AstroOcular vs ksAstroLens

AstroOcular is a focused camera app for recording the Moon, planets, and observations through a telescope eyepiece. The app opens straight into the camera, avoids automatic lens switching by using physical rear cameras when available, and provides a visual guide to help center the iPhone on the eyepiece. Key features: - Photo and video capture through a telescope eyepiece - Physical rear lens selection - Automatic alignment guide and manual reticle fallback - Timer to reduce shake - Pro controls for zoom, focus, exposure, ISO, white balance, resolution, and FPS - Saves locally to the Photos library - No ads, analytics, purchases, or backend Video audio is off by default and microphone permission is requested only if you enable audio.

AstroLens turns your iPhone into a fully manual astrophotography camera, designed for afocal shooting through the Vaonis Hestia smartphone telescope. THE PROBLEM IT SOLVES When your iPhone sits on a telescope eyepiece, the native Camera app silently switches from the telephoto lens to the wide lens with a digital crop, because autofocus cannot converge through the optics. AstroLens locks the physical lens of your choice (the optical telephoto by default) and never switches away from it. Zoom stays at 1.0×: pure optical magnification, no digital crop. FULLY MANUAL, FULLY DETERMINISTIC • Manual focus slider with focus peaking and a magnifying loupe • One-tap mirror flip to correct the telescope's inverted image (preview and captures) • Manual shutter speed and ISO, bounded by the real sensor limits • Locked white balance for consistent colors across shots • Live histogram to nail the exposure MADE FOR THE NIGHT • Sun, Moon, Landscape and Deep Sky modes with sensible starting presets • Mandatory solar-filter confirmation before Sun mode • Crosshair, telescope-field circle and composition grid overlays • Red-on-black night theme to preserve your dark adaptation • 2-second self-timer and volume-button shutter to avoid vibrations • Apple Watch remote shutter: trigger from your wrist without touching the iPhone, with the mode, shutter speed and ISO on your watch • Burst capture for stacking deep-sky images • Apple ProRAW support (on compatible iPhones) plus HEIF • Captures saved to a dedicated “Hestia” album FIND YOUR TARGET • Sun/Moon alignment assistant: on-screen arrow plus turn and tilt guidance, computed from your location and the phone's motion sensors, fully offline • Works uncalibrated right away: the compass gets you close on its own; then center the target once in the eyepiece view and tap Calibrate for degree-level pointing • Adapter geometry is configurable (Hestia's mirrored optics by default) AstroLens works on any recent iPhone: without a telephoto lens it locks the main wide lens instead, still with zero automatic switching. Vaonis and Hestia are trademarks of their respective owner. AstroLens is an independent app, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Vaonis.