Sky Safari 4 Plus

[mikeyrea]

Was thinking of getting this as 'finder aid' - attaching my phone to the telescope and then aligning the target in the app with the telescope target.   Having looked through the on-line manual I'm not sure if this is possible?  

I'm thinking that it may only work by plugging into a goto mounts (I've a standard EQ5, not even motorized!)?

The only app that I've found so far that can do this is SkEye, which has an 'indirect mode', but this is a bit shakey and suffers from 'strange magnetic fields'.

[adarshajoisa]

I have SkySafari 4 Plus installed on my phone. As far as I'm aware, it only allows you to connect to a goto mount and control it from your phone. I don't think it can be used similar to SkEye.

[Paul M]

SkySafari can be used "compass" mode like Sky Eye. 

Its adequate for getting you pointing in the right direction but my gut feeling is that the accuracy would be to low for meaningful "push to" use.

Its not a mode I ever use but I think there might be some calibration that can be done to improve accuracy . Even so you might get the scope tube in the ball park but you aren't going to routinely get faint objects centered in the eyepiece.

The telescope pointing facility in SkySafari is only useful for driving GoTo mounts. The target only moves in relation to the signals sent to the mount and not in relation to the position of the phone/mobile device. 

[mikeyrea]

Thanks for your comments guys - sounds like it's worth a punt.  

Maybe not the £30 version though!