Thank you for such a thorough demonstration. It still seems like a lot of setting up for if I only quick view of the sky. This has put me off using finders like sky commander. I think I will stay using my Klein Tools Digital Angle Gauge and the protractor on the base of my Dobsonian and get the coordinates for Stelarium. The setting up is very quick, point the base of the scope north, done.
Doesn’t look like that much of a faff once you’ve done the first calibration. Aligning the base of a big dob to better than 1 degree north must be a bit tricky? Those digital angle gauges aren’t that cheap either. I don’t do much visual work now but if I did I’d be interested in this little device
Hi Vic, a colleague tested the MeMstar with a 16" Dobsonian and reported that it worked well, provided a wide-angle eyepiece was used. Based on my own testing, it seems the device works best with an eyepiece capable of delivering at least around a 2-degree field of view. Larger SCTs or Maksutovs might face some challenges achieving this.
If it's as accurate as Starsense Explorer then it's certainly a much easier and neater solution. Assume it won't be so sensitive about which smartphone is used either.
Hello, I already have this box and I wonder why it must be initialized on stars and not on planets? Because given the weather in my area it would be much easier to spot them, if you had the answer? Thank you
The stars never change position in the sky as the planets do. In the future (maybe tomorrow!), perhaps the built-in in AI guidance system could use date/time and a planetary calendar to allow use of bright stars as alignment targets.
Thank you for such a thorough demonstration. It still seems like a lot of setting up for if I only quick view of the sky. This has put me off using finders like sky commander. I think I will stay using my Klein Tools Digital Angle Gauge and the protractor on the base of my Dobsonian and get the coordinates for Stelarium. The setting up is very quick, point the base of the scope north, done.
Doesn’t look like that much of a faff once you’ve done the first calibration. Aligning the base of a big dob to better than 1 degree north must be a bit tricky? Those digital angle gauges aren’t that cheap either. I don’t do much visual work now but if I did I’d be interested in this little device
Well that seems like a better option to upgrading to a go to mount.
Intrigued chris.woudl this work with a long focal length scope like a big dob or sct Mac?
Hi Vic, a colleague tested the MeMstar with a 16" Dobsonian and reported that it worked well, provided a wide-angle eyepiece was used. Based on my own testing, it seems the device works best with an eyepiece capable of delivering at least around a 2-degree field of view. Larger SCTs or Maksutovs might face some challenges achieving this.
Will this app work on equatorial mount such as eq3??
This is great, but $225 US for this is expensive. I was going to order one, but the cost is a bit over the top. Thanks for reviewing!
If it's as accurate as Starsense Explorer then it's certainly a much easier and neater solution. Assume it won't be so sensitive about which smartphone is used either.
Hello, I already have this box and I wonder why it must be initialized on stars and not on planets? Because given the weather in my area it would be much easier to spot them, if you had the answer? Thank you
The stars never change position in the sky as the planets do.
In the future (maybe tomorrow!), perhaps the built-in in AI guidance system could use date/time and a planetary calendar to allow use of bright stars as alignment targets.
@ indeed! thank you for your feed-back