6 replies to this topic

[billisnice]

I want to connect my iphone to a telescope and use an app to help find objects in the sky.  If you look at Astrobiscuit's video starting around 4:00 he used some device to help find objects with iphone.  https://www.youtube....h?v=Na-aBhc_gTY

Edited by billisnice, 04 December 2021 - 08:30 AM.

[SeattleScott]

A buddy tried that but his 8” SCT really benefited from the greater accuracy of his GoTo mount. For a wide field scope it can be a convenient alternative.

[davelpg]

This seems to work for both android and iphone users:

 

https://www.cloudyni...etting-circles/

[billisnice]

I was thinking about using a cheap eyepiece and glue an iphone holder on it. I am not very tech know how.

[kongqk]

I never tried this method, but I think this maybe not accurate enough, because the iphone is using the accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer to determine direction and tilt, the magnetometer is affected a lot by metal, which most of the scope OTA are made of. But maybe test it with the method you mentioned, glue an iphone holder to a cheap eyepiece, and see how it works. Let us know if this works. 

 

Alternatively, just use the red dot finder and a finderscope, it works really well. I usually use the red dot finder to find a bright star, and then use the smartphone app SkySafari and finderscope to do star hopping in my light-polluted area, and it works really accurate, and I can find many faint objects that really hard to find this way. 

[luxo II]

OP This I suspect is what you are dreaming of https://www.cloudyni...s-ii-skysafari/

 

The way this is done is with encoders to very precisely measure the rotation of the axes and yes the star map tracks where the scope is pointing very accurately.

 

Attempting to use the accelerometers and compass doesn't work well enough, the compass sensor is nowhere near accurate for azimuth (hopless actually). Worse, all the ferromagnetic bits of your scope and mount affect the magnetic field in their vicinity causing gross errors, so frankly its never going to work.

 

The other method is plate-solving, in which the phone camera takes an image of the sky and an app works out what its point at. The software to do this is somewhat immature at this time, not yet suitable.

Edited by luxo II, 05 December 2021 - 04:11 AM.

[zerogee]

That video has an Interesting method to mount your phone for planetarium app mode.

 

The Astrohopper web app that davelpg posted in post #3 above only uses the compass for initial calibration after that it uses the accelerometers. If your phone has good support for AR and VR Astrohopper can be very accurate. The phone must be mounted onto and parallel the OTA. It has worked out well for me and I have been pleasantly surprised after some pretty big hops. Definately worth checking out.

Edited by zerogee, 05 December 2021 - 03:12 PM.