Binoculars Can you use an iPhone as a telescope?
A far sign, a bird on a wire, a shirt number: yes. The zoom slider in Binoculars goes to 8x free and 25x at most with Pro, and Freeze gives you a still to study. Stars and the moon in detail are another matter. That is a crop of a phone sensor, and a real telescope beats it easily.
What works, and what falls short
Aim at a street sign a long way down the road and drag the slider to the top of the free range: at 8.0x the letters become readable. Push further after watching the ad and the text goes soft, and the picture drifts, since a hand-held phone is no tripod.
The moon is where this falls short most. It is a bright disc in a black sky, and the camera exposes for the dark, so the result is a white blob until you tap the moon to set focus and exposure on it. That helps. It still does not make the phone an astronomy instrument.
Getting a steadier shot
- Open the app and allow the camera. Leave the switch at the top left on Binoculars.
- Tap the 5x preset first, not the maximum. It is easier to find your subject at a low zoom and then climb.
- Brace your elbows on a wall, a car roof or a fence post. Each tremor is multiplied by the zoom.
- Tap the subject on the picture. Focus and exposure lock there for 3 seconds. For the moon, tap the moon.
- Drag the slider or pinch for the last bit of zoom.
- Tap Freeze at the moment it looks sharpest. Pinch the still up to 8 times more and drag around. Double-tap to fit it back.
- Tap Resume to go live again.
Zoom against real distance
The zoom factor says how much nearer the subject looks. A sign 100 metres away at 1x looks closer by that factor:
| Zoom | Looks as if it were | Width left of a 4032 px frame if all crop |
|---|---|---|
| 1x | 100 m | 4032 px |
| 2.5x | 40 m | 1613 px |
| 5x | 20 m | 806 px |
| 8x (free limit) | 12.5 m | 504 px |
| 25x (app ceiling) | 4 m | 161 px |
The last column is the worst case: a phone with no telephoto lens, where everything is a digital crop. With a telephoto camera the first part of the range is real optics and holds up better. The 4032 px is only an example frame size, and yours may differ.
Free or Pro, before you install
Free stops at 8x. Try to go past it and a banner offers Watch Ad or Go Pro. The ad lifts the cap until you close the app; Pro removes it for good. Free saves are scaled down to 1600 px on the long side (a 4032 by 3024 photo becomes 1600 by 1200), Pro saves the full capture, and free has ads.
It cannot do video, long exposures, star tracking or zoom past 25x, and night mode only brightens a dim scene. For the Milky Way or Saturn, use something else.
Why use an app for this
Freeze. It holds one captured frame, the shaking stops, and you can pinch and pan the still. That is what makes far text readable.
Questions and answers
Does an iPhone have a telescope?
Can I photograph the moon with it?
Can I attach a real telescope to the iPhone?
Is it free?
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