Is GPS worth it?

[NickW]

Just wondering what peoples views are on adding GPS to systems.

Is it worth it or is it a toy? I have seen a couple of systems for use with Syncscan and they seem quite expensive for what they are e.g.

http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=10589&tb=3

http://www.pulsar-optical.co.uk/prod/sykwatcher/mountsandtripods/gpsmousefor%20v3handset.html

Are there other options?

Nck

[umadog]

If you can't stomach finding your latitude and longitude and typing it in then a GPS unit is for you. Otherwise, I can't see the point unless the goto has no other way of entering one's location (which seems unlikely).

[steppenwolf]

Not worth having unless you just happen to have a GPS unit lying around for other purposes. Finding your Lat. and Long. is simple enough these days - although a GPS receiver is very useful if you are lost in the wilderness!

[notaclue]

Why not use a weighted string and a protractor? Your latitude will 52-54 degrees. Mine is 53 so knowing that is just normal.

Why have a GPS when you set your mount to celestial north anyway. It is not as if your telescope will get up and walk off to the pub and not find it's way back home.

[Doug]

Hi Nick

No it is not a toy and it is worth it IMHO and it all depends on the total amount of money you wish to spend and the time you have to view when I started out I had the money to spend so was not a problem and to be honest I have not stopped spending

even though I have GPS at first I did not use it for at least a year I wanted to be like my friend and just remember the sky month by month

but if you do not have the time it will help you to see more things in one evening

or you may wish to forget about gps and put your money in to the optic of the scope the choice it yours I would recommend that you join your local Astronomy club before buying there are so many scopes at it will depend on the sky in your area such as light pollution and they will know what to recommend for the money you wish to spend and once you have puchased your scope then you will want more eyepieces ect ect ect to be honest it never stops LOL

So good luck and hope you have years of fun just like the rest of us

Hope this will help you

clear skies

[Spikey]

If you move your viewing/imaging location about regularly and don't have access to any other sort of GPS device then you may have use for one.

If you mainly stay in one place I wouldn't bother, smartphones, navigation devices and online utilities can all provide the same information.

[Mountain View]

Gps has many uses, have to admit that for a long time I thought it was simply boys toys

I don't have a use for it in astronomy or at least my version of astronomy, but I do use it for travel and mostly geocaching, now thats a great use, it takes you to terrestrial places you might never have otherwise seen, and you don't need a clear sky to do it!

So it compliments astronomy very well in deed

Gordon

[JamesM]

Of all the things to spend money on in astronomy, GPS would come way down the list for me. It very much depends on what your budget is and if you want all the bells and whistles. If you intend using your kit from one location then GPS would represent poor value for money and as others have already said, there are plenty of sources out there to advise you of the co-ordinates of your observing site. Astronomy isn't the cheapest interest to pursue and so any savings you can make early on will help fund another aspect (imaging?) later on.

James

[StarryBob]

I think that the cost of the GPS unit is far too much for what it is but they are the only units that will work with synscan handsets other than I think it's Star GPS and they are not much cheaper by the time you get one in the UK. They are only really any good if you move your location often, not around your garden but to another area for dark skies for instance. I am currently looking at some Chinese comapny who make GPS units which are a lot cheaper and I hope to find out if they can make them compatible, if so I will be able to get them for about £25 a unit and I will pass on the details to everyone who wants them.

[Jessun]

The iOptron that I use as mobile setup has a built in GPS, and I find it to be great. It takes a few minutes at most to power up but you can turn it on the first thing you do, so when you're finished setting up it's up and running, ready for polaris.

All it really does though is increase your chances of having the first alignment star close to the cross hairs. For some reason when I use my HEQ5 I'm sometimes off by 30 degrees... Obviously something I do wrong.

Pay extra for one? Hmm, naa I'd have a look in the Tomtom in the car and scribble that down.

[Etoille]

I see its still selling for £100 - which IMHO is considerably overpriced. If memory serves, if you use EQMOD on a PC or laptop, then you only need a cheap £25 USB GPS dongle attached to the computer and a relatively inexpensive EQMOD cable to connect the mount. However, as others have said, unless you move around a lot, you will only need to determine your co-ordinates once. The GPS mouse will, of course, do this automatically for you, but its not a big deal to enter this information manually. A GPS would be very low down on my astro priorities list as well.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Etoille

[Helen]

One often overlooked advantage of GPS is accurate time. If you use EQMod and a computer then buying a small USB dongle (I paid about £15 for mine from Maplins) will do the job brilliantly.

