Star Tracking for iPhone

[Sconesbie]

Hi all.

I was told about an app called Ske Eye but it appears that it's only really for Android type phones and not iPhone. Apparantly it's a great app as you sit/lay it on your scope and it actually tells you what you are looking at in the sky and helps you locate stuff.

I've already got Stellarium, Night Sky 2, Skylive and Star Walk which tell me what's in the sky and give a visual. Will any of these do the same thing or is there something more specific?


Regards
Scott

[MrB]

Not sure about the others you list, but SkySafari is available for i-devices and will use the compass and gyro's to show where you are aiming.

[Sconesbie]

Ah, I have that one too (Sky Safari). I'll give that a try tonight. If the clouds disappear that is.

[julianh72]

Not quite...

As far as I know, SkEye is unique in being able to be attached to your telescope in any convenient position and orientation, and being able to act as a live targeting aid, with precision better than 1 degree. .

SkySafari and other planetarium type apps will generally only track where the device is currently pointing, so you could try mounting your phone or tablet EXACTLY perpendicular to your OTA, but I would expect you could probably only get positioning accuracy to within a few degrees.

One thing that SkySafari excels at is controlling a compatible computerised GoTo telescope, if you have the necessary Bluetooth or WiFi adapter.

[MrB]

Interesting, thanks, I've had SkyEye for a while but I wasn't aware of the 'Indirect Alignment' feature.
I've just gone back and had a play with it.

[Monstar]

Scot, for the iPhone there's an app which you can lay on your tube and it gives directions with arrows, and co-ordinates to match, it's called iPushto. But this will suffer from magnetic interference from a metal tube (as I think any such app would) and is not always accurate. From memory it only has Messier and NGC lists.