Free tool
Compare setups side by side
Put two or three cameras, lenses and telescopes side by side: pixel scale, field of view and how much detail each one really records, from the same lens on full frame and crop to smart telescopes.
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What each setup records
The numbers
Green marks the best value in each row where one is better.
Pixel scale is how much sky lands on one pixel: 206 × pixel size (µm) ÷ focal length (mm). A crop camera with smaller pixels behind the same lens gives a finer pixel scale, which is why the Moon looks bigger in its frame.
Finer pixels only help until something else blurs the image first. The lens or telescope aperture sets a limit (about 116″ ÷ aperture in mm), and the air adds its own blur. Once either is bigger than two pixels, extra pixels mostly enlarge the blur, and smaller pixels each collect less light, so the picture is noisier.
Specs for . Every setup sees the same photo, blurred and resampled the way the Telescope Simulator does it. Figures are estimates for comparison, not a promise of what a given night will deliver.
Optical aperture is derived from the camera lens filter thread, the telescope (OTA) aperture, or focal length ÷ f-number where appropriate. A zoom's true opening at full stretch is often a little smaller than its filter thread. Width per pixel applies to the Moon, Sun and planets, at their average distance from Earth. Never point any camera or telescope at the Sun without a proper front-mounted solar filter.