Photographing with your smartphone through a telescope: iScoping

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

In the world of digiscoping, smartphones offer useful new possibilities. You can send a photo taken through a telescope with your smartphone to your friends straight away, share it on social media, or use it as proof of your observation.

It is called iScoping: taking photos or filming with a smartphone through a telescope.

On Tuesday 19 March, I visited the final public stargazing evening of the 2018/2019 season at the Dr. A.F. Philips Observatory, at Alberdingk Thijmlaan 3 in Eindhoven. The subject of the evening was the Moon.

The observatory in Eindhoven has existed since 1938. Under the dome of the observatory is a huge telescope that lets you look deep into space. With your own eyes, you can see galaxies and gas nebulae whose light has sometimes been travelling for millions of years.

At least as fascinating to see are the rings of Saturn, the moons around Jupiter, or the craters on our own Moon. When the sky is clear enough, the observatory dome is opened so you can look through the observatory's large telescope yourself.

Successful photos of the Moon with an iPhone through a telescope

It is not recommended to hold your smartphone manually behind the eyepiece. The alignment has to be perfect in every direction. The centre of your smartphone's camera must be aimed at the centre of the exit pupil of your telescope or binoculars.

It is certainly not easy to find those two points, let alone hold the smartphone in that position. The smartphone's image plane must also be parallel to the eyepiece. Even so, my photos were basically fine (perhaps more luck than judgement?...). Afterwards, I only added some extra contrast and sharpness in Photoshop.

Unfortunately, I could not use my DSLR without a suitable T2 adapter ring (this is then called digiscoping). I was told this was because it cannot focus at a distance of less than 20 centimetres.

With a DSLR, full-frame or mirrorless camera, you also need to pay extra attention to the tripod and video head. The weight of the camera throws the telescope off balance, which means taking photos is not always easy. A smartphone, on the other hand, is an almost weightless device that everyone usually has to hand.

All in all, that was reason enough for me to look into the possibilities of iScoping and what you need for it, so that you can also capture subjects such as wildlife with a smartphone, for which you would normally need a decent camera and telephoto zoom lens.

Digiscoping or iScoping

Accessories

There are various types and sizes for sale: ready-made adapters from several brands, such as Swarovski and Kowa, or separate rings in various sizes that you can stick onto any phone case. If the ring is still a little too loose, you can add some extra tape to the inside with a bit of ingenuity, making the diameter smaller.

Telescope, spotting scope or binoculars?

Testing and trying it out

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