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Shoot the night sky with your phone

You don't need a $2,000 camera to capture what you see. Your phone, held to a telescope eyepiece, can shoot the Moon's craters tonight.

The trick: afocal photography

Point your phone camera through the eyepiece — the telescope becomes a giant telephoto lens. The hard part is alignment, and that's what the Celestron NexYZ adapter solves: it clamps to the eyepiece and adjusts in three axes until the camera sees the full field.

What to shoot first

The Moon. Bright, easy, spectacular — craters pop with any phone. Next: Jupiter and its moons, then bright star clusters. Use your phone's night mode, tap to lock focus on the bright object, and lower the exposure slightly to avoid blowing out the highlights.

Level up

Once the Moon bores you, put the whole rig on a star tracker and shoot 30-second exposures of the Milky Way with just the phone. That's the moment a casual observer becomes a skywatcher.

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