buying a new telescope

[azbobby1949]

Is there a telescope that if you put in the alt and az goes to that spot. Example. ( your going around the sky you see something, what to know what your looking at. Your phone ap gives you a good idea what your seeing,

but would like to put the alt and az to make sure what I'm seeing.

[BeanerSA]

Any "Go-To" telescope, or Go-To mount will do that. The "push-to" scopes, will allow you to aim at something, and it will tell you what is in the view.

[ronin]

Strictly the answer is "No" (I think) to what you asked.

The "No" aspect is because you asked for Alt/Az. Since Alt/Az changes all the time it is "sort of" not used. What you do is enter the RA and Dec not the Alt/Az. Now I appreciate that the scope (goto) will take the RA+Dec and convert these to a set of Alt/Az values for itself to use, since it operates in terms of Alt and Az.

As previously said most/all goto's will attempt to give an idea of what it is pointed at. They take the RA+Dec they were told to goto, add in the change made by yourself when moving manually and I assume then likely do a simple comparison of where they are pointed in RA+Dec values to the objects in their database.

I have not checked my handsets but I would also suspect they will display the RA+Dec they are pointed at and if they can not identify whatever then you could take the RA+Dec and tell something like Stellarium to display those coordinates and you would then look at that area of the sky to work out manually. So take a small notepad out with you for the ones it cannot determine, then you can do a little research afterwards if necessary.

You do have to have performed the alignment first however, and as ever the more accurate the better.

[brantuk]

I think this is the sort of thing you are looking for:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/skyview-free-explore-universe/id413936865?mt=8

You don't need to input in the alt/az or Dec/RA - you just point your device and it can give info for what you're looking at - including coords. You can get scope mounting holders for mobile devices that enable you to align the device with the scope to make a push-to sort of system. Hth

[happy-kat]

Sky eye pro can do push to, it is a mobile app