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Old 09-11-2017, 09:59 PM
Wavytone
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Wavytone is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Killara, Sydney
Posts: 4,147
I have to admit that being confined to suburban skies most of the time is why I have finally given up star hopping as there are so many big patches of sky where there is just nothing visible naked eye. Zip. Nada. Nothing.

I switched to a push-to setup with encoders, Nexus II and Sky Safari. Nirvana - with a short focal length - this meant I could happily target ANYTHING and put the scope bang on target every time.

Since then I have upgraded to an OTA with a 3109mm focal length, so I reluctantly joined the GOTO crowd primarily out of the need for a mount that tracks as well as encoders. Yes it works but it seems a lot of farnarkoibg for something that is fundamentally simple.

I could happily forgo the GOTO bit in return for encoders and decent software instead of a handset with a user interface that reminds me of a bad DOS game from the 1980s. But Skywatcher are so mean they can’t afford to use a modest capacitor and a few bytes of non volatile RAM to at least maintain date, time and the last location from one observing session to the next. Say a month. And ditch the cables for wifi. Cables are last century.

Better still if someone can ditch the abysmal Skywatcher handsets and interface directly to an iPhone with SkySafari.

Last edited by Wavytone; 09-11-2017 at 10:12 PM.
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