DIY Homemade iPhone Telescope Attachment Adapter Mount

I love taking photos of the moon through my telescope with my iPhone, the camera is really small but sharp and high resolution. The hardest part is keeping the camera centered over the eyepiece. You can try snapping a pic handheld, or constantly adjusting a tripod pointing down through the eyepiece, but if you really want to get a good photo you need to have a mount attachment to keep the camera steady. There are retail iPhone telescope adapters available ($50 to $70), but making one out of junk can be fun too!

DIY iPhone telescope attachment adapter mount thing!

I used the "random crap around the apartment" approach, so first I'll explain the components in basic terms so that you might find something suitable if you don't have exactly the same things lying around, and then I'll show you how I made mine.

You'll need:

1. A platform - something about the size of your phone that is sturdy, flat, and light weight so that it can hold the phone up without bending. In my case, I used a plastic insert from an Apple mouse package. You could also use wood, other bits of plastic, or a long metal bolt.


2. A cup or clamp - something to go over the eyepiece or clamp around the eyepiece that attaches to the platform. In my case, I used a plastic medicine bottle. You could also use a film container (if those still exist), a cap from a travel size shaving cream canister, or anything about the right diameter and long enough to go down the eyepiece a ways. 


3. Adhesive - some way of attaching the cup to the platform. Hot glue would probably work best, but I used sticky dots and it worked just fine. iPhones don't weigh that much so it shouldn't be a huge deal.


4. A hole - you'll need a way of cutting a hole in the cup. I used kitchen scissors and it was sloppy but fine. A drill would make it nice and neat, but do what you can.


5. Snug-ification - you'll need a way to make the cup snug around the eyepiece so that it can hold the DIY mount onto the phone. If you're using a clamp instead of a cup, you'll need a way to tighten the clamp. If you're using a cup, you just need something with a little bit of give to go around the eyepiece. I used paper, you could also use foam, cotton, cardboard, or whatever.


6. A seatbelt - you'll need some way of attaching the phone to the mount itself. My regular phone case has some silicone on it, so if my scope is relatively horizontal it can grip a little bit on its own. For more vertical angles, I use a bit of tape on the back of my phone and it's fine. You could also use a rubber band, a neoprene sleeve, a wire, or make the mount out of an old iPhone case itself.

I found a plastic insert from an Apple mouse package, and a generic allergy medicine bottle about the size of my eyepiece

I cut the medicine bottle in half and cut a hole in the bottom. I glued it into the corner of the Apple mouse package insert

I made sure the hole was big enough to fine tune my iPhone placement with different eyepieces if needed

I used glue dots, but any kind of strong glue will work. Don't get glue on your eyepiece!

The bottle was almost the right size, but I stuck paper in the plastic cup for a snug fit

The plastic cup is deep enough and snug enough to hold the iPhone out horizontal without bending

I used some tape once I had the iPhone in the right position over the eyepiece

And I used the Apple headphones as a shutter release for the default camera app in video mode

Here is a screenshot of the video, not bad!

Here is the final product after stacking 15 sec of video in Registax (461 frames of AVI) punched up a little with a high pass layer in Photoshop