But, I do use the FF to get to dark places to use it...

I was jolly impressed with a mates remote control of his telescope mount from his
iPad - so I thought to myself that as imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, it was about time to do the same.

So, firstly to hunt down a Bluetooth to serial adaptor. It seems you can pay
anything from a fiver to five hundred pounds for one, so, being mean, but not a
cheapskate, I went for one for £25 on the bay of fleas.

It duly arrived the next day.

Firstly it has to be set up to talk the right language and speed to the scope.
So, connected it with a USB to Serial adaptor to my PC and using a terminal
program (in my case, as I use Linux, not Windows, I used GtkTerm), set the baud
rate to 9600 - the device came with it set to 19200 as default.

That done it was into the conservatory to connect it to the scope. Easy enough,
using the supplied male to male adaptor and the Celestron serial lead supplied
with the scope.

Then (at the last minute) I remembered that when it (the BT adaptor) was
connected to the PC it was in DTE mode (it was pretending to be a modem) and now
it needed switching to DCE mode (it's pretending to be a PC) - just a simple
slider switch on the side of the device.

Next, paired it to my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet and fired up SkySafari.
Not a cheap app - about a tenner actually -so about the price of a couple of
pints these day, but compared to so many apps free or only a pound or so it felt
like quite an investment!.

Clicked on connect (having already aligned the scope the usual way - or as it
was day time, and foggy I just pointed it at where Polaris would about be and
hit align!) and I was away! I can drive the scope manually from the cursors on
screen, or click on an object and it takes the scope there! Brilliant - simple
and cheap.

No longer navigating using the 1980's style handset, but a full colour, full
screen view of the night sky and the ability to easily see things on the screen,
then see them through the scope in real life!

Total cost was under £40. Just need to tidy it up a bit, so that the BT adaptor
can sit neatly out of the way when in use and then I'm done.

A quick vid of it working

I'm a happy bunny. Now, all I need is a clear night.

so you can sit inside [in the warm] and view on the ipad whats in the sky outside? ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

Yes - and no - to see the real item I still have to stick my eye on the eyepiece!

i like...  ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

Nice.

I still use a laptop with my CPC800, but have my eye on one of these: http://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatal...apter.html

If only it cost the same as yours!

Paul.

It was the cost of those that made me find a more sensible approach! You could do the same and add a £5 bluetooth dongle to your laptop.

That's fantastic. We are lucky here, in that we get fantastic black sky's. Along the road, st Andrews uni have an amazing astronomy and observatory setup and regularly have open evenings for the public. The kit they have is amazing and so big. Telescopes that fill rooms, roofs opening on buildings, they have so much kit. The walls are lined with photos they have taken deep into space.. and beyond! The only thing that hinders them is the golf driving range at certain times. The light pollution is just shocking. You would think they would be able to light the grass without lighting the sky.
I always wanted a good telescope but just never got round to it.  Previously..
Vogue SE TD6
Defender 90 2.4
Defender 110 TD5
Vogue 3.5 EFI

Contraband,

You need one of these: http://www.meade.com/max

If you need a sense of scale, then look here: http://www.pbase.com/image/85699530

Paul.

Paul J. wrote:

Contraband,

You need one of these: http://www.meade.com/max

If you need a sense of scale, then look here: http://www.pbase.com/image/85699530

Paul.

yes, the first picture makes it look tabletop size.

We are lucky to have this on our doorstep and open to the public a few times a year.

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/physics/pandaw...hf/obs.htm Previously..
Vogue SE TD6
Defender 90 2.4
Defender 110 TD5
Vogue 3.5 EFI

The one on my doorstep is bigger http://www.jodrellbank.net/visit/

Does size matter?... Quality over quantity.. Etc etc  Previously..
Vogue SE TD6
Defender 90 2.4
Defender 110 TD5
Vogue 3.5 EFI

When you direct the scope to an object using SkySafari, does it continue to follow the object (as would be the case if you used the goto handset)? The reason I ask is that when I have used Stellarium to control mine over RS232, it slews to the object but then does not track it.

Paul.

Been reading up on SkySafari. I have previously used a windows program to track satellites including the ISS, but have been frustrated that it won't track comets. SkySafari seems to do this (depending on version). I'm now looking at the Skywire and Skyfi options (look what you have started Simes ). With your BT solution, does it require a jail broken iPod/iPad?

Paul.

Hi Paul,

Apologies for the delay replying...

I'm using an android tablet - for the simple reason that Apple equipment won't connect to a non Apple approved bluetooth device.

It does track, as it should, but if you want to use SkySafari from an i device you will need the wifi device to connect to, and you won't need to jailbreak it. My Android tablet (Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1) isn't rooted and works fine.