Guest Turtleboy Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 (edited) I've found this fantastic Android app which I think will be a great help when setting up a motorised mount. It's called "GPS Status and Toolbox" and it's free from the Android store. Basically it provides information from all your phones sensors which means it gives you your current GPS location so you can accurately input your coordinates into the mount, a compass to give you correct north alignment and even a levelling "bubble". It also gives you information on battery level, brigtness etc but you can turn off what you don't need. Could come in very handy. Edited January 27, 2013 by Turtleboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T A WOW Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Looks good. Now all I need is a motorised mount lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Looks an interesting gadget. I used to fervently input the coordinates into my mount if ever I went to a different observing site. Now I dont bother, I just leave my home coordinates in all the time. So long as you get a reasonable polar align, RA axes pointing roughly at polaris that is the goto will sych with the sky making ammnedments. Example, at Kelling last sept I left the coordinates alone and my goto was placing the object in the centre 25% of the fov in a 10mm eyepiece with an F7.5 scope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Turtleboy Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 The problem for me is my back garden is SW facing so I can't see polaris because the house is in the way. I had my first attempt with the goto last night getting a rough Northern alignment with a compass and using Leeds (The nearest city listed in the menus) as my location, and levelling the scope by eye. Unsurprisingly the alignment failed. I ended up doing a quick 2 star align using Betelgeus and Rigel which again is hardly ideal because of their close proximity but it worked in a fashion an slewed close enough to objects to view with a bit of fine tuning. However the tracking wasn't great and objects still drifted out of the fov. I reckon if I had found this app earlier it would have made life a lot easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Inputting the coordinates into the mount but not getting a polar align wont really help getting good gotos Martin. Using a real magnetic compass (phone ones can be notoriously innacurate) which are cheap and cheerful and easy to use, and dont destroy your night vision, will help aligning the mount north if you cant see polaris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest saturn10 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Great app. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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