Digiscoping: Take Photos of the Moon with a phone

Have you every try to take special photos of objects far away, such as wildlife or even the moon? One choice is to spend thousands of dollars on a expensive camera and lens, but that can be too expensive for most people. Is there another option? Of course it turns out there is, and it is known as Digiscoping.

What is Digiscoping?

Digiscoping is the hobby of using digital camera to take photos through a telescope. It is a compact lens, point and click camera that is used with a spotting scope for birding to create the digiscoping system, and there are many other combination options. The method was accidentally discovered by Laurence Poh at 1999, and the "digiscoping" was populared shortly after.

How I take part in with digiscoping?

I found a telescope one day while in thrift store casually. It was a little old, but overall looked to be in good condition. The best part was the store was selling it for only 20 dollars! Even with my limited knowledge of telescopes, my intuition was saying I couldn't miss this deal.

It was so excited to get back home to try my new discovered gear. The first aim of business was obviously to look at the moon, and I was shcoked by how well my $20 telescope worked! I can see so much detail on it's surface. It was surprising to see all of the craters and crevices with my own eyes. I took out my iPhone, and put it up to the eyepiece to see what I saw. It took a little tactic to get the iPhone lined up just right, but I was finally able to get it focused.

The photos

Almost more astonishing than the view through the telescope, was how well the photos I took by my iPhone turned out! All I had to do was make sure it was perfectly lined up and keep my hands steady. Don't just take my word for it, make yourself decision!

More tools for digiscoping

My first success at digiscoping made me fascinated. I started search different sized eyepieces, and what it would take to get higher magnification. I researched more tips and tricks associated with digiscoping and telescopes in general.

As I mentioned earlier, it wasn't the easiest way to line up the phone in the eyepiece. The Carson HookUpz is the answer to that problem. It does more than just help line up your camera in your eyepiece though. It also makes it possible to take pictures during the daytime. Since it was dark outside I was able to use my iPhone without any adaptor device connecting it to the telescopes eyepiece. I wouldn’t be able to do that if it was light outside though, because all light needs to be sealed off at the junction between your camera and the eyepiece. Otherwise the camera picks up the reflection of light off of your eyepiece lens. This adaptor creates a snug fit between your eyepiece and you phones camera lens.

Solar filter sheet:

This piece of black polymer is used to view the sun! Yes I said it; the sun. By covering the end of your telescope with this sheet you are able to take a closer look at the sun. Fair warning though, you may have to get creative with how you attach the black sheet on to your compact spotting scope or compact binoculars.

Sky Guide App:

Clearly you won't need an app to help you find the moon, but there is so much more stars out there to see! This app will help you to find other gems like Jupiter or Saturn. It will also help you decode what other celestial bodies and configuration you are seeing when you look up in the night sky.

Get out home!

I hope this article can get you begin to get out home and try digiscoping! Its a interesting hobby, and its relatively cheap to get started. You may even have most of the supplies already. So get out home and start taking photos of the moon!

Find best binoculars, monoculars and spotting scopes for sale that let you get closer to nature. Welcome to www.falconstare.com.