Smartphone bracket for alt-az mount

[coliea]

With SkySafari available for Android and the iPhone has anyone attached their smartphone to a non-goto mount to aid pointing?

I've a Samsung Galaxy S2 and was wondering if a bracket/holder/adapter thingy existed that I could use/modify to attach the phone to my Unistar mount?

I've had a hunt around, but so far haven't found anything I could adapt for astro use.

Col

[kniclander]

there was a thread on this yesterday (called "is this the end of goto" or something like that. Also see scope n skies - they do something for an exorbitant price and it will probably arrive damaged but....

IMHO I couldn't see how you could possibly line up their cradle accurately enough to help other than pointing in roughly the right area.

[newman]

My iphone is nowhere near accurate enough for this to be worth it. It points at a rough location, sure, but when it comes to aligning the scope it's nowhere near accurate enough. You're better off using the smartphone with an app such as sky safari or starwalk to determine where the target is in relation to other constellations you can see in the sky, and then using something like a Telrad to zero in on your target.

[coliea]

Thanks guys - sorta confirms what I thought. The plan is to move house this year so maybe I'll add a EQ mount or a DSC equipped Dob once we're settled.

Best

Col

[jnc71106]

The other factor to consider is that the scope and everything else interfere with the compass on the phone so it doesn't work

Waste of money IMHO

[smutly]

This is what i use my HTC Desire on using a free app called SkEye which you can adjust and fine tune, it's not exactly accurate but a useful addition though :

Tripod Stand Holder ES53 Camera Mobile Phone Cellphone | eBay

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lavadip.skeye&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5sYXZhZGlwLnNrZXllIl0.

[scogyrd]

The other factor to consider is that the scope and everything else interfere with the compass on the phone so it doesn't work

I think this depends on your phone, some newer ones come with gyroscopes so I don't think they suffer from this problem.

Many people seem to get round this by raising the phone a few inches away from what is causing the interference too.

I've not mounted my phone though, I simply use it like a star atlas, so I can't really comment on how well they work mounted.

Waste of money IMHO

Compared to a celestron skyscout, they do about the same thing but a phone obviously does much more, I would say that the phones are a bargain.

Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium

My smart phone hasn't really cost me that much because my contract is the about the same price as I was paying before I upgraded my old phone to it.

[jnc71106]

I wasn't referring to the phone being a waste just the bracket

[scogyrd]

I wasn't referring to the phone being a waste just the bracket

In that case I apologise for getting the wrong end of the stick. It's easily done on the net.

[dobbie]

i use distant suns on my ipod touch , use it like a sky atlas gives me alt/az coords then i transfer them to my alt/az az4 mount job done .. and i have won against a goto:D