ORION TELESCOPES & BINOCULARS SteadyPix 5337 User manual

Orion®SteadyPix™
Universal Smartphone
Telescope Photo Adapter
#5337
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975
IN 532 B 09/14
Customer Support:
www.OrionTelescopes.com/contactus
Corporate Offices:
89 Hangar Way, Watsonville CA 95076 - USA
Copyright © 2014 Orion Telescopes & Binoculars
All Rights Reserved. No part of this product instruction or any of its
contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the
prior written consent of Orion Telescopes & Binoculars.

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Introduction
Congratulations on your purchase of the Orion SteadyPix Universal
Telescope Photo Adapter for Smartphones! This second-generation uni-
versal adapter securely couples an even greater variety of smartphone
models to a standard 1.25" telescope eyepiece, enabling the capture of
high-magnification digital photographs through the telescope using the
smartphone’s built-in camera – in daytime or at night. The technique of
afocal, or “eyepiece projection,” photography has been used for decades
with standard cameras. The new wrinkle is that now you can do it with a
smartphone! With the “SteadyPix Universal” to precisely and consistently
position the smartphone’s camera lens over the center of telescope’s
eyepiece, you can achieve astounding results shot after shot!
The SteadyPix Universal also lets you display a live view of the image projected by your
telescope on your smartphone screen, which is perfect for sharing real-time views of the
night sky with friends and family. The smartphone becomes a mini display monitor!
We hope you have fun taking pictures with your smartphone using the SteadyPix Universal
Telescope Photo Adapter for Smartphones!
Compatibility
The Orion SteadyPix Universal Telescope Photo Adapter for Smartphones is designed
to fit slate style smartphones measuring up to 3.4" (87mm) in width. The phone’s camera
lens should be oriented near the top of the back side for unobstructed alignment with a
telescope eyepiece. The higher the camera sensor’s resolution, i.e., the more megapixels,
the better your smartphone photos are likely to be. That is, a 5MP camera should produce
a sharper, more resolved image than a 2MP camera.
The SteadyPix Universal was designed with an adjustable bracket to allow compatibility
with most currently available smartphones, including Apple iPhones up to and including
the iPhone 6 models (both); Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, S5, Note 2 and 3; and most
smartphones from other manufacturers. The bracket also works with camera-equipped
versions of Apple’s iPod touch mobile device.
You may or may not have to remove your smartphone from any external protective case or
“bumper” to allow it to seat properly in the SteadyPix bracket. For relatively slim bumpers
you will probably be able to just leave it on. Bulkier bumpers may be too big to fit in the
adjustable bracket even at its widest setting, or may not allow the camera lens to be
positioned close enough to the telescope eyepiece to achieve a proper image.
The SteadyPix Universal can be used with virtually any size or type of telescope –
refractor, reflector, or Cassegrain-type – that utilizes a standard 1.25"-diameter telescope
eyepiece. The included eyepiece clamp fits eyepieces with housing diameters up to 1.5".
Assembly
The SteadyPix Universal smartphone adapter comes pre-assembled in the box. It should
appear as shown in Figure 1. If the L-bracket is installed under the RIGHT bracket
adjustment knob instead of the LEFT one, that’s OK. The SteadyPix Universal can be used
with the L-bracket installed in either position.
Getting Started
Before assembling and using the SteadyPix Universal adapter, please familiarize with its
features and parts, referring to Figure 1.
To capture images afocally through your telescope, the smartphone’s camera lens must be
carefully aligned over the center of the telescope’s eyepiece and the two properly spaced
apart. The following steps will help you achieve the necessary alignment and positioning of
the SteadyPix bracket.
For installation, we’ve found it easiest to insert an eyepiece into the bracket and align it
with the phone’s camera lens first. Once that is done, the eyepiece – with SteadyPix and
smartphone assembly attached, can be installed in the telescope. Here’s the procedure
step by step:
1. Loosen the two bracket adjustment knobs and open the bracket to its maximum width.
2. With the bracket facing up, insert your smartphone into the bracket with screen side
up. Then, with your right hand push the side clamps inward until they are snug against
Figure 1. Front (A) and back (B) views of the SteadyPix Universal Smartphone Telescope
Photo Adapter
WARNING: Never look directly at the Sun through your telescope or its finder
scope – even for an instant – without a professionally made solar filter that
completely covers the front of the instrument, or permanent eye damage could
result.Young children should use this telescope only with adult supervision.
FRONT
Clamp
tension
knob
Left bracket
adjustment
knob
Eyepiece clamp
adjustment knob
Right
bracket
adjustment
knob
Small
side
tab
Large
side
tab
Small
side
tab
Eyepiece
clamp
Rubber washer
Main bracket Plastic washer
L-bracket
L-bracket
BACK
B.A.

