How To Aim Any Telescope With AstroHopper - The Revolutionary New Smartphone App! (
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- Mount your smartphone on your telescope and launch AstroHopper. Congratulations, you have one of the most revolutionary aiming devices ever devised for amateur astronomy. AstroHopper is a phone webpage "app" that turns any smartphone into a precision telescope finderscope device. It's given away at no charge by the developer... and it works really well.
#astrohopper #smartphone #telescopefinder #reflactorguy
//ASTROHOPPER WEBSITE//
artyom-beilis....
//3D PRINTABLE SMARTPHONE PLATFORM FILE//
www.thingivers...
/// AMAZON AFFILIATE LINKS (Note: I earn a small commission from these links) ///
12-PACK OF SUCTION CUPS: amzn.to/3Jizs9E
Velcro strips to attach your phone: amzn.to/3WHmub0
Best Smartphone Adapter EVER: amzn.to/3MYYnBF
Best Value Set Of Upgraded Eyepieces: amzn.to/3Y7MYmn
Best Overall Red Dot Finder: amzn.to/3UQVPJr
Economy Smartphone adapter: amzn.to/3WfKS2e
Bluetooth button: amzn.to/3OBpW1i (prices have risen)
Best book for new astronomers: "Turn Left At Orion": amzn.to/3PDxLo4
CHEAP 8 inch Dobsonian Telescope: amzn.to/49TH12l
NICE 8 inch Dobsonian Telescope: amzn.to/4bbxIuU
STARTER Dobsonian Telescope: amzn.to/3T5HzeL
RED HOPE Adventure Scifi Novel Series:
Kindle Edition: amzn.to/49O9bud
Paperback: amzn.to/4aPRc7Y
Audiobook: amzn.to/3WhhXOw
** My new SciFi short story prequel, right here on RUclips **
• MARS Sci-Fi Audiobook ...
RUclips NOTES:
1) This video complies with the RUclips Community Guidelines and Terms of Service.
2) Astrohopper is open-source, available to everybody at no charge.
3) Soundtracks used with permission from my video editing suite, Camtasia
4) All products shown were purchased by me with my own money.
Discussed in this video:
Astrohopper app
Astrohopper mount
#telescope #starsense
#finderscope #dobsonian
#skeye #stellarium #astrophotography
#reflector
#reflactor
@reflactor
![Eminem - Like My Shit [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vx_IMvFkrfA/mqdefault.jpg)
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Answering to the problem you asked.
The issue with initial compass orientation is due to metal optical tube interfering with the magnetic sensors.
All you need is to press on "hand" and swipe till you get proper direction. After alignment it is all gyro and not a compass.
Thank you for creating AstroHopper!
Artyom, many thanks and Kudos fir making this.
I saw this app when someone shared on reddit. Used it in my star party on May 20.
I used it to align with Venus. But Venus was so so far down, and I could not scroll the screen manually. I had to zoom out to 120 degree to find it! Is there any altitude setting I have to do?
I used OnePlus8 Pro. Little N of San Francisco.
And again, excellent app idea and effort.
@@nobodyinparticula100 did you put the phone flat on OTA? The orientation is critical - it should be parallel to optical tube. It isn't planetarium app.
Generally altitude sensors are quite accurate (+-5 degrees) so it shouldn't go that far away. The really non-accurate initial sensor is only compass.
Also check that your geolocation and UTC time is correct (in the bottom of settings menu)
@@reflactor Thanks for creating this video 🙂
@Artyom Beilis This seems like it will be awesome, Artyom! So excited to try this out tonight, being a very new astrophotography enthusiast!
This works so great, I don't understand why more people aren't using it .
Every backyard astronomer should have this!!!
Agreed! It's free an works really well. Clear skies!
I used astrohopper on my lxd55 6in on a unistar alt az mount last night.. I have a S9+ cell in an otter box protective case. Otter box comes with a clip on belt clip. I attached the clip on otter box carrier with velcro straps around scope. It worked every well. You have to align often if you take to long in-between object. I went at a good pace and was able to see 6 objects in fov from 0 to 360. I was able to see more objects in one night in 3 hrs than every before, quicker than my goto mount. Game changer. Big thanks to the developer!
Fantastic! Thank you for the comment. I'm finding that it really helps find things fast. It goes way faster than my GoTo motors can slew. Clear skies!
Wow. What a game changer. This will be amazing for an amateur star-gazer like myself!
Thanks for making this video, I never would've known this existed without it!
Happy to help! I used it tonight at a star party. Clear skies!
Thank you, Reflactor, for this video. And a big thanks of course to Artyom Beilis for creating AstroHopper and making it available to all. This makes finding DSOs and faint double stars so much easier in my Bortle 6 suburban skies.
