Until now, with my 4 inch F5 scope on Alt/Az mount, I looked up objects using Red Dot Finder and 8X50 or 19X50 viewfinder. (Interchangeable eyepieces)
That 19X50 was necessary to still be able to see Messiers under the increasing light pollution. But even that proves to be an arduous trip in the city sometimes.
Very often only the brightest stars turn out to be visible and the sky in between seems empty. The
Reasons enough to start looking for a push-to system that at least brings me near or within the range of the viewfinder. Six months ago I subscribed to a French crowdfund that was going to develop such a system. It was delivered the other day, only with the necessary digital software problems that such a project in its infancy brings. Inevitable. It will work out eventually, but it will take a lot of time.
Back to square one.
Until a fellow observer on the Dutch forum recently described how he used his
Eeehhhh....I have that
So far only used it to find the position of Polaris.
To make a long story short, I followed his directions, mounted my cellphone to my scope and booted things up.
Under an overcast sky, I had the scope look up a fake Arcturus, synchronized, and then sided with a fake M3. Trouble-free. But still nothing proven. The next day I had the Sun looked up, synchronized, and then Venus. 44 degrees further away. To my surprise, Venus appeared in the viewfinder, 2 degrees off center. A very nice experience to have Venus in view in the middle of the day, with the Sun just past its highest point.
At the next opportunity we will try this at night.
And to think that all this time the solution was just in my own phone in my pocket.......
