You
can aim for the stars with your iPhone 5/5S and take some sweet moon
shots while you're at it, if you're ready to invest in a telescope made
just for your phone.
The iPhone 5 Astronomical Telescope
from Japan Trend Shop has a 700mm focal length and can magnify 100
times and show you the view on your phone's screen. This has some
advantages over squinting into a regular telescope eyepiece. You can
share the view with others around you and easily take photos.
The set includes a tripod and stand, a diagonal prism, two ocular lenses, a 1.5x erecting lens, and a 12x magnification lens.
There are ways to adapt regular telescopes to work with a smartphone. Telescope builder Luke Gruenert demonstrates this with an HTC One that
generated some spectacular moon shots. The appeal of the Astronomical
Telescope may be that you don't have to mess around with fixing up a
phone mount. It's just ready to go, though it can also be used like a
regular telescope with just your eyes, which may feel a bit
old-fashioned.
The telescope will set you back $382, putting it on the high-end for
the price spectrum of iPhone accessories. If you still think that sounds
pretty reasonable, then you may have forgotten to add in the additional
$89 shipping fee. It's currently available for preordering, with an
expected ship date at the end of June.
By my calculations, I could
add a $55 universal smartphone adapter to my $120 Orion 10012
SkyScanner and still have a few hundred bucks left over to blow on
freeze-dried astronaut ice cream. But to each her own. There seems to be
a plenty big market for luxury iPhone accessories. At least this one is full of science and not just a bunch of bling.
A photo taken with the telescope on an iPhone 5S.