Thank you for watching. Mr. Beilis did a great job on AstroHopper.
Years ago, my wife got me a cheap Celestron 5” reflector for Christmas. After looking at the moon I tried with little success to find much else and the scope hasn’t been used in years.
I’ve since retired and moved. I live within 10 minutes of a deep sky park at the tip of the “Thumb” of Michigan.
I’ll have to give this a try.
Thanks for watching! The skies should be good and dark in the thumb there! I'm jealous!
Well done with the Spielberg message 😆
Haha, thanks. I think I spelled it wrong too. Oops!
Great video, as usual!!
I got to know this “app” for a few months now and it’s amazing, very accurate, maybe not as much as starsense, but for sure it’s simpler and faster. Remarcable the good souled man that shared this creation with the rest of us ❤.
Looking forward for your next upload!!
Thanks for watching!
That's the coolest freebie ever! Right up there with Franklin's lightning rod.
It's a pretty fun tool to play with.
Simply amazing. Mind blown. Artyom is the man, for making it and keeping it free!
It is very impressive.
This is the best app I've heard of for amateur astronomer like myself.
This is so great. Thank you all!
It's one of the few astronomy aids that lives up to the hype. It's very useful.
Artyom created a fantastic app, that I use constantly on my dobsonian. Works faster and more effectively than any of my go to telescopes. Highly recommended and indeed a game changer. I have double sided sketch on the tube and an old phone permanently placed there.
It really works well, and it's fun to use. Thanks for watching. Clear skies and have a good summer!
Giving better access to our light polluted skies with a brilliant creation... Hope for humanity indeed
I agree. And AstroHopper is quite fun to use.
Velcro strips from variety store hobby section + cheap case with smooth acrylic back. Velcro won't mess with your phone like magnets, and it's stronger than you would think. I use a big velcro strip to secure my phone to my vehicle console, and it holds during emergency braking. Pulls off easy enough too.
Thank you for this comment. You are correct - I came to a similar conclusion and felt the need to create a second follow-on video here: ruclips.net/video/I2Xb8ks8b50/видео.html
Velcro strips, great idea, and cost effective too.
Thanks!
Another benefit of Velcro strips is that unlike magnets, they work just as well with telescope tubes made of materials other than steel. So polymer, carbon fibre, aluminium, glass-reinforced plastic & etc. Some telescopes have tubes made from wood or even reinforced paper.
Thank you! This is so much more convenient than using my setting circle and angle finder. And I would not know about it if you have not put up your video. You gained a subscriber.
Thank you for watching and thanks for the subscribe! Astrohopper is a real game-changer. Clear skies!
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video. I am a newbie and just purchased a used Deep Space Hunter 6 inch Dobsonian. I’ve had a few sessions so far and have enjoyed every minute. Can’t wait to try AstroHopper out and enjoy it even more.
Congrats on the new telescope - I highly recommend buying used Dobsonians. It is the biggest bang for the buck. Be sure to delay your screen cutout time because if your phone screen turns off, it loses alignment and you have to do it all over again. Good luck and have fun finding cool stuff in the sky!
As a huge SciFi fan, AND an Amazon Kindle Unlimited member, I investigated "Red Hope" the blurb sounded intriguing, so I immediately borrowed it, and and followed it up with "Blue Hope". Both are next up on my reading lost, as soon as I finish up the series I am currently reading!
Thank you for your support. If you're going to give Red Hope a try, please use the 5th Anniversary Edition - it's noticeably improved.
Obviously, your alignment was off slightly because the Earth rotated ever so slightly from the time you viewed the star in the eyepiece to when you actually clicked on it on the screen. I definitely will try this tonight. I have an older phone that still has internet access so I can dedicate that one and basically permanently mount it!
Having a secondary phone to dedicate to this sure makes life easier, especially with the screen timeout dialed way long. I have a second identical phone that I use in the videos. Helps out a lot.
Brilliant! Thanks John
Thank you for the feedback. Clear skies!
This looks awesome, I cannot wait to try it out, and will post another comment. But on the surface, this appears to be a solution to many challenges. Thanks for posting.
Let me know how it goes. I've found it very helpful for teaching me the basics of where things are located in the night sky.
I've been looking for something like this for quite some time, if it had the ability to view satellite TLS data like Stellarium (for tracking ISS etc) then it'd tick all my boxes. For sure going to be trying this, thanks for the recommendation.
EDIT: It's open source, even better
Be sure to contact the developer. He is pretty responsive. Clear skies!
Very cool. Thanks to the dev for the app and to you for the explanation and demo.
