which was spectacular. The star is barely visible in this view taken on July 10th 2012 at 4:24:36 am with ISO 1,600 at f/2 and 1.8th second exposure. This is a digitally enlarged snippet screen capture of the original 2594 x 3459 pixel 2.3 MB JPEG image.

Aldebaran to lower right of Venus

STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF CLOUDS & ATMOSPHERE PARTICULATES RELATIVE TO STELLAR EXTINCTION

In the next photo, taken at 4:27:49 am on July 10th, 2012, the star is clearly visible and most clouds have momentarily passed by this section of the sky. Cirrus clouds appear very light and tenuous although are very good at blocking stars - this is because the city of 8 million has many lights that can reflect off not only the bottom of the clouds but the atmospheric particulates. Keep in mind the clouds can absorb starlight, reflect starlight, and block out starlight with a shroud of reflective brightness. This image was captured with a Canon PowerShot S95 at Telephoto f/3.5 and 12.8mm focus. The 1/8th second exposure was combined with ISO 1,600 sensitivity to compensate for the encroaching sunlight. This is a screen shot snippet from the original 2736 x 3648 pixel 2.9 MB image.

Full Zoom & All 3 Conjunction Elements

ZOOM CAPTURE STUDY

In the Zoom Capture Study, full Zoom is set to include both planets and the star in the same FOV. This was shot at 4:36:16 am on July 10th, 2012. ISO was increased to 3,200 manually, and the 22.5 mm Zoom focus was combined with a 1/4th second exposure at f/4.9. This is a screen capture snippet from the original 2736 x 3648 pixel 3.4 MB JPEG image. The Zoom Capture is more suitable for measuring relative object positions. Due to the fast ISO and relatively fast exposure, this and similar images are made possible by merely holding the camera by hand.

OBSERVATIONS OBSERVATORY

These observations were made at Observatory Lab 50. The Lab is very convenient at it locates off an adjacent wing to Static Lab 49 where images are processed. For higher resolution on similar Zoom studies, shoot in RAW mode rather than JPEG mode to increase resolution and reduce artifacts.

Two more stars at left seen in between clouds

MORE STARS VS CLOUD COVER STUDY
At left in the image, two more stars are visible through clearing in the clouds. This was taken on July 10th at 4:27:21 am local time at ISO 1,600 with a 1/8th second exposure (no telephoto) and f/2 lens, using a Canon PowerShot S95 in 2662 x 3550 pixel 4.5 MB file size JPEG mode. The image is cropped and processed in this screen shot snippet.

GRAIN REMOVAL STUDY
Photographic grain at high ISO is removed with Apple iPhoto function. This effect further delineates the cloud to sky differential showing which areas of clearing will have the opacity to show better stellar and planetary viewing.

CONJUNCTIVE COVERAGE

This Conjunction is currently observed a total of four times. It was imaged on July 3rd, July 8th, July 9th and July 10th. Other days were overcast, cloudy or raining and observations were not possible.

Humanoido Labs List

http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2012/06/humanoido-labs-list.html

Other Observations of This Conjunction

Venus Conjunction 

Deep Camera Venus Experiment 

Venus Jupiter Conjunction Revisit 

Lab 50 Observatory 1st Astro Image