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the smartphone. To do this you should
have your thumb on the large side
tab and a fingertip on each of the two
small side tabs as shown in Figure 2.
Then squeeze. While holding the
bracket tight against the phone,
tighten the RIGHT bracket adjustment
knob (when viewed from the back)
to secure the phone in place. Check
to make sure that the phone is snug
in the bracket. If it can still slide up
and down with only a slight force,
loosen the right adjustment knob
a bit, squeeze the opposing side
tabs against the phone again, then
retighten the right adjustment knob.
3. Now, place the installed smartphone
face down so the eyepiece clamp is
facing up. Using a fairly low-power
(long focal length) eyepiece to start
with, like a 25mm, insert it into the
eyepiece clamp and tighten the clamp
tension knob (Figure 3).
4. Rotate the eyepiece clamp so that
the lens of the eyepiece is facing the
phone’s camera lens (Figure 4A).
5. Loosen the left bracket adjustment
knob and slide the L-bracket up or
down to roughly position the center
of the eyepiece lens over the phone’s
camera.
NOTE: If you’ve moved the L-bracket as
far down as it can go and the eyepiece is
still too high above the camera lens, you
should move your phone down within the
bracket, as shown in Figure 5.
6. Loosen the eyepiece clamp
positioning knob and lower the
eyepiece clamp until the eyepiece lens
is ¼" or less from the phone’s camera
lens. Then re-tighten the eyepiece
clamp positioning knob.
7. Looking through the bottom end of the
eyepiece barrel, move the eyepiece
until the lens of the phone’s camera
appears approximately centered in
the lens of the eyepiece (Figure 6).
You will have to loosen the left bracket
adjustment knob and the eyepiece
clamp positioning knob to do this.
Make sure the eyepiece is flat relative
to the phone (Figure 4A), not skewed
as in Figure 4B. Re-tighten all knobs
and you’re ready to proceed.
You can check the alignment by turning on the camera app in your phone to view through
the camera lens and the attached telescope eyepiece. You should see a distinct, round (but
possibly clipped on the sides) “field of view” centered on the phone’s display (Figure 7). If
Figure 4. The eyepiece lens should be flat relative to the smartphone (A), not skewed at an angle (B).
Figure 5. A) The telescope eyepiece is too high to align with the phone’s camera. Sliding the phone
upward in the bracket allows the eyepiece to align with the camera (B).
Figure 6. Look through the bottom of the
eyepiece barrel to roughly center the eyepiece
over the phone’s camera lens.
Figure 2. Squeeze the side tabs inward to
clamp the bracket securely around the phone,
then tighten the right bracket adjustment knob on
the back.
Figure 3. Rotate the eyepiece clamp and insert
a 1.25" eyepiece, then tighten the clamp around
the housing with the clamp tension knob. You
may have to loosen the knob before inserting the
eyepiece into the clamp.
Small
tab
Small
tab
Large
tab
Clamp
tension
knob A. B.
Center of
eyepiece
is above
the phone’s
camera lens
Phone should be slid
upward in the bracket
Eyepiece
is now
aligned with
camera lens
Edge of
eyepiece
barrel
Camera
lens
A. B.