Happy to share. Clear skies!
Incredible! It is already on my phone and my succion suckers are ordered! Thanks a lot!
I think you're going to have a lot of fun with it. Clear skies!
I love this! I was thinking of buying a 'cheap' Celestron scope just to get their StarSense gadget and now I don't have to buy anything!! This comes at a great time as I just converted my old 12.5" scope to a dob! I will be making the holder for my phone on my 3D printer very soon! TY Mr Beilis! TY Reflactor for posting this and making me aware of it!
You've just described a process that many people went through to get StarSense installed on their own telescopes. Hopefully, AstroHopper mitigates that necessary step for more people. Thank YOU for watching and thank YOU for taking time to leave a comment.
I am using Skeye since 2 years on my Android. It is a real full application and does the same and way more :) It comes with a free and a paid version but the free version has enough features for me.
Somehow Astrohopper does not detect the Gyroscope in my S23 Ultra.
I think the magnetic mount will interfere with the compass. I say this because my phone is in a wallet style case that uses a strap with a magnet to hold the cover closed and it plays havoc with my compass. I have to remove the phone from the case to use any apps that need the compass. Magnets and magnetic compasses are mortal enemies.😄
You are correct. In Part 2 of this video, I go into discussion about a few other mounting solutions.
John is my HERO of the day. I spent several hours trying to locate down a lock code online for the StarSense system with no luck. This is a game-changer in an AWESOME way. Time to dig out an older cell phone to install this and then figure out a mounting device. John, maybe you could sell the mount you have made for retail for those of us who do not have access to a 3D printer. I cant wait until it's dark now. Could you produce a blueprint for a 6in DOB.
Wish I would have known about this app before I spent $500 on a starsense
Rest assured that you didn't go wrong with a StarSense system - they are rock solid and their plate-matching method is so solid that Celestron patented it. I think you'll enjoy the StareSense for years to come. Now if you buy a second telescope and want a similar tool, that's where AstroHopper can append your tool set. Clear skies!
Thank you for asking. I looked into various companies that would print & ship, but they were asking insanely high prices ($80+). Another solution is self-adhesive Velcro strips. I've put a link in the video description box.
@@reflactor I have tried SA velcro from Wamart on my Skywatcher130P tube and it doesn't stay stuck. Is the Amazon velcro real strong?. Everytime I take the phon off to charge or turn on the tape on the tube comes off.
@@citylimitsphoto That's a good question. It may require cleaning the surfaces with Acetone before applying the Velcro. I think I need to do a whole separate video about ways to attach the phones to the telescope. People have shared a lot of clever methods over the past few days.
The compass in your smart phone will react to magnetic fields, the tube of your scope and especially the motors in the mount, The motors have magnets and when powered spit emf all over the place. Electrical current will also generate a magnetic field. Fortunately magnetism is a "weak force", something like inverse-cubed, so standing off a short way should render the interference insignificant. You may have noticed your phone is sensitive to magnetic objects like a screwdriver or a knife blade, try waving your cutlery near the screen.
I've noticed that just standing too close to my car causes the compass to be affected.
I had wondered why no one had done such a thing, so thank you to Artyom Beilis for doing this and making it available to everyone for free! Of course this had to come out just *after* I created setting circles for my Dobsonian....
The setting circles are a great backup just in case. I have them on all of my telescopes. :)
Only 3 month have passed and it is now 2nd most popular video on your channel 🙂
This video turbocharged the channel. All credit goes to your awesome AstroHopper.
Holy Crap this is exactly what i needed. Thank God I found this video, you have no idea how much I needed an app like this
I'm glad I could help, but Mr. Belis did all the hard work of making this wonderful program. By the way, some people are using Velcro to stick their phone to the telescope. Have fun! Let me know how it goes.
What a great video!
I hope that Spielbergh guy stops bothering you.
Haha, quite the contrary - I hope that Speelburg fellow offers to make the movie!
Oh my goodness; I had not heard about this application before. Last December, I did acquire a StarSense-based DOB, primarily for outreach assistance, and find it to be amazingly accurate. (nice misspelling of that movie filmmaker; you a funny guy!). Great video!
You are 100% correct. The StarSense technology works fantastic - the plate matching is so good that I think Celestron patented it. I consider AstroHopper kindof a "gateway app" to help people who are very new to the hobby and don't want to invest in new equipment. With that said, AstroHopper does work pretty well already and the developer keeps adding features. It has a very hopeful future. I can neither confirm nor deny that I spelled the movie makers name wrong on purpose, lol.
