No need for Go To thanks to iphone Apps??

[Mark Foster]

Hi there

First posting...

Just getting back into astronomy after a few years break and pretty impressed with the iphone apps - Star Walk and Sky Portal

Which makes me think. There's no need for Go To - which I've previously relied on to find objects (I had a LX90) 

I've just bought a mini 130 SkyBridge and realised I can use the iphone app to find the part of the sky an object is in, and thanks to the wide FOV of the dob coupled with the red dot finder, track it down pretty easily.

Thoughts...

 

[domstar]

That sounds good to me. There seem to be many ways to enjoy a hobby, but the trainspotter in me likes finding it myself (with the aid of stellarium, turn left at Orion and sometimes an ipad ) On the other hand my focal length is only 900mm so my field of view is helpful in this respect.

ps Welcome to the forum .May I be the first to do this.

[rockystar]

I think you'll find it harder than you think to locate objects at the eyepiece by waving your phone in the right direction. It won't be well calibrated and is quite small scale compared to the scale of the sky.

Welcome to the forum though, and there is no reason you can't use it to star hop (mind your night vision though)

[gtis]

Hi Lee

theres a night vision setting in sky portal I use it all the time on sky safari pro 5

 

[ronin]

Cannot see how an app will do a lot. To use it as a "finder" then it needs to be mounted on the scope and in a position like a straight through finder, so it will have to se accurate to likely less then half a degree in axis alignment and perpendicular. As in SF5 you will need a set of circles to mark the centre of the screen and still check/set alignment each time.

I have SS5 on a 7" tablet and I can just fit most, not all, of Leo in and then it does not display the Leo Triplet, oddly it marks 2 of them, however it also marks 2 others a bit further along to the right. So without knowing previously how would a person pick the right group. The detail displayed is not that great in some respects. The detail comes out as you expand the bit of interest.

To find "the part of the sky" that is simply know which constellation and more or less where an object is in that constellation. Back to the Leo triplet, I have to know which group to expand on the tablet before they become the triplet. So the app is sort of doing little.

The SS5 app is really used more as a reference or electronic book. Where it may be useful is head out to view the Leo triplet, knowing where Leo is and the triplet is, then after that is accomplished there is time to scroll around Leo via the app to determine if there is anything else to locate in Leo. But even on a 7" tablet when Leo is on the display there is not really a lot of detail given. It is not until I/you zoom in that the extras become apparent.

Even in the simple form of the app pointing out that those stars up there form Leo or Casseiopia or Auriga then you still need to point the scope at it and that is independant of the app.

[mikey2000]

It seems the OP is already pleased with the apps and the help they give to find something "up there".  I think he means he is using the apps as portable star charts then maybe zooming to match the FOV with what's in the scope.

 

That's exactly what I do!    For eye-ball observing, part of the fun for me is star hopping to get to where I need to be.  I use stellarium on the ipad (but have to remember to turn is upside down as I have a reflector scope....)

 

for photography, I spend the extra time getting the whole laptop/eqdirect cable etc all set up then PC Stellarium for Go-To with platesolving for fine tuning.  What a hassle though.

[Stu]

2 hours ago, ronin said:

I have SS5 on a 7" tablet and I can just fit most, not all, of Leo in and then it does not display the Leo Triplet, oddly it marks 2 of them, however it also marks 2 others a bit further along to the right. So without knowing previously how would a person pick the right group. The detail displayed is not that great in some respects. The detail comes out as you expand the bit of interest.

Ronin, it's well worth finding out more about SS5 before writing it off. Most parameters are adjustable. For instance at any given scale you can set the minimum magnitude of each different object type you would like to see and the label density, see attached. It's easy to show both sets of Leo Triplet galaxies clearly labeled.

[kiloran]

In my experience the apps are good enough to get you in the ballpark, but calibration issues hobble them to a certain extent. I find I have to regularly wiggle the phone in a figure of eight to get the compass to calibrate accurately enough. Certainly have their place but at this stage I don't know the sky well enough to do without GoTo.

[Mark Foster]

Stu's got hold of the right end of the stick - I've discovered that the app is perfect for figuring out the general area to look at in the sky - It makes a great improvement to the star maps I tried to used 5 or 6 years ago.

The App shows me quickly the general area where to point my scope and then I go to my telrad and start to home in on the target

I also love the way the Celestron app shows what can be seen in the sky tonight - 'Tonights Best.' I used to sit down with a couple of books and spend time trying to figure it out!

It could be called Lazy...but as I've only limited time to skywatch - perhaps an hour every other week - it means I can get the most out of my viewing time

[Geoff Lister]

I have (a) a Skymax 127, (b) a Skyprodigy 70 (modified to take larger OTAs), and (c) a Cosmos 90 Wi-Fi (+Skyportal). These are essentially the same mounts but with different user interfaces.

