Wifi anygood?

[gary756]

Hi, all new to site and telescoping. I bought a celestron 70 travel scope for 9 year old last christmas. While we've had some fun with it, it issuch a pain to set up. Numerous times weve tried to look at stuff and by the time its all panned round ect, the thing we wanted to see has disappeared behind trees. All very annoying, plus the tripod is pretty pants. As we are both enjoying this new hobby I am considering buying skywatcher skymax 127 az-gti wifi telescope. I like the idea of simply having an app on my phone. But have read, heard the app is pretty hit and miss as far as android phones go. We have an ipad but the battery is on it's way out. So just looking for advice and is anyone using synscan app? 

[Mick H]

10 minutes ago, gary756 said:

I am considering buying skywatcher skymax 127 az-gti wifi telescope.

You might want to have a look at the StarSense Explorer here:

 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/celestron-starsense-explorer-lt-80az-smartphone-app-enabled-refractor-telescope.html

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/celestron-starsense-explorer-lt-127-az-reflector-telescope.html

Edited April 14, 2020 by Mick H

[gary756]

Thanks will do once home school is done for today

[Cornelius Varley]

I would avoid the Star sense Explorer 127mm version. The telescope is a Jones-Bird and not particularly good. 

[PEMS]

I would say both Yes and No. Seems little in this hobby is straightforward.

The wifi on the Az GTi works fine, you will find it better with an Android phone or tablet and if you purchase Skysafari (the Plus version is adaquate). iPhone systems operate it seems slightly differently and you may find you need one for the Synscan app and another for the Skysafai. The basic steps are to set up the mount, connect with the Synscan app and align, bring up Skysafari, connect, then run from the Skysafari interface. That is a quick idea. So that is the good side.

Not so good side is that both mount and phone or tablet need power. Not a great problem if only out for an hour or two. After that one runs down. Next is the phone or tablet needs to stay connected to the mount. Again fine if at home but if at a club or event it would mean leaving the phone or tablet with the mount if you went elsewhere.

I would have thought the 127 was at the heavy end of the mount capacity and the general narrow field of view could create additional work at alignment and even getting objects in view. Your field of view would be limited. One simple option I suggest you keep in mind it obtaining a simple 80mm achro of say f/8 and having that available to swap out the 127 at times. Would mean 2 scopes but I would keep it as an option.

[Mick H]

4 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

I would avoid the Star sense Explorer 127mm version. The telescope is a Jones-Bird and not particularly good. 

You are correct Peter, maybe the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130 is better but £379. 😮

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/celestron-starsense-explorer-dx-130-app-enabled-reflector-telescope-1729693/?mkwid=suF9C7If9_dc&pcrid=310558796305&kword=&match=&plid=&product=1729693&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7pT3mY7o6AIVKIBQBh3zFAiUEAQYASABEgKCC_D_BwE

Edited April 14, 2020 by Mick H

[Cornelius Varley]

24 minutes ago, Mick H said:

You are correct Peter, maybe the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130 is better but £379. 😮

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/celestron-starsense-explorer-dx-130-app-enabled-reflector-telescope-1729693/?mkwid=suF9C7If9_dc&pcrid=310558796305&kword=&match=&plid=&product=1729693&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7pT3mY7o6AIVKIBQBh3zFAiUEAQYASABEgKCC_D_BwE

It looks grossly overpriced. The SW130 AZ Goto is £325, even the SW130PS AZ GTi is £20 less.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

5 hours ago, gary756 said:

Hi, all new to site and telescoping. I bought a celestron 70 travel scope for 9 year old last christmas. While we've had some fun with it, it issuch a pain to set up. Numerous times weve tried to look at stuff and by the time its all panned round ect, the thing we wanted to see has disappeared behind trees. All very annoying, plus the tripod is pretty pants. As we are both enjoying this new hobby I am considering buying skywatcher skymax 127 az-gti wifi telescope. I like the idea of simply having an app on my phone. But have read, heard the app is pretty hit and miss as far as android phones go. We have an ipad but the battery is on it's way out. So just looking for advice and is anyone using synscan app? 