I just read all your 3 Mars novels, t's a small world. Great advice, thanks! :-)
Thank you! If you get a chance, please leave a review for the Red Hope novel series. They need all the help they can get. :)
Used one for a while, use velcro on the back of the phone and velctro strip on the telescope. Can put it on and take it off as needed.
Thank you for the comment. I'm glad the Velcro system is working for you. It seems like a great solution.
I just installed on my smart phone. I just need a clear night to try. Thank you for the info. I am new to astronomy.
Welcome to the hobby. Astrohopper makes it much easier to find stuff and... it's fun.
thanks for calling my attention to this, great video, bought red hope ;)
Thank you for watching and supporting the channel. Clear skies!
OMG! Just seen the video. Can't wait till it gets dark to test!! I'll come back after testing!!
Great…could use that with the SkyWatcher Star Adventurer (the non go to version)
It'll work with any telescope and any phone.
This was an awesome video to come across. Lots of simple yet great info because AstroHopper makes it so. I’m making a new attempt on using a telescope to view the night sky and this video pointed to this program will greatly assist my new adventures , thank you
I'm glad the video was helpful. AstroHopper is a pretty cool tool to use. Have fun!
Whoa! Cannot wait to try this out, thank you for this video!!!
It has proven to be a very helpful tool.
Thank you for such a wonderful video!! It is very informative and definitely a game changer. It's raining buckets tonight, but I'm going to give it a try on the first clear night!! Good Luck with the movie!!🤣🤣🤣
I'm glad you found it useful. And thank you for the kind words.
The key to using Astro hopper is to try to memorize or recognize a dozen or so bright stars in the sky, and then use those to realign in the area that you’re going to do your more precise object acquisition
That is an excellent tip! With my Bortle 8 light pollution, it may be hard to find a dozen, but I can still see Vega, Arcturus, Spica, Pollux, Castor, and a couple of others.
Actually for me the biggest problem is recognize. It helped me to learn the sky. I recognize a star, align and than jump to a star I see but not recognize and it shows pretty accuratly.
Another great helper is optical finder. Even cheapest shows much more star than naked eye can see.
@@artyombeilis9075 use mobile observatory app and tap the live sky button , first make sure you have your location right on app and then make a figure 8 about 4 times , hit live button and you will names of stars, planets, etc. You can change what you want to see in settings.
AstroHopper & SkySafari are awesome in tandem
This is the second video I have watched you instruct...and had to subscribe lol. I love your teaching techniques. Clear, concise and very friendly. Stay safe, stay Happy and Regards...Dave
Thank you for the kind words - that means a lot! I'm always looking for improved ways to help convey meaning. My goal is to help more people get excited about amateur astronomy (or at least refurbishing telescopes, lol).
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
BTW, I want to say "THANK YOU!", Mr. Dreese!, for this info.
I'm 68, & TBH, I don't try to 'keep up' as much as previously so I *really* appreciate this!
Also I really appreciate your efforts to let others know & to share!
I'll see if I can let the developer know what a great idea this is, too.
Keep up the great work,
Have a GREAT day, Neighbor!
PS
My wife reads scifi, I'll let her know about your "Red Hope".
Thanks for watching! I've found AstroHopper super helpful. The developer is very responsive. Clear skies!
I really like that app, and it just keep better and better.
I'm glad you like the app. It's a lot of fun to use.
Sounds great only heard about this now.
If it works I hope he has a donation page.
Cheers.
I don't know if he takes donations, but I bet he'd love to hear your feedback after you give it a try.
That is amazing. I was just going to mention that I get 2 bars on a good day at the house. LOL. Awesome!!!
Please let me know how it goes!
Incredible, thank you so much. My Celestron Nexstar mount's hand controller won't align anymore but the drive motors work fine, now I can keep it! :) Subbed.
I'm glad it helped... and you were able to keep the Nexstar. Clear skies!
I nave NexStar SE8. I got it used and discovered that vertical axis has enormous backlash due to failed bearing. It was pain to work with but with failed bearing it was horrible inaccurate. I removed all the electronics, motors, battery tray and converted it to manual. Now it is much easier and nicer to use with AstroHopper.
I lost tracking but other than that I found manual operation (with AstroHopper) was way-way easier 🙂
What a great idea , hopefully get back out their someday, but really enjoyed your explanation , subscription well earned😊
Thank you for watching. :) Have fun with Astrohopper - it's almost indispensable these days.... and it's free!
I downloaded the APP not just a bookmark
Not sure if it has been mentioned
but
I managed to open on link in chrome and then clicked the three dots in the upper right, then chose download app, and well it downloaded the app to my Android phone.
I hope this helps and apologize if this has already been covered
Cheers!
EDIT
subbed and liked because of this video!
