The best telescope to use with a smartphone.

[KingClinton]

As chosen by the experts at Astronomy magazine.

For the most part these fancy new smart scopes are very expensive and beyond my reach here in South Africa.
But there is a major swing from traditional sit down at the eyepiece to these new smart scopes, so good to keep a eye on them and where they are going.

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&u ... EGoa3RGkzf

[Richard]

Its the development of these "phone' they are not phones anymore , more like a hand held computer , but now its getting ridiculous , they are faster than most computers from a few years ago , I have an I phone 11 and was due an upgrade so for the same amount got a Samsung A54 that I will use for my Czech sim card , its a big phone but amazing and its a middle of the range , the S series that are the top God knows what it can do , will soon make all cameras obsolete

[AstroBee]

Phone cameras have already made the traditional point & shoot cameras obsolete. In 2021, Ricoh made a GXR IIIx that listed for over $1000. That's the last one I can remember, maybe there were a few others.
Much the same way that mirrorless cameras will eventually kill the DSLR as the DSLR killed the SLR.

I don't see these smart scopes killing off the traditional scopes any time soon though.

[OzEclipse]

Hi Clinton,

Smartphones are now doing computational photography.

Some will take 16 x 15s exposures and stack them to do quite respectable astro shots. But others use an AI system to recognise astronomical content, Moon or starry sky, and replace it with stock images.

There was a famous case where someone taped a piece of pita bread in the window and the phone mistook ot for a bad pic of the moon and replaced it with a stock image of the Moon.

Using a smartphone through a telescope, you are using the AFOCAL method.
Telescope => Eyepiece => Camera lens => Camera

The effective focal ratio EFR is
EFR = Focal Length Camera Lens ÷ Focal length Eyepiece x telescope f ratio.

The other important thing is to match the FOV of the camera lens to the apparent FOV of the eyepiece. If you have a wide angle lens and a plosl eyepiece, the photographed field will be a small circle surrounded by black.
Many smartphones typically have a single wide angle lens. Some have multiple lenses of different focal lengths.
In days gone by, I would use a 50mm camera lens, film camera, and a 25mm orthoscopic. My 6"f7 became a 6"f14. 50mm/25mm x f7 = f14. The orthoscopic had a 45 degree field and the camera with 50mm lens had a 36x48 degree. This resulted in minimal vignetting. If I put a wide angle lens on the camera, the field would reduce to a small circle.

So, the telescope is not so important, but the eyepiece is. If you are going to use a smartphone with a wide lens, you need a wide apparent field eyepiece. Alternatively, if you want to use a narrow field eyepiece, use a camera with more of a standard field lens.

Joe

[Greenman]

As a user of a Dwarf II for outreach work; I can't see smart scopes giving any reasonable amateur astrophotographer a run for thier money. But for the interested user these can be a low cost option into the hobby (can be - some are more expesive than a reaonable conventional setup). That article commits the sin of showing many alternatives without considering the interests of the user - bah humbug - advertisers all over!