This device will hook up your telescope to any smartphone, and it's available on Amazon for $22 less. Trying to snap photos of the moon through a telescope with a mobile phone can be tricky, since it has to be lined up with the eyepiece just right for the best view. That alignment can be much easier with this universal smartphone adapter from Celestron, which 33% off for Amazon Prime Day. The Celestron NexYZ 3-Axis Universal Smartphone Adapter (opens in new tab) is available at Amazon for just $43.99, which is $22 off its usual price. Act quickly while supplies are in stock. This mount will connect your smartphone to a telescope, which is especially handy if you enjoy astrophotography and picked up a new observing tool this Prime Day (opens in new tab). It also is designed to fit a range of models, including devices from Apple, Google and Samsung.
Save $22: Pair any smartphone with your Celestron telescope for 33% less this Prime Day. The smartphone adapter works with a big range of models, such as the latest editions from Samsung, Google and Apple. Celestron's NexYZ has 3 directional knobs on its X, Y, and Z axis to quickly align your phone's main camera (some smartphones have more than one) with the eyepiece in seconds to photograph the moon, Saturn or whatever else you may be looking at. The mount fits telescope eyepieces ranging from 1.25-inch to 2-inch, which makes it suitable for several types of beginner telescopes. While you're shopping, you can also pick up Celestron gear at incredible Prime Day deals. With this mount and a new telescope, you'll be photographing and filming the night sky happily in no time. Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D.
Amazon is a company with a history of taking on challenges and coming out on top. It first launched in 1995, when business on the Web was still in its infancy. It weathered the storms of the bursting dot-com bubble and stayed afloat. What began as a company that sold books is now a massive corporation offering everything from computer hardware to socks. But even as the company evolves, it celebrates its literary roots. In 2007, Amazon introduced the Kindle e-reader. Like other e-readers on the market, the Kindle used electronic ink from a company named eInk to display text and images. Because the device only consumed power when connected to a network or when it had to display a change in pages, its battery could last for more than a week without needing a recharge. Storage space on the device was ample enough to let a user carry thousands of books around.
And Amazon's digital book library included an impressive number of titles. Unlike the original Kindle line of products, the Fire doesn't use eInk. It's a tablet device with an LCD display and the ability to run apps, sneakers browse the Web and play video and music. Oh, and you can still use it to read electronic books too. It's comparable in size to the standard Amazon Kindle e-reader. Its design is simple -- on the bottom edge of the device there are two ports and one button. The ports include a micro-USB port for charging and transmitting data over a USB cable and a 3.5-millimeter (0.14-inch) headphone jack. The power button is the only physical button on the Kindle Fire. All other controls for the Kindle Fire are virtual -- you activate them through the capacitive touch-screen interface. Checking under the hood, the Amazon Kindle Fire packs a lot of punch in a small space. A lithium-ion battery provides power.
It's a rechargeable battery and one you can't easily replace if it fails. To get to the battery, you'd have to pry apart the front and back halves of the Kindle Fire's case -- a sure way to void your warranty. The processor for the Kindle Fire is a Texas instruments 1-gigahertz, dual-core microprocessor called the OMAP 4430. You wouldn't see it at first glance -- it's nestled under a 512-megabyte RAM chip from Hynix. These components give the Kindle Fire the ability to access media, process data and accept commands. The processor is like the brain -- it crunches numbers and gets results. The memory stores your media and data needed for apps. The RAM acts as a cache, holding important data so the processor can get to it quickly. The bus is like the nervous system -- it routes data to the appropriate destinations. The transmitter sends data to the Kindle Fire's display and the transceiver allows the device to communicate with a network. This da ta h as been written with t he help of GSA C on tent Gener ator Demoversion.