Thanks for the tip it worked on my android phone as well. It will be good if I can ever get to use it, we have had cloudy weather for months on end here in Vic' Aust'. Cheers
Thank you for watching and subscribing. This video got way more attention that any video I've ever put on this channel. Hope everybody finds it helpful. Clear skies!
Wow! Believe it or not, I used to develop an iOS Push-To app two years ago, with the same principle. At the time I had no telescope to test it with, so I continued developing it until I received mine. This meant that the app was pretty advanced, with all kinds of simulators for different eyepieces and telescopes, etc. It turned out that sticking my iPhone to the telescope made the compass go wild, with the North changing position mid use. I gave up on the project soon after. Great to see someone succeeding at it, and smart idea to switch to gyro only, that would have helped me for sure!
As I like to say, there's always room for improvement! If you still have time, please do consider jumping back into the fray. I think the switching to gyro is the saving grace on AstroHopper since the compass and metal tube can go a bit crazy.
Yeh that compass will go nutty. I stuck it on with Velcro no dazzle with iron or another magnet to mess up my. Phone sensors.
I think the most important stuff when developing a new concept is to do simplest POC and validate it.
My first POC I checked was just bare stars I think without constellations few buttons to align and select target and I did fast check on Jumping between Orion stars.
Once I saw it was working I started investing more time on basic UI and ask users to test it. First beta testers 2 years ago have bring me hugely important feedback that allowed to me progress with the app.
I'm all for learning the night sky and star hoping to invisible objects. But as you (among FEW) state, in light poluted skies where even Polaris is hard to see star hoping is near impossible.
Absolutely. I can barely see Polaris, let alone any other stars in the Little Dipper. We're in a Bortle 8 sky.
Wow! Amazing! Now to see if it works in the southern hemisphere? Do you know of anyone who tried it from the southern hemisphere?
I have no reason to believe that it won't work. I'd suggest you give it a whirl right where you're sitting (it runs in a browser): artyom-beilis.github.io/astrohopper.html
@@reflactor Gave it a quick try (just handheld & aiming across the phone) and it seems to be working just fine! I can definitely see me using this in future! Thanks for the heads up! Joined your channel, looks like lots of useful stuff here! You may just be interested on some of my videos too.
@@SterremanWillie Thank for the feedback - now we know it works. I just subscribed to your channel. Always interested in the perspective south of the equator. You get to see the Magellanic Clouds. I'd like to see those some day.
I made my own setting circles for my SW 250P dob, with lit needle pointers...changed the bearings, flokked the insides, made my own electronic focuser, replaced the colli knobs (no...not bob's knobs...made my own), had an inclinometer (which caused a lot of headaches in the dark when resetting to 'zero' using bubble levels).. made red lights for reading and adjusting, replaced the azimuth bearings and made my own,...etc etc... all this brought me closer to the stars...but now, you have an App (what a stupid word anyway)...this is the dumb down of astro...the moronic phase of people not being able to solve problems...I collimated a 10" newt with a pvc tube and wires...and it was spot on...don't learn it the easy way...learn it the hard way...and then go easy
There are certainly many ways to get into this hobby, depending on how hands-on you are. I love the tinkering aspect of the hobby, but for every one of me, there is another person who has no mechanical inclination. In the grand scheme of things, I'm all for removing as many barriers to entry as is practical. I think back to my first telescope as a kid in the early 1980's. It was terrible, so bad that I didn't get hooked on astronomy and waited 15 years before I built my first Dobsonian, which did get me hooked. Clear skies.
Thank you for pointing us to this game changer. I had been considering StarSense but I no longer need to. I am looking forward to trying this when we finally get a clear night here. To attach my phone, I have low-priced 1" wide velcro strap that I got from Amazon. No residue from painters tape, elastic or suction cup left on the tube and I can get the exact tension needed. A strap around the bottom end of the phone is all I needed to secure it in place.
Since publishing these videos, I've become a big fan of the velcro solution. Thanks for watching.... clear skies!
Everyone has a smartphone these days, didn't we 15 years ago. As for the star tracker app it uses GPS witch is a listening device good job it doesn't need data streaming. Great video
Sortof, but there is a caveat. Most everybody today has a smartphone with GPS, compass, gyros and accelerometers. That was not the case 15 years ago.
Spectacular...now I will buy an inexpensive Android O/S cellphone and make my 10" telescope into a push-to monster !
Have fun. Please let me know how it goes!
Be careful thou, you need to have good sensors. Some very cheap phones may fail you. Try the smartphone you already have.
this app is amazing i have been looking for something like this for a long time it will save me so much frustration trying to look for objects
i just did some tests during the day using sky safari and it seems to work well once you align to a star nearby you can get pretty close to the target
the light pollution makes it very hard for me to see and find deep sky objects but this will probably make it a lot easier
Astrohopper is a really fun tool for people like you and me who live in locations with lots of light pollution.
