Acuter Maksy 60 Phone Mount

Acuter Maksy 60 Phone Mount

Don't waste a lot of time trying to find the correct band combination to hold your phone exactly over the eyepiece opening. If the band tension is not just right, or with too many bands, too tight or too loose, the phone camera will not stay over the opening above the eyepiece and won't have the ability to undergo fine positioning adjustments.

The photos show how to position one band (front and back connections) and allow the side positioned camera to reach the opening and maintain its position. One band was removed because two bands put too much tension on the phone and trying to position it resulted in the wrong position.

Left: the backside of the Acuter stock phone mount should look like this for positioning the camera with the proper tension. The use of only one band is needed.

The reason for this unusual design is there are no phone side grippers. I tried several different phone mounts with side grippers and they all interfered with the side buttons on the phone and could not be used.

This applies to the Apple iPhone 6 Plus and Xs Max.

The designers at Acuter Optics knew what they were doing when they designed this mobile phone holder. It does not pinch the sides of the phone and does not interfere with the side buttons or the operation of the iPhone. Read about bad phone mounts:

https://otisastro.blogspot.com/2022/05/bad-phone-camera-mounts.html

Trials & Tribulations Acuter Maksy 60 at Sun Baked Observatory

Above: Attempting high magnification at the Sun's limb produced this unusual appearance - the system needs additional tuning to clearly show sunspots and solar flares and edge prominences.

Exposed with the primary solar filter but no fine tuning engagement of H-Alpha filtering.

Left: at 20mm EP projection and hand holding the iPhone camera, the solar disk was overexposed and getting the iPhone to compensate was insufficient. However, overexposure has advantages and some prominence-appearing minute detail is beginning to appear at the solaredge as well as the graduations towards the photosphere.

Trials & Tribulations of the Acuter Maksy 60 at Sun Baked Observatory
The Acuter Maksy 60 is being tuned for solar work. A number of fixes are needed before this telescope will be fully up and running.

Here's a List of Numerous Anomalies Encountered on Sunday May 29 2022.

Small Stock Tripod Insufficient to Hold Weight
The small tripod mount is insufficient to hold the telescope and the weight of the iPhone.

Small Stock Tripod Cannot Reach Elevation

The small stock tripod must be rotated to a small gap opening at the top to get it to reach a higher elevation, otherwise it bumps into the mount which is very limited. It's inconvenient to stop and move the entire mount and telescope for a position that works better.

Small Stock Tripod Insufficient to Make Fine Motions
The small tripod mount is incapable of making the fine motions needed for adjustments to image positioning

Small Tripod does not fit the Observatory Platform

The small tripod did not fully fit the observatory platform

Stock Phone Mount Failure
The stock iPhone mount failed - mount number one with the stock bands was not fully adjustable and the phone camera would not stay over the eyepiece at the proper position

Phone Mount 2 Failed
The 2nd iPhone mount failed - it pressed on the side of the iPhone against the function buttons and locked p the phone

Phone Mount 3 Failed
The 3rd iPhone mount failed, the lock holding the phone was not able to have fine tuning.

Phone Mount 4 Failed
The 4th phone mount failed, it was too heavy.

Sun Blocked by Roof
Just as the project was getting started, the sun moved into a position blocked by the roof.

Clouds & Haze Obliterates Features
The sun features were relatively void due to viewing the sun through the clouds and haze.

iPhone Touchscreen Failure
The iPhone continued to fail as any touch to the screen activated some unwanted feature.

iPhone Screen Not Visible
The iPhone screen was invisible in the bright sun - a shield was fabricated but it too had too many reflections to see anything.

Two iPhones both Fail
Two different iPhones both had the same problems.

iPhone Goes into Undesired Modes

Just setting on the table, the iPhone goes into undesired modes not conducive to astro imaging. Anything near the screen or touching it randomly is a problem.

Observatory Platform Needs Moving
The observatory platform needs to be completed in construction and moved to an ideal location.