Sky Map is broken. Any fixes?

[Michael MGAC]

The app is 180 degrees off, east to west.  It is not a compass problem.  It is an app problem.  Sky Map displays this way on my Samsung Galaxy S3 and my Asus Tablet.  The app is completely unusable.  Are there any fixes?  Is a fix being worked on?

Thank you.

[Sean Barbeau]

Compass orients properly on my Samsung Galaxy S3 (U.S. Sprint SPH-L710) with Android 4.3.

Do other compass apps have the same issue on your devices when tested in the same location as Sky Map?

Sean

[Michael MGAC]

I double checked the compasses on both units. They are calibrated. This is a new install on the tablet...and updated on the Samsung. App used to work fine.

[John Taylor]

Michael,
Sky Map uses some pretty old APIs for the orientation.  My *guess* is that the manufacturer has not implemented these APIs correctly and no-one noticed.  In the early days of Sky Map we quite often were the first to find bugs in new phones' sensors which were subsequently fixed (by the phone manufacturer).  For example, they'd often switch the direction of one axis.  That said, Sean seems to be having no issues with the same phone, so I'm not sure.

To answer your question, no fix is being worked on.  The app has been unchanged for several years now and while it definitely is not bug free, we have good confidence that the orientation code is working as intended.  One day I hope to get around to using the new APIs for orientation which should make the display smoother and also (I expect) make the app less vulnerable to mistakes in the OS.

John

On Thu Dec 26 2013 at 9:45:07 AM, Michael MGAC <mga...@gmail.com> wrote:

I double checked the compasses on both units.  They are calibrated.   This is a new install on the tablet...and updated on the Samsung.  App used to work fine.

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[Michael MGAC]

Partial solution:

The app will not automatically find my location despite having 'Always us GPS' checked.  It defaults to 'Pima' (wherever that is).  When I manually enter in my location, it finds it, and adjusts the map (and tracks) accordingly.

Is this the standard way the app works, or should it automatically find my location via GPS?

Both devices have Jelly Bean (4.2.2 for Asus Memo tablet; 4.3 for Samsung Galaxy S3)

Thanks!

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[John Taylor]

Ah - that's interesting.  So it's not the orientation sensors at all.  It sounds like it didn't know your location.  Did you have "Set location manually" set before?  If so, it overrides the automatic location (whether GPS or network) and it defaults to Pisa (as good a location as any).  If you deselect "set location manually" then the app should pick up your location from the GPS or the network.

[Michael MGAC]

I am completely flummoxed. 

When I deselected 'Set Manual Location'...the app defaults to 'Pima' again...on both devices.  It's as if the app is reading the GPS data wrong.  On a whim, I tried another app called Star Chart and I don't have the same problem.  I've grown to love Google Sky Map and I'd love to figure this out and keep it.

Also...'Magnetic Correction' makes no difference whether checked or unchecked.

Michael F. Zabkar

Mike's Games and Collectibles

http://www.facebook.com/MikesGames

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[Sean Barbeau]

Michael,
Unless you have high accuracy/precision requirements, I'd recommend against enabling the "Always Use GPS" preference.  GPS can take significantly longer than the network to return a location, especially if you are indoors.  Network location can provide a coarse location that is typically "good enough" for Sky Map.

If you need high accuracy/precision, make sure GPS is working correctly on your devices.  Try using the GPSTest app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.gpstest) first until you get a fix, then switch to Sky Map. (full disclosure - GPSTest is my app).

When using GPS with Sky Map, give it at least 5-10 sec to acquire a fix, ideally with a clear view of the sky.

As a developer aside, this could be an artifact of using the original Location API with the Criteria object and getLastKnownLocation() method, both of which I've found to be unpredictable on some devices.  Unless GPS has recently been updated sometimes this method will return null for the GPS provider.  Ideally Sky Map would be updated to use the new Location Services in Google Play Services.  Yet another item to put on the TODO list :).

Sean

[Michael MGAC]

I will grab the gps test app.  Thank you for the suggestions.

[John Taylor]

The magnetic correction is usually only a few degrees so is the app has your location wrong this will swamp the magnetic error.

[Michael MGAC]

Yeah.  I can't figure it out.  The only way to make it show correctly is to manually enter in the location.  Nothing else fixes it.

[Michael MGAC]

Still doing the same thing.  I can't figure out how to make the GPS automatically find location.  It's manual only.  Thank you for the help anyway.

Michael F. Zabkar

Mike's Games and Collectibles

http://www.facebook.com/MikesGames

[Scott Siegel]

I was finnaly able to get Google Sky Maps to work on my 2012 Nexus 7 by first going into the Google Maps App and pointing the device to North and then pressing and holding the compass icon to reset it to true north.

After that I had to go into Sky Map's location setting to correct the lattitute by removing the negative sign. Then everything was correct with Sky Maps. Hope it works for you too. Happy Stargazing!

[Michael MGAC]

I will try that.

Michael F. Zabkar

Mike's Games and Collectibles

http://www.facebook.com/MikesGames

On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 7:56 AM, Scott Siegel <siege...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was finnaly able to get Google Sky Maps to work on my 2012 Nexus 7 by first going into the Google Maps App and pointing the device to North and then pressing and holding the compass icon to reset it to true north.

After that I had to go into Sky Map's location setting to correct the lattitute by removing the negative sign.  Then everything was correct with Sky Maps.  Hope it works for you too.  Happy Stargazing!

[Michael MGAC]

Apparently...I have found my 'problem'.

I did not have Google location settings activated.  My phone and tablet were both set to use GPS only for location.  Once I turned on Google's location services, Sky Maps started working properly...on my phone, at least.  Still working on the tablet.

Michael F. Zabkar

Mike's Games and Collectibles

http://www.facebook.com/MikesGames

[Michael MGAC]

Aaaaannnnd....that was it.  As soon as I turned on Google Location Settings in Google Maps...BLAMMO....everything works fine.

Michael F. Zabkar

Mike's Games and Collectibles

http://www.facebook.com/MikesGames

[Sean Barbeau]

Good to know!  Glad you figured it out.

Sean

[John Taylor]

Thanks for letting us know that Michael.  As mentioned, Sky Map is rather long in the tooth.  The phones have moved on quite a bit - if we were writing the app again these days we'd probably be able to detect this issue and provide a helpful message.  Something I'll keep in mind for the (one day) rewrite.

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[Luthien Seldomane]

If I may reply...

Unfortunately I have already explored that option on my Galaxy S7.  Under "Settings" -->  "Advanced Options"  -->  "Location"  I have location enabled with "High Accuracy" and Sky Maps is on my recent "location requests" list.  

Frankly, I am quite discouraged by this inaccuracy.  I am attempting to attach 2 pictures showing the moon in front of me and the Google Sky Maps image of the exact same location.

[John Taylor]

Hi Luthien,

There could be several reasons why the map doesn't match up, not just location.  Is it possible your phone's compass isn't reading accurately?  One thing to try would be to install a regular compass app and see how well that works.  Other things that could be wrong include the time or timezone.  You could also look at the "Diagnostics" page and see if there's anything wrong.  It's a bit hard to interpret, but start with the Location and Time section and see if the local time looks correct and the universal time should show the correct time in UTC.

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