My review on the Star Gazers Lounge

[Brett Laniosh]

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/370560-skeye-app-as-a-pushto-finder

This is the result of an initial discussion about finders that took place at https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/370267-finder-scope-enhancements

[Harshad RJ]

Thanks for sharing that experience Brett! It's nice to hear when things work! ☺

Which phone were you using? About the sudden jumps, they could be due to a number of reasons, but you could try adjusting the sensitivity settings to see if they make a difference, if you haven't already.

On Fri, Jan 22, 2021 at 2:57 PM Brett Laniosh <br...@catshill.com> wrote:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/370560-skeye-app-as-a-pushto-finder

This is the result of an initial discussion about finders that took place at https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/370267-finder-scope-enhancements

best,

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Harshad RJ

[Brett Laniosh]

The phone is a OnePlus 8Pro. What I’ve noticed is that is the even though it has been aligned an object can drift on the screen without the ota being moved. Also When moving the ota E-W very slowly the jumping can reoccur.

The good news is that the display seems to catch up. 

I am guessing that the algorithm is confused by conflicting alignment points? So if one stands out of a minimum of four as wrong perhaps a conflict warning is displayed and an indication that it is being ignored.

I’ve noticed that when using Insta align and dragging the map, the display sometimes fights back and doesn’t allow me to move the taget to the centre of the circle.

Maybe a best advice /faq on alignment...

Is it good practice to use insta align every time you observe a target?

Does rotating the ota though a wide azimuth help improve the sensitivity ? So if observing objects in Orion for a long period is it better to swing 180deg to check/update alignment points?

None of the above does anything to put me off using the app as it is becoming an essential finder tool for me.

[Harshad RJ]

Answers in brief below, since some of this might become irrelevant in the near future, if my experiments become successful.

On Tue, Jan 26, 2021 at 11:47 AM Brett Laniosh <br...@catshill.com> wrote:

The phone is a OnePlus 8Pro.

Oh cool. I generally have had good success with OnePlus phones.

What I’ve noticed is that is the even though it has been aligned an object can drift on the screen without the ota being moved. 

Also When moving the ota E-W very slowly the jumping can reoccur.

One thing to note is that the magnetometer is prone to a lot of noise. SkEye filters the noise using algorithms similar to a moving average. This introduces some delay between OTA movement and the position shown on the screen. That is why you need to wait for the drifting to settle down, before making an alignment or observation.

You can decrease the delay by increasing the sensitivity in the Settings, though as a trade off, this might introduce more jitter.

 

The good news is that the display seems to catch up. 

I am guessing that the algorithm is confused by conflicting alignment points? So if one stands out of a minimum of four as wrong perhaps a conflict warning is displayed and an indication that it is being ignored.

In the case of a magnetometer it is not possible to isolate a "wrong" or conflicting point. There may not be any correlation among the alignment points.

 

I’ve noticed that when using Insta align and dragging the map, the display sometimes fights back and doesn’t allow me to move the taget to the centre of the circle.

That shouldn't happen under normal circumstances. The "insta align" should only get auto-cancelled if the OTA moves during the align (or SkEye thinks you have moved the OTA).

Try increasing the sensitivity a bit, and if it still doesn't improve, please send me a video if possible.

Maybe a best advice /faq on alignment...

 

Good idea. Let me quickly answer them here for now:

Is it good practice to use insta align every time you observe a target?

It wouldn't hurt to add more alignments. Though if you want to save time, only add an alignment if there is a big difference between observed and predicted direction.

 

Does rotating the ota though a wide azimuth help improve the sensitivity ?

It won't help sensitivity, but it will help the magnetometer to calibrate, so it's a very good idea to do this at the beginning of the session.

 

So if observing objects in Orion for a long period is it better to swing 180deg to check/update alignment points?

No, you need not do that (except at the beginning of the session as mentioned above). Alignments are more locally relevant than globally.

 

None of the above does anything to put me off using the app as it is becoming an essential finder tool for me.

Thanks for asking these questions!

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Harshad RJ

[Beverly Howard]

>> One thing to note is that the magnetometer is prone to a lot of noise. <<

This is a big problem not only with SkEye but in general, and it seems that once the internal magnetometer is clear of interference, the magnetic errors from the interference do not self correct.

fwiw, I've been using GPS Status since it was released, and it makes a good companion to many apps such as SkEye.  It has a "compass correction" in the 3Bar menu with explicit instructions for re-calibrating the magnetic compass.  My MotoG6's compass (which is normally between 5 and 15 degrees off) was once almost 100 degrees off, and the GPS Status correction option brought it back to within a degree within a few seconds.

Beverly Howard

[Harshad RJ]

Oh, good to know. Will try it.

In the meanwhile, can you try this app (written by me) which I suspect will give similar results? A brief guide for using it is here.

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Harshad RJ