I'm so glad you were recommended. Thanks for a very informative video.
Thank you for watching. I hope you have a lot of fun with Astrohopper.
This is freaking amazing. Thanks for showing it off!
It was a lot of fun. Hope you find it helpful. Clear skies!
I cannot thank you enough for this video. I am unable to get my StarSense Explore app to work at all! Thank you, thank you!
I've heard that StarSense works really well when you get it set up. I hope RUclips videos can give you some tips. I have personally never used StarSense.
Re: the advice to re-align periodically, why not re-align on the object I have searched for and viewed before searching for the next object? I realize that means a lot of alignments in a night's viewing, but what do I have to lose?
That's a very reasonable thing to do. There are many ways to use AstroHopper. Clear skies.
I’ve struggled to find DSOs so if this works as you say, it will be an absolute game-changer for me! Looking forward to trying it out as soon as I can.
Please watch Part 2 where I share the lessons learned from using AstroHopper. It may save you even more time:
ruclips.net/video/I2Xb8ks8b50/видео.html
@@reflactor I already have! Thanks for highlighting this app, it is such a simple idea really, brilliantly executed and amazing it is available for free. I have just ordered some double sided suction cups…
Nice vid, thank you! I have a OneSky telescope (saw the link to here in the OneSky forum), and I will try this out. I cringed just a little at the red dot finder, I hated hated hated the one on my OneSky. I replaced it with a Quikfinder, your milage may vary. P.S. As an indie writer, I got a kick out of your product placement. I bought a copy of Red Hope.
I have every possible finder scope. If you don't mind spending $50+, then the Telrad or Rigel Quikfinder are great. The red-dot finders are great if you've only got $20 though and they get the job done. They also fit in the standard dove-tail, so that's a bonus. What I really like about the Telrad is the true scale from zero-brightness to full-brightness. Thank you for taking a chance on Red Hope. I can share with you that, surprisingly, the RUclips channel has not moved many books. But it's fun to find ways to squeeze it in, lol.
Its ok but it depends how good is your cell compass, maybe with using the coordinates on your eq mount to align the software....
Just got my Apertura 8 inch dobbs and put a car cell phone magnetic mount on....cant wait to start using it tonight!!
Let me know how it goes... have fun!
This is very, very cool! Going to give it a try tonight.
Thanks for watching. Please leave a note about how it goes for you. Clear skies!
Please keep making such videos.
Thank you for the kind words. I have a lot of fun making these videos and this one just got a lot of attention, but I don't know why. Hopefully it was useful. Clear skies!
Always the best information out there!
Thanks! It's a really fun tool to use.
Cool video, definitely will try this as some nights you can be limited on time.
Thank you for watching. Clear skies!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! Game Changer indeed!
Thank you for watching. Clear skies!
Since this well engineered solution works with a smartphone compass i'd not recommend to attach the phone with help of magnetism. I'll try it on the next clear sky 😊
You are correct. After some testing, I found that to be the case along with a few more "lessons learned". I posted them in a follow-on video here: ruclips.net/video/I2Xb8ks8b50/видео.html
I am always greatly appreciative when someone is so generous with his hard work, especially when his hard work solves a significant issue. Has Artyom set up a method for accepting financial donations?
I honestly don't know if he would even accept payment. Feel free to contact him though. Thanks for watching!
Suddenly, the value of those old heavy 12 inch Dobsonians has increased
Haha, I have one of them, but strangely enough I use my 8 inch Dob even more. Thank you for watching.
@@reflactor M13 in a 12 inch, or the star cluster in Orion’s nebula - priceless
Wow, what a fantastic tool. Thank you so much. ❤ 💯 👍
Have lots of fun with it. Clear skies!
as you know John i use the star sense which i have 2 of them. However i didn't buy new scopes. I bought one for $175 cdn then re sold the scope for $150, 2nd one bought $200 sold it for $175. So basically only cost me about $25 each module BUT i guess with teck it just a matter of time until more people do something similar like this. Although iam surprised to see the maker did it free which is great for alot people. cheers
I remember your video(s) on the Starsense - you used a clever way to get it! Everything I hear about it is rave reviews. It's good stuff. AstroHopper is a good starting tool for folks that have little to no budget. But to be honest, it works pretty well for me, so I probably won't try the Starsense.
@@reflactor yeah I agree if it’s free then it’s even better for people on a low budget or if it works a lot of people might buy this instead of the StarSense now. Celestron might be upset of that guy lol.
