ORION TELESCOPES & BINOCULARS SteadyPix 5693 User manual

Orion®SteadyPix™Universal
Telescope Photo Adapter for
Smartphones
#5693
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975
OrionTelescopes.com
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89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076
© 2012 Orion Telescopes & Binoculars
IN 467 Rev. A 007/12

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Introduction
Congratulations on your purchase of the Orion SteadyPix Universal
Telescope Photo Adapter for Smartphones! The adapter securely cou-
ples a wide variety of brands and models of slate-type smartphones to a
standard 1.25" telescope eyepiece, enabling the capture of high-magnifi-
cation digital photographs through the telescope using the smartphone’s
built-in camera – in daytime or at night. The technique of afocal, or “eye-
piece 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 the 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!
What’s Included
• Adjustable-width smartphone bracket with eyepiece clamp
• Carrying pouch
Compatibility
The Orion SteadyPix Universal Telescope Photo Adapter for Smartphones is designed
to fit slate style smartphones measuring up to 3-1/8" in width. The phone’s camera lens
should be oriented near the top of the back side, for unobstructed alignment with a tele-
scope 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 (all versions) and
many smartphones from other manufacturers that utilize operating systems other than
Apple’s iOS. 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 posi-
tioned close enough to the telescope eyepiece to achieve a proper image.
The SteadyPix Universal can be mounted to 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".
If your 1.25" eyepiece has a housing diameter larger than 1.5", you may need the Large
1.25" Eyepiece Clamp for iPhone SteadyPix (sold separately), which accommodates hous-
ings of 1.5" to 1.75" in diameter.
Getting Started
Before using the SteadyPix Universal adapter, please familiarize with its features and
parts, referring to Figure 1.
To capture images afocally projected by 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 posi-
tioning of the SteadyPix bracket.
The SteadyPix Universal comes fully assembled in the box. For installation, we’ve found
it easiest to first insert an eyepiece into the bracket and align it with the phone’s cam-
era lens. Once that is done, the eyepiece – with SteadyPix and smartphone assembly
attached, can be installed on the telescope. Here’s the procedure step by step:
1. Loosen the bracket width adjustment knob and open the bracket to its
maximum width.
Figure 1. Front and back views of the SteadyPix Universal Telescope Photo Adapter for
Smartphones.
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
Eyepiece
clamp
lock knob
Bracket
length
adjustment
knob
Bracket width
adjustment knob
Clamp height
adjustment knob
Eyepiece
clamp
Rubber
washer
L-brac ket
L-brac ket
Padded
side tab
Padded
side tab
End tabs
BACK

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2. Insert your smartphone into the
bracket so that the bottom end of
the smartphone rests against the
end tabs. Then press the sides of
the bracket together until the rubber-
padded side tabs are snug against the
smartphone (Figure 2). Then tighten
the bracket width adjustment knob to
secure the phone in place. Check to
make sure that the phone is snug in
the bracket. If it is still a little loose,
loosen the width adjustment knob
a bit, squeeze the two padded side
tabs against the sides of the phone
again, then retighten the adjustment
knob. Once installed in this way, the
smartphone will not fall out, even
when facing down toward the ground.
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 bolt (Figure 3).
4. Rotate the eyepiece clamp so that the eye lens of the eyepiece is facing the phone’s
camera lens, then lower the clamp until the eyepiece lens is ¼" or so from the
phone’s camera lens.
5. 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 4). Then lightly tighten both the round eyepiece clamp height
adjustment knob and the triangular bracket length adjustment knob. Make sure
the eyepiece is flat relative to the
smartphone (Figure 5a), not skewed
as in Figure 5b.
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) “field
of view” centered on the phone’s display
(Figure 6). If needed, you can adjust the
position of the L-bracket and eyepiece
clamp until the field of view appears cen-
tered in the display. (Any objects in the field
of view will not be in focus.)
Now you’re ready to install the eyepiece
and phone assembly into the telescope’s
focuser. Carefully insert the eyepiece into
the focuser or star diagonal and secure
it firmly with the locking thumbscew(s)
(Figure 7).
Figure 4. Align the eyepiece lens with the
phone’s camera lens, such that the camera
lens is centered in the eyepiece barrel
when viewed through the bottom end of the
eyepiece.
Figure 5. The eyepiece lens should be flat relative to the smartphone (a), not skewed at
an angle (b).
Figure 6. Position the telescope eyepiece
so that its field of view appears roughly
centered on the phone’s screen.
Figure 2. The bracket adjusts in width to
hold phones up to 3-1/8" wide.
Figure 3. Rotate the eyepiece clamp
and insert a 1.25" eyepiece, then tighten
the clamp around the housing with the
triangular lock knob.
a. b.
Figure 7. 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!
a. b.
Padded
side tabs
Camera
Lens
Edge of
eyepiece
barrel
Eyepiece
Eyepiece
field of view in
camera app

