polar alignment with an iPhone

[Gonzo]

The other day I was looking for a simple IOS app to calculate the Hour Angle of Polaris and found the following app:

http://www.gvarros.com/polaralign_iphone.htm

It's only cost £1.49 so I thought, why not, let's buy it as it's dirt cheap.

Today after spending £3.5 in DIY material to build the adaptor as per the link above, and a few more quids for a hard case for the iPhone I was able to test this app this evening (clear night, yes a clear night....).

Building the iPhone holder was really straight forward, 32 mm very short pvc pipe, rectangular hard plastic plate, small drill bit, iPhone hard case and some super glue.

The only tricky part I would say it to make sure the hole for the phone camera is aligned correctly before you glue the all thing

The instructions from the website on how to use the app are very clear

So, is it accurate you might ask...?

Yes it is, but not perfect. I've used our project https://code.google.com/p/eq-polar-alignment/ to check the accuracy and I only had to do some very minor adjustment.

I was to be honest very surprised to see polaris so clear on the iPhone screen.

Conclusion:

Money WELL spent.

(a little disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the developer of the app)

[upahill]

That looks very cool.... To the man cave I go looking for some PVC (sounds so wrong)

[thenews24]

Very cool. Ill have to try this out seeing as I have absolutely no northerly view and do most solar work.