Starsence can suck an egg if this works so good.
@@jackieblank4249 My understanding is that Starsense is really super stable, so it has some advantages for sure. But hey, for free, AstroHopper is worth a try.
@@jackieblank4249 well, the question is if starsense did not come out with this have come out right now
Yes, hope they add the plate solving feature
It's a work in progress. Feel free to ask the developer for that feature.
Plate solving is highly problematic - not due to tech reasons.
I'll explain. Celestron patented their SSE tech - so implementing the navigation using plate solving on smartphone as they did may easily infringe their patent.
So I prefer not to go into this rabbit hole. I've seen SSE in use and I've got many reported that using your eyes to align on a target actually even faster than using plate solving. So it isn't even clear if it is needed.
Finally what is important AstroHopper gets the job done.
Does this work for daytime use?
I'd like to know if I'm looking in my neighbors living room window or kitchen window with my telescope and I think this app could really help.
I think that's a different app called AstroFelony.
I doubt it'll work as well as the Starsense version given the Starsense uses a mirror and platesolving, and this app just uses your phone's gyro and compass rather than cameras. There have been other apps that have approximated this functionality before, but i've never found any of them to be very accurate. But i'll be giving it a try for sure. Thanks for the video!
What makes all the difference is easy and fast alignment that corrects for initial error.
@@artyombeilis9075 I'm really looking forward to trying it out! I've got all the high tech gadgets and wizardly, but I do a lot of public outreach and this kind of thing is just the ticket.
I've heard very good things about Starsense. AstroHopper will get the job done if you don't want to shell out the money for a new system. It's worth a try. Thanks for watching!
Thanks, can't wait to try this. Have a great day.
Please let me know how it works for you.
@@reflactor the sky's haven't been cooperating for awhile here south of San Antonio, but will do. Hopefully this weekend.
@@RUSTYMULLENIX-xm5snWell, hello sortof neighbor! Fort Worth has been clouded in something terrible for over a month.Good luck this weekend!
Very cool! Im going to try this out tonight, weather cooperating ofc.
Update:
Your phone will need gyro sensor, accelerometer, compass.
Missing one of those, won't work.
Mine is a Moto g, no gyro.
I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you for trying it though.
@@reflactor no worries, I'll get a bett phone lol. But before that I'll be getting a nice tracking mount anyway.
Hey- great channel btw.
I have saved this for later, once more thanks.
Great video my dude
Thank you for the kind words. Hope it was helpful!
Thanks for highlighting this webap! I'm not sure why the RUclips algorithm highlighted this, but it did, and I clicked. I've since shared AstroHopper with a friend of mine who's also an amateur stargazer and he thought it looked fantastic, as well. Also, good job plugging your book. After looking it up, it reminded me a little of James P. Hogan, which made me nostalgic for something like his work. I'm halfway through Red Hope on my Kindle ap and I'm loving it. As a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, I understand how the Kindle Edition Normalized Pages works to compensate authors for pages read. My question to you is, would I support your more as an author by purchasing your book outright as opposed to my Kindle Unlimited subscription? And would I support you more by purchasing a paperback or a digital copy? Sorry for all the questions but I actually do care that authors are properly compensated for their work. Thanks again!
Thank you for watching and sharing AstroHopper with your friend. I usually work my book into most of my videos, but usually just a background decoration. I decided to try to make it a bit humorous this time. THANK YOU for taking a chance on Red Hope and thank you for asking. You are correct - authors tend to make much more from Kindle Unlimited reads. Ebook sales generate about 35 cents. KU read-throughs generate about 4 times that. Sorry for the inside baseball on that, but you seem very wise to the process. To purchase the used 14 inch telescope that I refurbished (it's a 7 part series here), I had to sell well over 3000 ebooks, lol which represents many years of sales. I can dream! And if you know Mr. Speilbergh, please put in a good word for me, hahahaha.
Out of the box, most Dobs are too low for the average sized adult. Bending over all evening -- ouch! To compensate for this you can either buy an expensive aftermarket platform, such as the Orion Dob Pod, or purchase two or three boxes of Reflector's book.
@@bowrudder899 Please purchase two or three boxes of my books. It helps me buy more broken telescopes! :)
I have used many programs that use accelerometers and magnetometers to orient you around the sky, they all are only useful for wide field views. The sensors constantly loose positional accuracy and get affected by everything from nearby electrical cables to someone else's mobile phone nearby. The app is great, the sensors on our phones are just not good enough
You have good point - and all you say is relevant for most apps, but it is exactly what makes AH different.
1. the app does not use magnetometer after alignment - only gyro and accelerometers. And indeed all planetary apps so far were not even remotely accurate - but with fast alignment procedure the situation is different.