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1. 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.
2. 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 position
on the slotted L-bracket arm, using the
lens height thumbscrew. 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 in eyepiece clamp,
and tightening with the clamp bolt.
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 ses-
sions, you’ll get the hang of it.
Taking Photographs with the SteadyPix Universal Adapter and
Your Smartphone
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 clo-
seups that showcase the craters, mountains, or maria (Figure 8). 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 dis-
tant 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 you have a proper solar filter to cover the front of your telescope, you can get ter-
rific images of sunspots on the surface of our nearest star in the daytime with your smart-
phone. 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.
Mouting the SteadyPix
Universal Adapter on a Photo
Tripod
The SteadyPix Universal also allows you to
mount your smartphone directly on a stan-
dard photo tripod as shown in Figure 9,
for taking scenic panoramas and for hold-
ing the camera while taking self-portraits
or group photos (when you’re part of the
group). The SteadyPix Universal bracket
can be mounted in either portrait or land-
scape orientation. The only requirement is
that the tripod have a ¼"-20 threaded post.
1. To attach the SteadyPix Universal to
the tripod, first remove the eyepiece clamp from the L-bracket by completely removing
the clamp height adjustment knob. Put it and the rubber washer in a safe place as
they will not be needed for tripod mounting of the SteadyPix.
2. Adjust the L-bracket for the orientation you want (portrait or landscape). Make sure
the bottom of the L-bracket clears the lower edge of the main phone bracket. Then
tighten the triangular bracket length adjustment knob.
3. Assuming that the tripod has a removeable mounting shoe, remove it from the tripod
head. Place the ¼"-20 threaded bolt on the shoe through the slot in the short arm of
the L-bracket, then place the empty eyepiece clamp onto the threaded bolt.
4. Now thread the ¼"-20 bolt into the eyepiece clamp by turning the bolt itself until tight.
When properly attached the SteadyPix assembly should look like Figure 9 (shown in
horizontal, or “landscape,” orientation).
Camera Apps
The native camera apps on most smartphones are adequate, but may not be terribly ver-
satile. There are other, 3rd party camera apps available that offer additional features and
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 com-
mences 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.
Figure 9. The SteadyPix Universal
adapter can be mounted directly on a photo
tripod, as shown, for steady wide-field
shots and self-portraits.
Figure 8. 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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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.
One last thing: If your phone has a flash, make sure the flash is turned off when shooting
through a telescope eyepiece!
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 SteadyPix Universal Telescope Adapter for Smartphones 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 origi-
nal retail purchaser only. During this warranty period Orion Telescopes & Binoculars will repair or replace, at
Orion’s option, any warranted product that proves to be defective, provided it is returned postage paid to: Orion
Warranty Repair, 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076. If the product is not registered, proof of purchase
(such as a copy of the original invoice) is required.
This warranty does not apply if, in Orion’s judgment, the product has been abused, mishandled, or modified,
nor does it apply to normal wear and tear. This warranty gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have
other rights, which vary from state to state. For further warranty service information, contact: Customer Service
Department, Orion Telescopes & Binoculars, 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076; [phone].