The AZ-GTI, or other similar goto systems need setting up and manual alignment before you start to observe. After that, they're still not 100% accurate, may miss the target a little, requiring you to find it, or at least it will only be on the periphery of the field of view through the eyepiece.

If you want to find easy targets, you will be better off with a wide field telescope rather than the narrow field of a high power Maksutov, an alt azimuth manual mount and a book like Turn Left at Orion and/or an app like Sky Safari. I've both an AZ-GTI and alt az mount. The alt az is used more.

A 150mm telescope on a Dobsonian mount will save you £100 and is easy to manage. A 200mm even better, and still a money saver but it's quite a bit heavier to move about. 

However if you are set on goto and the AZ GTI in particular, the 130ps would be the more versatile option and it will not strain the mount/tripod combo quite as much as a 127mm Maksutov. I've owned the 130ps and I really enjoyed using it. 

[davekelley]

I have the 127mak with the azgti wifi.  I'm not very technical minded, but that's why I chose this option.  Tracking is very nice to have but I get no accuracy from the goto feature it doesn't even get close to target so that's a massive disappointment for me.  It may be a lot more to do with incompetence on my part than the ability of the mount mind you.

I hope that helps?

Dave

[gary756]

Thank you everyone for your advice, I've certainly got some food for thought.  I've also see a secondhand skywatcher  skyliner 250p, which I almost bought on impulse. Luckily my wife was there to help with that!! I still like the idea of a goto scope as the boy gets bored really quickly when we are trying to find stuff. 

[banjaxed]

I have tried goto and IMO you spend more time setting up than you do observing. My scopes are now all manual and I can set up and start observing in a couple of minutes. If you have a decent finder scope and/or a rigel finder it is very easy to pinpoint most targets. My observing has been a lot more enjoyable since I went manual, but I know we all have different opinions.

[gary756]

Stayed up way past my bedtime last night researching some of the suggestions. I really like the celsetron starsense explorer 130dx, the tech with app would make all the difference. At the moment we've got an Ipad, with a app that we wave at the sky and hope for the best as we try to point the telescope to it (So basically anything else other than the moon is a guess).  I showed a couple for the youtube reviews to the boy this morning and he got quite excited as the prospect of "finding my own star". However it does seem expensive, I'm guessing because it new tech.  I've spent a good portion for the day (between home school lessons) trying to work if, the lenses Ive bought for our other scope would be any good. If not what extra would be practical. Crrently Ive got a x2 barlow, 32mm plossl, 8mm plossl and a 90 degree angle thingy (technical name!) . None for them were expensive. I'm tempted by the celestron 8mm -24mm zoom lense, but suspect it will be pants. The 130dx is cheaper than the original scope I was looking at, but is it value for money?      

[Cornelius Varley]

4 minutes ago, gary756 said:

However it does seem expensive, I'm guessing because it new tech.

There is nothing on the Star Sense Explorer that is "new tech" . Mobile planetarium apps have been around for a few years now, this one seems to use the phones camera coupled with GPS to locate stars in the sky rather than relying on the phones compass.. The mount looks like a new design, alt-az with slo-mo cables, the telescope is a normal 130mm reflector. Even with the phone mount it still seems a little expensive compared to a goto system with the same size telescope.

[gary756]

My bad I realise some of the bits have been about for while, I'm sort of put off the goto scopes as accuracy appears to be a problem for some. Plus I've sort of been half shopping for new scope for a while and the controllers look a bit busy. Hence why I was drawn to the wifi and phone app combination initially. I like the idea for a manual mount with app support and on the plus side it looks really simple.  ATM we are basically just having our best guess with an Ipad at what we are looking at. The boy is really interested in astronomy and science in general, even more so since we bought our original travel scope 2 years ago, (Given the chance he'd be out every night regardless of the weather). I'm just conscious that before I know it I could have blown the best part of £500.  So it really needs to be a longish term investment, I don't want to find myself in 6 months time thinking I wish id gone with.....