IPhone app anomaly

[Starslayer]

Hi. Despite being so new to scope ownership I have had SkyView Lite on my phone for a long time and have found it easy to use and interesting.  Since scope purchase I now have Skysafari as well and of course starsense with the scope.  My issue is that when I use the more basic skyviewlite and, for example ask for directions to the moon, it seems spot on.  If I then do the same with skysafari I can see that it is pointing me else where everytime.  Not far out but out. Is this maybe something to do with it also flagging up that I am getting an issue with true north as opposed to magnetic north.  For me at the moment, the lite version is far easier to use but also more accurate.  Have I missed something here? 
 

Edit - location services are enabled.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Starslayer
Update

[Neil H]

Hi mate try to disable the other app then run sky safari it may be a conflict with both using the same compass at the same time ,even if you turn it off the app some times still runs in the back ground

[Dark Vader]

Starting with the easiest, does your phone have a cover with a magnetic clip on? If so, it might be worth taking the cover off and trying again. I'd have thought that would have affected both apps though. Apologies if you already thought of that one.

I'm a long way from being an expert in these things but its worth checking the "Time and Coordinates" section in the settings menu. Under "date and time", Is it set to "current time" and the "Automatic daylight saving time" box ticked? 

In "Location", the box "Standard time zone" set to 0.0 hours from GMT.

If none of that makes a difference, I'd check Lat/Long location with a GPS to see if it tallies with the phone location service. If it's out, It may be that you need to create a custom observing site with the GPS lat/long numbers.

Hope you get it working properly - I find Sky Safari very good. 

Andy

 

[Starslayer]

Thanks guys. Sorry I did not see this earlier. Got no alerts etc.   Will have a look at what you suggest. 

[Starslayer]

No joy........ I wonder why skysafari cannot identify true north?

[Starslayer]

OK, giving up on this now after much googling. I did find this quote on FAQ on skysafari site though.  Whilst it makes sense ( sort of ) it does not explain why Sky View Lite manages to cope ok. 

Finally, a word of caution: the solid-state compass built into the iPhone/iPad is notoriously inaccurate, and easily affected by interference. It was designed for street navigation, not astronomy, and 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.

[Neil H]

That's a shame mate , how about getting a second-hand galaxy just to run your Astro apps you can get a good S6 for £85

[Starslayer]

5 hours ago, Neil H said:

That's a shame mate , how about getting a second-hand galaxy just to run your Astro apps you can get a good S6 for £85

I don't think so.  This is not a phone issue it is a sky safari issue. As explained above. 

[Chefgage]

On 21/05/2021 at 17:35, Starslayer said:

I don't think so.  This is not a phone issue it is a sky safari issue. As explained above. 

I would say it's the opposite. It's the phones compass that is inaccurate. Sky safari is after all just pointing where the compass says it's pointing. You will find this with lots of phones not just iPhones but other makes as well.

[CraigT82]

On 21/05/2021 at 11:33, Starslayer said:

does not explain why Sky View Lite manages to cope ok. 

I think, because sky View lite uses the phones camera rather than the inbuilt compass. 

 

[Starslayer]

On 23/05/2021 at 10:32, CraigT82 said:

I think, because sky View lite uses the phones camera rather than the inbuilt compass. 

 

I think you have cracked it. 👍

[Starslayer]

Ok group effort case solved. Calibration was turned off.  Sky safari now points the same way as Skyview Lite. I am also not getting the “cannot find north so using magnetic north” message. 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Starslayer

[Stu]

4 minutes ago, Starslayer said:

Ok group effort case solved. Calibration was turned off.  Sky safari now points the same way as Skyview Lite.  

 

Now there’s a menu I didn’t know existed! Mine was switched on anyway, glad you sorted it.

[Starslayer]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

Now there’s a menu I didn’t know existed! Mine was switched on anyway, glad you sorted it.

👍🍺