A smart-phone with a time-lapse app is an excellent tool for imaging slow-moving astronomical events — like a transit in front of the Sun. But you need a way to connect a phone to your Tele Vue eyepiece. That's where FoneMate's™ safe and secure connection comes into play. It never slipped over the duration of the 7-hr 28-min Transit of Mercury. Note that direct observation or imaging of the Sun requires proper filtering on your telescope.
This time-lapse compresses the 7½-hr. transit into 30-seconds. Mercury started edging into the Sun at 7:13 am New York time. Clouds and wind obscured the show from time-to-time and made it hard to see the egress. This video was taken with the FoneMate™ through a TV-85 (white light filtered) with 18.2mm DeLite eyepiece. The 20mm eye-relief and adjustable locking eyeguard of the DeLite series is excellent for use with the FoneMate™.
From Tele Vue's patio, Jon and David view the Mercury Transit, in Hydrogen Alpha, with a big-screen Samsung Galaxy Note 4. The FoneMate™ easily supported the super-sized phone that was attached to our 18.2mm DeLite eyepiece and TV-76 scope.
A white light image from this session shows Mercury aligned with sunspot regions 2542 and 2543 at the "peak" of the transit, as it passed nearest to the center of the solar disk.
Richard Sanderson: Transit of Mercury
with FoneMate™ Smart Phone Adapter
Mercury Transit iPhone image with 10" Dob. (light filtered) using Tele Vue 18.2mm DeLite and FoneMate™ Smart Phone Adapter. Richard Sanderson is the Curator of Physical Science at the Springfield Science Museum in Massachusetts, where he directs the Seymour Planetarium.
Dennis di Cicco: Transit of Mercury
with FoneMate™ Smart Phone Adapter
Mercury Transit iPhone image with 130mm refractor (light filtered) using Tele Vue 7mm DeLite and FoneMate™ Smart Phone Adapter. This shot also has a fine view of the big sunspot region 2542 and the smaller region 2543 to its lower right. Dennis di Cicco is former Senior Editor at Sky & Telescope and 2015 NERAL Walter Scott Houston award winner.
2015 Dec 07: Daylight Lunar Occultation of Venus
with FoneMate™ Smart Phone Adapter
The crescent Moon, riding low in the sky, was difficult to spot against the high layer of haze in the blue sky. But the FoneMate™ makes it easy to image through compatible Tele Vue eyepieces. Due to the FoneMate's™ firm grip, the smart phone never shifted position, relative to the eyepiece, for the duration of the original 9-minute video.
Venus made "contact" with the lunar limb at about quarter-to-1p.m. This video was taken with the FoneMate™ through a TV-85 with 18.2mm DeLite eyepiece. The 20mm eye-relief and adjustable locking eyeguard of the DeLite series is excellent for use with the FoneMate™.
Jon Betancourt: Daylight Lunar Occultation of Venus and Lunar Images
with FoneMate™ Smart Phone Adapter
Daylight occultation of Venus, 2015 Dec 07. This is a contrast enhanced B&W image taken with the FoneMate™ through an NP101 and 11mm DeLite eyepiece.
First-quarter moon with FoneMate™ on TV-76 with 7mm DeLite eyepiece.
Al Nagler Images
with FoneMate™ Smart Phone Adapter
All images taken with TV-60 through 9mm or 5mm DeLite at Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, FL.
Great Blue Heron surveying the scene.
Head of Great Blue Heron in breeding colors (bright blue around the eyes and orange bill). The 5mm DeLite reveals details in the plumage and ornamental head plume.
Anhinga pair: female on the left and male on the right.
Wood Stork balancing — out on a limb.
Dan Deutsch Images
with FoneMate™ Smart Phone Adapter
Common Loon on lake through TV-85.
Eagle in tree on far-side of lake — zoomed out and exposed to create a Lomo-like effect.
