Quote:
Originally Posted by skysurfer
The problem is that the whole setup is limited by the low accuracy of the inclinometer of the cellphone or tablet.
Horizontal (the compass) it is dramatically inaccurate it can be serveral degrees off.
Vertically it is better but no more than 1 degree. The inclinometers used in construction are way better, to 0.1-0.2 degrees. I have such a one for using on my altazimuth scopes (8cm tabletop refractor and 40cm Dobson).
I tried Skeye on my Galaxy Note 2 but it was rather useless. Not Skyey but the hardware of the cellphone.
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It might vary with the device, and it may not work for everyone. It may be very tricky if the OTA is made of steel, but a lot of users get good results if you can mount the phone a 100 mm or more from the steel tube.
It certainly makes a difference if you calibrate the compass beforehand. (Turn on the compass, then wave the phone / tablet in a large figure of 8 a couple of times is the usual way.)
I regularly and repeatedly get better than 1 degree accuracy in both azimuth and Altitude with my Nexus 4 phone strapped onto my 90 mm Mak on an EQ2 mount. (I use the compass and inclinometer of my phone to first get a polar alignment of better than 1 degree, and then use SkEye to help me find my targets.) The Mak has an aluminium tube, which certainly helps, but the phone is only mounted about 200 mm from the mount which has a lot if steel, but doesn't worry the phone's compass.
One thing that I really like about SkEye is that you can realign on a nearby target star, and then you can get surprisingly good local alignment when you're chasing targets in the general vicinity of your latest alignment star.