Helpful apps

[cutepetgroomer]

I read on here about some useful apps for the iPhone. I would like to know is if anyone has tried one of the ones that claim to help align your scope to the target

[Charic]

.........I tried something recently with an Android phone. Problems I had was that the metal tube of the telescope, interferes with the GPS and degrades the signal, and other 'bits' inside the phone?

was called SkEye Astronomy. Once set up, acted like a PUSH-TO guide!

[cutepetgroomer]

Don't know but I do know where I do most my star gazing, I'm close to wifi signal which oddly enough my star chart needs turned on to be accurate

[Pete Presland]

i have never though much to any of the phone apps to be honest. most of the ones i have tried are free, but not particularly accurate. but they do give a quicj idea of whats up when you are looking.

[nicoscy]

Apps for iPhone (at least the ones I use):

SkySafari Pro - helps me create observing lists and find any information required (call it a really advanced Stellarium)

Twilight & Moon - sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset times

Moon HD (although the standard free version is excellent) - moon maps and detailed information on any feature of interest

ISS Spotter - spot the ISS and get alerts re transits of ISS at your location

Skylive - quick info on movement of sun, mmon and planets

Now, in terms of aligning the scope, the gyro and compass are not accurate enough to assist in aligning. But they can show you where your alignment stars are so that you can then lock your telescope for alignment purposes.

Also, with SkySafari you can connect to your mount (either by cable or with a wireless module) and use the phone as a control pad for the telescope. I have used the wired version of Skysafari and it is damn easier to use than any controller.

Hope this helps...

[D4N]

Scope tools.

It has location info, bubble level, compass and astro calculator.

While I agree that the compass isn't an accurate enough method for polar alignment it can be helpful for the initial set up especially if you can't see Polaris (such as if you drift align or set up in the day).

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[cevinator]

Loss of the night.

World wide science project to measure light pollution. Neat idea, I tried it a couple of times. App needs a little tweaking in my opinion but it's worth checking out. It estimates the light pullution in your area based on the stars you can/cannot see.

[Gomtuu]

For iPhone I use :

Star Walk

Messier List (has photos, position, tells you useful things like whether it's up or not, has a checklist so you can tick off your Messier objects)

Jupiter Guide (shows moon positions and position of GRS)

Polar Align

I have a couple of others - NGC List, Free GPS - but I don't really use them.

[kev100]

I use the following on my Android phone:

Google Sky Map (use this a lot to see what's up there, and help find it)

Simple moon phase (pretty useful - it's good to know when moonrise is)

I've got SkEye, NightSkyTools and Stellarium on the phone, but don't tend to use 'em. Google Sky Map is the most useful for me.

Recently installed Loss of the night, but haven't used it yet

Kev

[nicoscy]

Another one is SQM meter to tell you how dark your location is.

Also for double star fans, Double Stars app is great!

[cutepetgroomer]

I been interested in trying out polar align but I don't understand how it works. I have never heard of sqm. The astro calculator I have found quite useful I just have yet to install on this phone

[nicoscy]

Copying from Unihedron website (they make Sky Quality Meters)

For example, in Cyprus I have had a best of 21.6 which is most excellent. 

I don't use the SQM meter now as I can tell just by viewing the night sky how good or bad a location is and anyway, I observe from 4 standard locations which are between 21.2 to 21.6 depending on conditions.

I guess this would be useful to assess a particular site and just to get an understanding of how light pollution affects what you can see,

What are "Magnitudes per Square Arc Second"?

Magnitudes are a measurement of an objects brightness, for example a star that is 6th magnitude is brighter than a star that is 11th magnitude.

The term arcsecond comes from an arc being divided up into seconds. There are 360 degrees in an circle, and each degree is divided into 60 minutes, and each minute is divided into 60 seconds. A square arc second has an angular area of one second by one second.

The term magnitudes per square arc second means that the brightness in magnitudes is spread out over an square arcsecond of the sky. If the SQM provides a reading of 20.00, that would be like saying that a light of a 20th magnitude star brightness was spread over one square arcsecond of the sky.

Quite often astronomers will refer to a sky being a "6th magnitude sky", in that case you can see 6th magnitude stars and nothing dimmer like 11th magnitude stars. The term "6th magnitude skies" is very subjective to a persons ability to see in the night, for example I might say "6th magnitude skies" but a young child with better night vision might say "7th magnitude skies". You can use this nifty calculator created by SQM user K. Fisher to do that conversion, or this chart.

The "magnitudes per square arcsecond" numbers are commonly used in astronomy to measure sky brightness, below is a link to such a comparison. See the third table in section 10 for a good chart showing how these numbers in magnitudes per square arcsecond relate to natural situations:

 www.stjarnhimlen.se/comp/radfaq.html

Each magnitude lower (numerically) means just over 2.5 times as much more light is coming from a given patch of sky. A change of 5 mags/sq arcsec means the sky is 100x brighter.

Also, a reading of greater than 22.0 is unlikely to be recorded and the darkest we've personally experienced is 21.80.

[Ally8446]

Scope tools.

It has location info, bubble level, compass and astro calculator.

While I agree that the compass isn't an accurate enough method for polar alignment it can be helpful for the initial set up especially if you can't see Polaris (such as if you drift align or set up in the day).

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Is the 'Scope tools' app only available on iOS ?

I've googled it and can't find it anywhere. Just curious.

Ally

[D4N]

No idea, I don't have an android device I have it for iOS.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

[kev100]

There's something called Scope companion on the google play store. Don't know how it compares, tho.

[cutepetgroomer]

Last night I got observer pro for free in the App Store it's normally a ten dollar app. The developer has made it free for the time being

[Tums]

I've had a few apps on android and more recently on iOS.

The one I'm using most at the moment,has just had an update, and for me is the best App I've used so far

Luminos 8

The info is top notch and it works brilliantly.

Definitely worth a look

[cutepetgroomer]

I'll look into that app. I have found the few star chart apps I have tried petty accurate but I just use one for the most part.

[Gasmac]

Skyharbringer, despite a strange name, is a very good scope condition forecaster for the next 3 days. It appears to be more accurate than skylive and scope nights.