Helen

[Darkstar_1]

To find your lat and long anywhere in the world is easy, just install google earth on your pc, If i want to go to an other site to observe, i just find it on google earth and write down the coords, job done.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Darkstar_1

[NickW]

Thanks for all the brilliant advice and comments. Take home seems to be: if you use multiple sites a lot then GPS might be useful. If you have a smartphone or car GPS use that.

I guess if StarryBob found something for £25 perhaps more would be tempted.

[Uranium235]

Youve probably already got a GPS unit in your pocket if you have an android-based phone. Just download Shibbys Astropanel (free) or GPS essentials (also free).

Edited June 14, 2012 by Uranium235

[Davey-T]

The iOptron that I use as mobile setup has a built in GPS, and I find it to be great. It takes a few minutes at most to power up but you can turn it on the first thing you do, so when you're finished setting up it's up and running, ready for polaris.

Hi Jesper you've got your iOptron mount back then. How are you getting on with it ?

So far I've only managed a couple of 5min images with EOS450d but seems to track ok.

Davey-T

[todd8137]

Hi there I have one for my cgem I think it saves lots of time setig up,if I go on a club event I just stick it in wait a few mins nd I do not have to bother with time date ,snd ll he rest of it,if you have the cash ,and like gadgets go or it,it makes things s lot easier

Pat

[Jessun]

PM sent Davey-T.

[Marcel]

On 14/06/2012 at 10:50, Helen said:

One often overlooked advantage of GPS is accurate time. If you use EQMod and a computer then buying a small USB dongle (I paid about £15 for mine from Maplins) will do the job brilliantly.

Helen

Hi Helen,

I am using eqmod for the first time. On my laptop eqmod uses COM3. It works fine. When i purchase a GPS dongle, does eqmod recognize the dongle? Or how do you let it communicate withe eqmod?

Thanxxxx

Kind regards Marcel

[AstroMuni]

On 14/06/2012 at 09:50, Helen said:

One often overlooked advantage of GPS is accurate time. If you use EQMod and a computer then buying a small USB dongle (I paid about £15 for mine from Maplins) will do the job brilliantly.

Helen

I thought most software can figure out the location based on your Wifi (assuming you are at home)??

[Helen]

1 hour ago, AstroMuni said:

I thought most software can figure out the location based on your Wifi (assuming you are at home)??

Hi Marcel,

I would say that if your broadband is anything like mine it suggests my location moves between London, Kent, Home fairly randomly! and so I would not rely on it for astro set up.  That said, your phone will provide GPS accuracy (that wasn't an option for most of us when this thread was opened in 2012 😉 ).  I haven't used EQMOD since 2014 when I changed mounts, but I seem to remember that I just plugged the gps dongle into a usb port, told EQMOD the comport number (vaguely remember having to check the baud rate..) and there was a button in EQMOD to press to fetch the data.  It worked really well 🙂 

I still wish my Mesu mount could be controlled by EQMOD - its fantastic software!

Hope you get it working

Best wishes

Helen

[jambouk]

I don’t have one, and can’t see why I’d need one, my smart phone tells me the time, date and lat/long and elevation. 

Unless you are parking the scope at the end of each observing session and leaving it where it is and then using the same alignment the next observing session, it isn’t even that important to get the data correct; you can be a degree or more out in lat and long, make up any elevation, and equally the date and time are only vital if using GOTO.

But if you like gadgets and can’t be bothered to enter this data, get one. I’d rather buy an eyepiece.

[dannybgoode]

10 minutes ago, jambouk said:

Unless you are parking the scope at the end of each observing session and leaving it where it is and then using the same alignment the next observing session, it isn’t even that important to get the data correct; you can be a degree or more out in lat and long, make up any elevation, and equally the date and time are only vital if using GOTO

For imaging where you have to put the long/lat data in some vaguely hidden field (and depending on the software in different formats) and where accurate time is more important then for the sake of £15 for a GPS dongle it is a useful addition, particularly if you go out and about with your imaging rig.  Note also this thread was started in 2012 when the availability of small cheap GPS devices was more limited so the arguments against have shifted  

[jambouk]

Ok. I assumed the GPS dongles were still over £100. I hadn’t realised they are now £15, in which case, I may get one!!!!

[Helen]

10 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

For imaging where you have to put the long/lat data in some vaguely hidden field (and depending on the software in different formats) and where accurate time is more important then for the sake of £15 for a GPS dongle it is a useful addition, particularly if you go out and about with your imaging rig.  Note also this thread was started in 2012 when the availability of small cheap GPS devices was more limited so the arguments against have shifted  

Yes, this (2012) was when the first cheap GPS dongles (non-astro specific) started being available, so they were a bit of a game changer... I think the one I got was around £20