PocketScope

Turn your Android phone into a fully featured astronomy camera and controller. PocketScope connects to INDI and ASCOM Alpaca clients over WiFi, presenting your phone's cameras as real CCD devices—indistinguishable from dedicated astronomy hardware.

Free. Open source. No extra hardware required.

Why PocketScope?

Modern smartphones have exceptional camera sensors, multi-lens systems, and motorized focus—everything needed for astrophotography. PocketScope exposes all of this through both the INDI and ASCOM Alpaca protocols, so your phone works seamlessly with the same software used by dedicated astronomy setups.

| Feature | PocketScope | Dedicated Camera | Stellarmate/Pi | Smart Telescope | |----------------------|-------------|------------------|----------------|-----------------| | Price | Free | $300–$1500+ | ~$150 | $450+ | | RAW Bayer Data | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | INDI Compatible | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | ASCOM Alpaca | Yes | Some | No | No | | Multi-Lens | Yes (3 lenses) | No | No | No | | Built-in Focuser | Yes | External needed | External needed | Yes | | Open Source | Yes | No | Partial | No |

Features

- Two Protocols — INDI (TCP port 7624) and ASCOM Alpaca (HTTP port 11111) run simultaneously, so any astronomy client can connect. - Every Lens is a Camera — Each rear lens is automatically detected and exposed as a separate camera device with correct pixel scale and sensor metadata (3 on Pixel 6 Pro; varies by phone). - INDI Focuser — Motorized lens focus controllable from Ekos auto-focus or manually via INDI properties. - 16-bit Raw Bayer FITS — Unprocessed sensor data with accurate astronomy headers (BAYERPAT, XPIXSZ, YPIXSZ, EXPTIME, GAIN), ready for calibration and stacking. - Full Manual Control — Exposure time (nanoseconds to 300+ seconds), ISO/gain (50–12800+), white balance, and focus. - Alpaca Discovery — UDP broadcast on port 32227 lets Alpaca clients auto-discover PocketScope on the network. - Network Security — Private-network IP filtering and per-client approval prompts for both protocols. - Night Vision UI — Red-tinted interface preserves dark adaptation. - Background Operation — Android foreground service keeps both servers alive with wake lock. - Memory-Safe Streaming — Base64 BLOB encoding streams directly to the TCP socket, avoiding out-of-memory crashes on large images. - No On-Device Debayering — Raw linear data preserved for proper dark/flat calibration in your processing pipeline.

Verified on: Google Pixel 6 Pro — Samsung GN1 (main, 50MP, ~2.5"/px), Sony IMX481 (ultrawide, 12MP, ~7–8"/px), Samsung GM1 (telephoto 4x, 48MP, ~0.8"/px).

License

Copyright © 2026 TacoTakumi

GNU General Public License v3.0