What's the best polar alignment app for Android?

[Spider-Man]

Hi all, as a complete beginner, who is gradually getting some kit together, the question of which Polar Alignment App I should get for my Android phone is exercising my mind.  Looking at the android play store there seems to be a myriad to choose from, which do members recommend & why?

[WatcherF]

Hi Spidey. 

For Polar alignment you don't really need an app, however, there's an app for Android called 'Calibration' which will clibrte your phone's accelerometer then give you a compass so you can see where 'north' is. This will be magnetic north though so only an approximation.

Stellarium is an astronomical map and is great for locating objects in the night sky. Its available free on Google play with paid versions with more capabilities. You can use this to locate the north star (Polaris) and then align your scope to this. Aligning to Polaris is far more accurate.

If you use stellarium or a star chart to locate Polaris you will see that it can be found by drawing an imaginary line through the two stars that form the end of the big dipper (the bowl end). Once you know this it's fairly easy to align your scope without an app at all.

Hope that helps.

W.

Edited April 26, 2020 by WatcherF
To add additional info.

[Chefgage]

On 23/04/2020 at 18:20, Spider-Man said:

Hi all, as a complete beginner, who is gradually getting some kit together, the question of which Polar Alignment App I should get for my Android phone is exercising my mind.  Looking at the android play store there seems to be a myriad to choose from, which do members recommend & why?

I presume you are looking through a polar scope? If so then use the star adventurer mini console. When loaded up, use the polar clock utility to show where Polaris needs to be in your polar scope (you need to put your location into the app).

[Chefgage]

16 hours ago, WatcherF said:

Hi Spidey. 

For Polar alignment you don't really need an app, however, there's an app for Android called 'Calibration' which will clibrte your phone's accelerometer then give you a compass so you can see where 'north' is. This will be magnetic north though so only an approximation.

Stellarium is an astronomical map and is great for locating objects in the night sky. Its available free on Google play with paid versions with more capabilities. You can use this to locate the north star (Polaris) and then align your scope to this. Aligning to Polaris is far more accurate.

If you use stellarium or a star chart to locate Polaris you will see that it can be found by drawing an imaginary line through the two stars that form the end of the big dipper (the bowl end). Once you know this it's fairly easy to align your scope without an app at all.

Hope that helps.

 

Depending on what you are doing (astrophotography for example) to accurately align to polaris, Polaris needs to be off centre in the polar scope. So yes using an app is a good idea to show where abouts Polaris needs to be on the clock face.

[DougM43]

Is polar scope align available on Android ? It’s a great little app with views for various polar scopes, 

 

 

 

 

[miguel87]

If you have a skywatcher polar scope then 'polar finder'is the best and simplest one.

Depends what setup you have because aligning is a different process with different mounts.

[Neil H]

Hi I use polar alignment pro app it does everything right from setting the mount it also does day time alignment I found it to really good I checked it again last night I polar align using the polar scope then checked with the app and was spot on 

[WatcherF]

Hi All, looks like my reply wasnt accurate so thanks for the updates.  This will be great info for me too as I progress especially about Polaris needing to be off centre for photography. I'll be looking up some of those apps mentioned myself now.

[AstroRookie]

On 23/04/2020 at 19:20, Spider-Man said:

Hi all, as a complete beginner, who is gradually getting some kit together, the question of which Polar Alignment App I should get for my Android phone is exercising my mind.  Looking at the android play store there seems to be a myriad to choose from, which do members recommend & why?

Hello Spider-Man,

maybe not the answer you were expecting, but I renewed my interest in astronomy after some 15 years, and upgraded my gear. As I want to tackle astrophotography I bought a new mount and a QHYCCD PoleMaster; I haven't even removed the cap of the polarscope of my new mount. This PoleMaster is such a lovely tool to almost perfectly align your scope in no-time. I've found comments on the web of experienced amateur astronomers that admitted they never had polar aligned their mount so accurately before. For what it's worth.

AstroRookie

[Spider-Man]

Cheers, I'll look into it.

[miguel87]

You need to hook a computer up to your telescope to use a polemaster I believe.

[bruno]

Polar scope align is the one i used (got a pole master), as it has different polar scope reticules have look at the app in play store and the featureare ther for you to see if you have the same reticule (not all reticules are the same)

[Spider-Man]

Cheers, will do

 

[Tangoringo]

On 03/05/2020 at 20:32, AstroRookie said:

Hello Spider-Man,

maybe not the answer you were expecting, but I renewed my interest in astronomy after some 15 years, and upgraded my gear. As I want to tackle astrophotography I bought a new mount and a QHYCCD PoleMaster; I haven't even removed the cap of the polarscope of my new mount. This PoleMaster is such a lovely tool to almost perfectly align your scope in no-time. I've found comments on the web of experienced amateur astronomers that admitted they never had polar aligned their mount so accurately before. For what it's worth.

AstroRookie

Would whole heartedly agree with this. Although, as mentioned you will need to hook up a computer to the Polemaster this little camera is worth its weight in gold. Not to mentioned saving the sore knees, cricked neck, minutes/hours of cursing and fiddling etc etc. Set up is a breeze and can be done in 5-10mins tops and it can be carried out during those dusk hours thereby not wasting viewing/imaging time.

Good luck in whichever route you choose.

[Spider-Man]

Cheers!

 

[Zsolt]

Hi guys,

I am developing an app for polar alignment for Android, I am not claiming it is the best, but maybe good enough to try it out. Let me know what do you think. The app is free, no contributions or ads and I have several upgrades already in the queue. If you have ideas for features, I am more than happy to discuss them.

The app's name is Polar Clock, the link to the store:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.astrotools.polarclock