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needed, you can adjust the position of the
L-bracket and eyepiece clamp, or the tilt
of the eyepiece relative to the plane of the
camera lens, until the field of view appears
centered in the display. (Any objects in the
field of view will not be in focus.)
8. Now you’re ready to install the
eyepiece and phone assembly into
the telescope’s focuser or diagonal.
Carefully insert the eyepiece into
the focuser or diagonal and secure it
firmly with the locking thumbscrew(s)
(Figure 8).
9. With the telescope aimed at a fairly
bright object and with the camera app
turned on, use the telescope’s focuser
to bring the object into focus on the
smartphone’s display.
10. If you have trouble achieving focus,
you may have to adjust the spacing
between the smartphone’s camera
lens and the eyepiece. This is done
by adjusting the eyepiece clamp
positioning on the slotted L-bracket
arm. If the slot on the L-bracket does not provide enough travel, the height of the
eyepiece can be adjusted further by sliding it forward or back inside eyepiece clamp,
and tightening with the eyepiece clamp tension knob.
If the image is not centered in the eyepiece or the image does not appear clearly, try
re-adjusting the telescope focus and the SteadyPix adjustment points. It takes a little time
initially to get everything adjusted just right, so be patient. After a couple of sessions, you’ll
get the hang of it.
Taking Photographs with the
SteadyPix Universal Adapter and
Your Smartphone
If your phone has a flash, make sure the flash is turned off when shooting through a
telescope eyepiece!
Moon: Our closest neighbor in the solar system is dazzling through even a very small
telescope. The SteadyPix will allow you to take beautiful images of the whole Moon or
close-ups that showcase the craters, mountains, or maria (Figure 9). Single snapshots
work well and multiple shots can be stacked later in a program such as Registax to
increase the signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range of the image. Also, you can take
video and then stack a series of the sharpest individual video frames.
Bright Planets: The bright planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn also make excellent
targets for afocal photography. Try using a higher power eyepiece and maybe a Barlow lens
to boost the magnification – planets are
tiny objects in the sky! You’ll need a steady
atmosphere, i.e., good “seeing,” to get
sharp planetary images. The smatphone’s
display will allow you to show off your
target object to friends and passers-by – no
waiting in line at the eyepiece!
No need to stop at Saturn, though. At least
one amateur astronomer has captured the
distant planet Neptune with his iPhone and
an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope!
Deep-sky Objects: Most deep-sky objects
are extremely difficult to photograph
using afocal photography. Try working
with brighter objects such as M42 (Orion
Nebula) or M13 (Hercules Cluster). You will
likely need a mount that tracks the motion
of the sky so that you can take “long”
exposures using a 3rd-party app that offers
that capability (try Slow Shutter by Tomoki
Kobayashi), and you will have to stack
multiple images to get a good final image.
Sun: If – and only if! – you have a proper
solar filter to cover the front of your
telescope, you can get terrific images of
sunspots on the surface of our nearest star in the daytime with your smartphone. Sunspots
are constantly changing, so shooting them is always interesting and a lot of fun.
Nature/Terrestrial: The SteadyPix Universal can be used to take through-the-telescope
photos and videos of distant subjects in daylight.
Camera Apps
The native camera apps on most smartphones are adequate, but may not be terribly
versatile. There are other, 3rd party camera apps available that offer additional features and
Figure 8. Inserting the eyepiece with adapter and phone attached into the star diagonal. Before doing
this be sure that the diagonal is tightly secured in the telescope focuser!
Figure 7. Position the telescope eyepiece so
that its field of view appears roughly centered on
the phone’s screen. If it’s not centered, try rotating
the eyepiece clamp slightly.
Eyepiece
Eyepiece
field of
view in
camera
app
Figure 9. An iPhone afocal close-up image of
the lunar surface captured with an Orion StarMax
90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain at 62x magnification.

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settings that you may find useful, such as shutter delay (or self-timer), burst mode, and the
ability to take “long exposures” (really probably just multiple exposures digitally stacked).
Exposure delay is nice to have. Taking the iPhone as an example, with its native camera
app, when you tap the camera icon on the screen to take the picture, the exposure
commences immediately. The vibration from the tap is enough to cause blurring of the
image in many instances. Having a delay of a few seconds between the screen tap and
the onset of exposure eliminates the problem by allowing any vibration to dissipate prior to
image capture.
Two iPhone camera apps that offer exposure delay are Camera Plus (by Global Delight
Technologies) and Slow Shutter (by Tomoki Kobayashi). For more 3rd party camera apps,
type “camera apps” in the search field on the iTunes App Store or the app marketplace for
your particular brand of smartphone.
Have fun!
iPhone, iPod, and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other
countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.
One-Year Limited Warranty
This Orion product is warranted against defects in materials or workmanship for a
period of one year from the date of purchase. This warranty is for the benefit of the
original retail purchaser only. During this warranty period Orion Telescopes & Binoculars
will repair or replace, at Orion’s option, any warranted instrument that proves to be
defective, provided it is returned postage paid. Proof of purchase (such as a copy of
the original receipt) is required. This warranty is only valid in the country of purchase.
This warranty does not apply if, in Orion’s judgment, the instrument has been abused,
mishandled, or modified, nor does it apply to normal wear and tear. This warranty gives
you specific legal rights. It is not intended to remove or restrict your other legal rights
under applicable local consumer law; your state or national statutory consumer rights
governing the sale of consumer goods remain fully applicable.
For further warranty information, please visit www.OrionTelescopes.com/warranty.
Orion Telescopes & Binoculars
Corporate Offices: 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville CA 95076 - USA
Customer Support: www.OrionTelescopes.com/contactus
Copyright © 2014 Orion Telescopes & Binoculars
All Rights Reserved. No part of this product instruction or any of its contents may
be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of
Orion Telescopes & Binoculars.