2. You need to manage expectations. If can't align on Polaris and go to Orion nebula. As a rule of thumb - do alignment on the star on the constellation the object you are looking for it. It seems cumbersome to do frequent alignments, but it is actually very fast process.
Artyom, many thanks and Kudos fir making this.
I saw this app when someone shared on reddit. Used it in my star party on May 20.
I used it to align with Venus. But Venus was so so far down, and I could not scroll the screen manually. I had to zoom out to 120 degree to find it! Is there any altitude setting I have to do?
I used OnePlus8 Pro. Little N of San Francisco.
And again, excellent app idea and effort.
Would be great if he could add the plate solving part. It's what keeps the starsense zero'd in. People would pay for it then. He'd make a lot of money.
I'm pretty sure he can't do that because Celestron has a patent on it.
@reflactor fair enough. Such a pity though!
This is a great find and great video! Thanks! Regarding the phone holder, STL file, I had to load the file into Tinkercad and change my defaults to inches instead of MM. Otherwise, the holder was VERY small. :)
Thank you for letting me know about the scale issue! I just updated the file to AstroHopper7.stl that should be properly scaled. The previous file was made for teeny tiny little smartphones, lol.
@@reflactor Yep, you had me lookin for a MICRO-PHONE! LOL
Can you use AstroHopper with the phone adapter and just switch between apps to use phone/video mode once you have set the telescope?
As soon as AstroHopper loses focus as the master "app", you have to do a re-alignment.
Nice!
I will have to try this . I just started looking at the stars and I have used an app called sky map which seems very similar.
I have a magsafe mous case for my phone, do you think i could just attach my phone magnetically to a dobsonian? Im gonna get one very soon. Thanks!
It's worth a try. After I made this video I found that the magnet can mess with the phones compass magnetometer to give you a false reading. Check out the Part 2 version of that video to learn even mrore lessons abot Lie
excellent...would be good for astrophotography , getting items lined up etc
I agree. I've found it very useful. Thank you for watching. Clear skies! I've made a followup "Top AstroHopper Tips" video if interested: ruclips.net/video/I2Xb8ks8b50/видео.html
Awesome 😎 thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching. Clear skies!
Yeah, I'm going to try it. Thanks much!
Thank you for watching. Let me know how it works out for you.
Awesome! Thanks!
I will have to try this
Let me know what you think!
Thanks for another great video John. I’ve got push to but I’m going to definitely give this a try. Im a bit sceptical on it’s accuracy using just smartphone sensors but I’ll report back. Can you align on the sun and use it to find planets during the day? 👍🇬🇧
I love the PushTo technology - they work really well. Wish I hadn't sold mine! Clear skies!
Ok so it’s just after 2pm here in the Uk and I’ve just had a little play with Astrohopper I attached it to one of my dobs and found Venus (pretty easy, even in broad daylight). I then aligned Astrohopper on Venus and swung the telescope round a few times and then tried to re-centre back on Venus. It pretty much put Venus back in the eyepiece each time which was quite impressive. I then thought I’d give it a real test and dialled in Capella. I moved the scope to where it showed me Capella was and incredibly it was right there, even though it was in broad daylight. However, I was unable to repeat this success and couldn’t find Capella again. This could have something to do though with my very basic phone attachment to the scope, which basically was just using Blu-Tack.😂. Hopefully tonight, it will still be clear and I will give it a bit more of a thorough test.
Ok, so I’ve just spent a hour under the stars and gave this ‘push to’ program a bit of a going over more thoroughly. Too be honest although not super accurate I was absolutely delighted with how it behaved! (And not a little surprised too). I was finding objects with ease and sometimes I could swing the scope a full 180 degrees and it was still putting objects in or just out of the field in a low power eyepiece. I actually was enjoying using that much time flew by. For more accuracy then simply ‘sync’ on a star close to the object your looking for and that should help immensely with accuracy. One thing I did note that I don’t recall you mentioning in your video is it’s important to level your mount. I found accuracy improved when I levelled the scope. All in all I definitely recommend this.
I’ve added the link to this video to my Twitter followers. Clear skies!
@@deepskymike767 Hi Mike, I didn't even think about the leveling procedure, but if that helps out, then it's good to know! Thank you for the Twitter link!
Great video. Is anyone out there selling the printed holder?
Not that I know of. I tried to set up an account with a print-on-demand company, but even with my profit margin set to zero, they wanted about $80 for it. I thought that was an irrational price and didn't sign up for it. I think that's because it takes so long to print.
Outstanding! Thanks a lot. I will try it out tonight.
Thanks for watching. Let me know how it goes!