(a) uses handset on curly lead for alignment and GOTO, (b) uses handset on curly lead for GOTO, but camera and Starsense for alignment, and (c) uses tablet running Skyportal for alignment and GOTO. Both (a) & (b) require manual entry of location, date & time; although, once set, only (a) requires time after a power cycle. Both (a) and (c) require centring in eyepiece for alignment, whereas with (b), you press "go" and it aligns itself within a couple of minutes.

(b)'s alignment is just faster than (a)'s 2-star, but at the moment, Jupiter+Arcturus+Procyon/Pollux comes a very close second.

With (c) you have to persuade your tablet to disconnect from the home hub and connect to the mount's dedicated link. You need to have Skyportal running (red screen option) and make sure that your tablet does not shut down due to input inactivity, otherwise you loose night-vision whilst booting up again. The dedicated handsets have real buttons, but the tablet has just areas highlighted to act as directional buttons, and other functions; so you need to keep looking back to the screen to find the "buttons" then back to the eyepiece, then back to the screen ....... For me, anyway, alignment of (c) takes much longer than for (a) & (b).

Geoff

[London_David]

There are quite a few great apps, my two favourites are Sky Safari 5 and Exoplanet. Exoplanet isn't a planetarium but it does let you explore the universe which is cool. There are a couple of posts on Cloudy Nights that have a run down on a few of these: 

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/user-reviews/phonetablet-apps-and-the-practical-astronomer-r2925

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/567148-best-stargazing-phone-apps-for-iphone/

I really like using Sky Safari 5 on iPad to explore around. With a dob I would think it would be a perfect companion for a push to setup. 

I did attempt to mount my iPhone on the telescope with a laser pointer attatchememt in place of a red dot finder but I found it more hassle than it was worth because you can't really use the touchscreen very well without wrecking alignment. The novelty wore off quickly and I bought a Telrad.

I'm a heavy light pollution area (Zone 2 London) so I mainly do eea and I can only find stuff like galaxies or globular clusters with a motorised goto. SS5 controlling the mount with my iPad is a great wireless replacement for the handset, but not the motorised goto system itself. Most things I want to see are are just too small and dim to find without assistance.

One great thing on SS5 are the reticule hud options. You can overlay the exact field of view you will see through your scope, so you will know I exactly the patterns to look for at the right relative size for your magnification. You can also easily adjust the star magnitude shown, to account for seeing or the power of your scope.

It is really excellent for navigating around and makes it fun and easy to explore. I often make a plan to see a few key things using the observation list and it will highlight them on screen. Then it encourages you to make detours to interesting hard to see stuff because it shows you the things on screen. It will kill your night vision unless you switch the red light function, but I don't since I like colour and I'm imaging anyway. Even with night vision I'd never see anything other than Jupiter because of light pollution. I don't use the (expensive) official hardware to connect, instead I use the free WiFiScope app which runs on the pc I use for imaging. It's super simple, fire it up, press Listen on the app, and Connect on the iPad. You're good to go, with full wireless goto mount control from the iPad (and celestron audio commentary too).

If you like using your tablet or phone to navigate, I think you'd get a lot out of Sky Safari 5 - it's a great tool. It's the best app for me by a long way in terms of depth and ease of use. You may find you prefer others, some look nicer, some have different options, but overall SS5 I think wins for most people. Red Shift, Night Sky, Sky guide, Luminos, GoSkyWatch are the other planetarium apps I'd check out. Also, ScopeNights and Exoplanet.   

 

[Stu]

On 05/05/2017 at 21:07, ronin said:

I have SS5 on a 7" tablet and I can just fit most, not all, of Leo in and then it does not display the Leo Triplet, oddly it marks 2 of them, however it also marks 2 others a bit further along to the right. So without knowing previously how would a person pick the right group. The detail displayed is not that great in some respects. The detail comes out as you expand the bit of interest.

Ronin, it's best to understand the software before stating it doesn't do things. SS is totally flexible in what it shows you at any given scale, it's a matter of learning how to use it properly.

I use an iPhone 6 Plus, smaller than your tablet, and have no problems seeing what I need to see.

Attached screen shots of Leo showing the Galaxies you were referring to, with Leo fitted into the available screen area. You adjust the object and name density in the settings menu.

Back to the OPs question, I agree that it can be useful to give you the direction that objects are in, but it is not accurate enough to point a scope by. What does work though is setting up the display to match the field of view of your scope/eyepiece and then using it to star hop to your target. I find this a great way of doing things, and my brain relates far better to the white on black rather than black on white that you get with star atlases. I tracked the recent asteroid successfully using SkySafari, great fun.

[Stu]

Two extremes for you!

