anybody use a phone as a rudimentary finder?

[SloMoe]

Saw this on another site, the guy uses his cell phone as a rudimentary finder,

The phone bracket is the thing on the top right of the scope cage. 

[lenscap]

Hi SloMoe,

This is from the SkySafari manual;

"A note on accuracy: the solid-state compass built into most mobile devices is not very accurate,
and easily affected by interference. It can easily be wrong by ten degrees or more. The
compass may be useful for locating bright objects in a general part of the sky, but it's certainly
not accurate enough to point a telescope."

A couple of years ago I tried using an old Samsung Galaxy Ace running SkyMap as a finder on a small Newt. It was not accurate enough to put a target in the Finderscope, never mind the eyepiece.

But that was if the phone was held well away from the (steel) scope. If it was within 18" of the OTA it was much more inaccurate.

If it was mounted on the OTA you could slew 90 degrees without the phone display changing!

I abandoned the project.

Of course someone may have found a phone with an accurate , interference resistant compass, but I don't know of one.

Clear skies!

[SloMoe]

On your suggestion I just opened my compass app and moved my phone all around my scope, and back & forth across my laptop keyboard, din't see any change in its reading, kept pointing in the correct direction even swinging the phone position, maybe my phone would work, and understanding SkySafari's disclaimer,  there are lots of sky apps available,, there may be more accurate ones.

 

[knobby]

Skeye is a good free app for this but th OTA will affect the compass ...

[kippford]

If you are only using it as a finder, why would you need a compass?

The camera will show where the scope is pointing.

[SloMoe]

kippford, I might have confused you, I was testing the internal compass of my phone to see if it would deviate when in close proximity to my OTA in that one of these brackets  might work to use a phone as a finder, 

with the Skyapp I'm using I can select any object up there then touch enter and there's an arrow on the screen that points the way to it no matter which direction it is in relation to the phone and as I get closer to the selected target the arrow changes to a circle with the target inside the circle as a flashing green dot, then as I center that dot in circle the circle changes color. 

It may work , at least be close enough to use a 9 X 50 finder to align it for the scope.

[kippford]

I am easily confused.?

[SloMoe]

I guess it's because I didn't make myself clear what I was doing,  

 

 

[JOC]

Given that you'd have to buy a suitable bracket and can buy a second-hand cheap, but functional, RDF for about a tenner I don't think I'd bother with a phone esp. as they might be a bit bright?

[Charic]

I use 'SkyView lite' on my iPhone when I'm out, sometimes just to prove to folk what they're actually seeing? then for some reason they need to question the  accuracy of app ( " how can we see the Planets?) because they don't believe me, or the app, that we're looking at  say Venus, or Mars or whatever, insisting that it's just another Star. 

During the Leonids, I decided that an adapter for my iPhone/camera combination maybe a useful addition, so I'll be looking for a proper grip type adaptor or maybe some lightweight bungee's, not for the scope, just my binoculars.

[kippford]

27 minutes ago, JOC said:

Given that you'd have to buy a suitable bracket and can buy a second-hand cheap, but functional, RDF for about a tenner I don't think I'd bother with a phone esp. as they might be a bit bright?

Not just me then.?