[Littleguy80]

I picked up SS5 plus this week based on some really screenshots Stu provided to help me find the Veil and some other objects. I tend to to think of apps as another tool in the box. I prefer to use a paper atlas to find things as much as possible. That's part of the fun for me. However, apps are great for helping you to find your bearings or, with something like SS5, figure out what you should be seeing through the eyepiece based on the equipment you have. Another benefit is finding objects, like Comet Johnson, that you can't look up in a paper atlas. Really useful to get an exact position to find them with.

There's really no one way to do it. All down to what you find easiest or simply enjoy doing. Apps are certainly a great tool for helping you find objects  

[TareqPhoto]

Is there something similar on Android? and for my AZ-EQ6?

[Helen]

There is a Skysafari version for Android, and you can use a bluetooth adapter to control the EQ6

Helen

[TareqPhoto]

1 hour ago, Helen said:

There is a Skysafari version for Android, and you can use a bluetooth adapter to control the EQ6

Helen

I will check out SkySafari

I think i can't, i checked on the net and sounds it is only for EQ6 but not AZ-EQ6, because there is a USB or different port on EQ6 that isn't available in AZ-EQ6, you can correct me so i will buy that BT adapter.

[Helen]

9 hours ago, TareqPhoto said:

I will check out SkySafari

I think i can't, i checked on the net and sounds it is only for EQ6 but not AZ-EQ6, because there is a USB or different port on EQ6 that isn't available in AZ-EQ6, you can correct me so i will buy that BT adapter.

Google Play has skysafari  

For control, I've used one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bluetooth-to-RS232-RS-232-Serial-Adapter-Converter-Module-Wireless-Android-PC-/281977148945?hash=item41a725d611:g:2ksAAOSwEK9W~jkw  and the serial cable (cream/grey coloured cable) that came with the handset - once set up it worked fine    (Just to be clear, lug handset into mount, serial grey cable into bottom of handset, the bluetooth adapter to the end of the serial cable, then establish a bluetooth connection from phone to the adapter.  Skysafari or whatever program can then communicate as if it were physically connected.)

Helen

[iPeace]

On 05/05/2017 at 13:27, Mark Foster said:

Hi there

First posting...

Just getting back into astronomy after a few years break and pretty impressed with the iphone apps - Star Walk and Sky Portal

Which makes me think. There's no need for Go To - which I've previously relied on to find objects (I had a LX90) 

I've just bought a mini 130 SkyBridge and realised I can use the iphone app to find the part of the sky an object is in, and thanks to the wide FOV of the dob coupled with the red dot finder, track it down pretty easily.

Thoughts...

 

Welcome. This works for me, and is a lot of fun, very satisfying.

Be careful, though. You may inadvertently learn a lot working this way.

[Highburymark]

I've never used go-to, even when I owned Meade and Celestron go to mounts in the past. Finding objects by star hopping is so rewarding. Like many others, I use SS5, and red dot finders with fracs, RACI with the C8.

[TareqPhoto]

5 hours ago, Helen said:

Google Play has skysafari  

For control, I've used one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bluetooth-to-RS232-RS-232-Serial-Adapter-Converter-Module-Wireless-Android-PC-/281977148945?hash=item41a725d611:g:2ksAAOSwEK9W~jkw  and the serial cable (cream/grey coloured cable) that came with the handset - once set up it worked fine    (Just to be clear, lug handset into mount, serial grey cable into bottom of handset, the bluetooth adapter to the end of the serial cable, then establish a bluetooth connection from phone to the adapter.  Skysafari or whatever program can then communicate as if it were physically connected.)

Helen

Thank you very much!

I saw something similar too, an adapter to connect to that serial port and it has Bluetooth built in, maybe i will give it a try.

[DaveTp]

When I first started out I was lucky to have a telrad supplied with my dobs. Having said this I have found using the GoSkyWatch app an invaluable companion. The combination of both the telrad and the app makes you get your navigation and hopping from star to star a very rewarding achievement (when you get it right).

I've often used it to discuss upcoming Astro plans with my friend at work.

Using these apps is a great way of navigating the sky's quickly and gives a fundamental key to someone with little knowledge.

[SonnyE]

On 5/5/2017 at 03:27, Mark Foster said:

Hi there

First posting...

Just getting back into astronomy after a few years break and pretty impressed with the iphone apps - Star Walk and Sky Portal

Which makes me think. There's no need for Go To - which I've previously relied on to find objects (I had a LX90) 

I've just bought a mini 130 SkyBridge and realised I can use the iphone app to find the part of the sky an object is in, and thanks to the wide FOV of the dob coupled with the red dot finder, track it down pretty easily.

Thoughts...

 

I think you would be playing hob to image your way.

But we all find our way. Maybe yours is in the Internet in the end?