Sunday, October 02, 2016
Issue #511: Sans Wires
Shortly
after the Meade LX200 GPS SCTs debuted just after the turn of the century,
Meade began selling an (optional) wireless Autostar II controller. That would
do it, I thought. Surely every Meade owner would want one, and the other
manufacturers would soon follow suit. Hooray!
Sadly, that
didn’t happen. The wireless Autostar was somewhat expensive, and, worse, was
cranky. It worked sometimes, but not all the time, and often not very well. Because
of that failure, neither Celestron nor anybody else offered a similar product.
The wireless hand control had to wait until the coming of the smartphone.
Smartphones
are small computers, so it was not surprising there were soon planetarium apps
for them. It just seems a perfect match: you
carry your smartphone around with you all the time, including under the night
sky. Why shouldn’t you have a depiction of the heavens on it? Almost every Apple iPhone commercial over the years has included something
about astronomy apps. It didn’t take long for those apps to become quite
sophisticated, either. Today, the leading smartphone astronomy softs, like SkySafari, are equal to the best PC programs when
it comes to features and numbers of objects.
But being
able to run some pretty advanced astronomy software is only part of the
smartphone equation. In addition to calling over cellphone towers, all
smartphones have built in Wi-Fi and most have Bluetooth. Wireless RF communications, that is. And planetarium program plus Wi-Fi equals potential
wireless telescope nirvana if you can make your telescope mount communicate
over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
Wi-Fi or
Bluetooth for telescope mounts is not an overly
difficult a thing for a company to implement assuming there are enough people
to make it pay. It turns out there are. Maybe just barely, but enough anyway.
Soon there were solutions for telescope mounts that allowed your smartphone to send
your goto telescope on its gotos either with Wi-Fi (usually) or Bluetooth
(occasionally). These solutions take three forms: wireless-ready scopes and mounts, generic solutions that will work with almost any brand of telescope, and brand-specific setups.
Before we
talk over these solutions, however, we’d better make sure you understand that
“wireless” doesn’t mean “no wires.” If you live in a place as prone to dew as
Possum Swamp, you’ll likely need a dew heater and its associated heater element
and power cables to keep the wet stuff off your objective or corrector plate. If you take pictures, your camera will likely be connected to
a computer via a USB cable. Still, eliminating the hand control cable helps a
lot, since you’ll often be using the HC to move/align the scope, and doing that
from different positions, meaning the cable gets really annoying. Heater wires
and camera cables are not as big a hassle unless they threaten to wrap up and
strangle your mount.
Turn-key Solutions
Celestron Evolution Series
For most
people, this is the ideal, a telescope that comes configured for use with your
tablet or smart phone right out of the box. This is still the exception in the
low-mid priced range, but I expect that to change and quickly. The cost of
adding Wi-Fi connectivity to a goto scope is minute, and what’s amazed me is
that Celestron, with their Evolution series, is the only manufacturer in this
tier who has done so thus far.
High-end Mounts
High-end Mounts
On the high
end of the telescope mount market, Wi-Fi connectivity is becoming the norm. I
understand that it is standard for 10 Micron mounts now, and nearly standard
for the Bisque Paramount series (at least I rarely hear of someone buying a Bisque
mount who doesn’t spring for the add-on Wi-Fi board).
Prediction?
Within five years all commercial telescopes/mounts will include Wi-Fi
connectivity (or Bluetooth in some instances). I will further speculate that
most won’t even come with a hardware hand
control. That will become an extra-cost option.
Generic Add On Solutions
SkyFi
Just because
your telescope didn’t come from the factory equipped to talk to your iPhone or
Galaxy doesn’t mean you have to forego the joys of smartphone astronomy. The first
Wi-Fi setup (that I am aware of) was actually an add-on for stock goto
telescopes. This widget, the SkyFi from the
folks who do the SkySafari astronomy app (and Macintosh program), Simulation
Curriculum, wasn’t just there first with a top-flight commercial product, their SkyFi
is still the most versatile setup.
SkyFi
consists of a smallish 12 VDC powered electronics box and a serial cable to
connect to your telescope’s RS-232 port (or, in the latest version, to a USB
port as well if the scope/mount has one). That is its strength: it will work with just about any goto scope. The telescope doesn’t
know whether it is being sent on gotos from a PC or from your phone; all it
sees is a “normal” incoming serial signal telling it what to do.
Any
downsides? The SkyFi works with your hand control and does not replace it.
You’ll normally do your alignments using the good old HC. Also, according to the manufacturer, SkyFi does not
work with Android devices (that are not rooted). If you’ve got Android, you’ll
want SkyBT, which is similar, but uses a Bluetooth rather than Wi-Fi
transceiver. UPDATE...THE NEW SKYFI 3, LIKE THE MEADE BADGED VERSION NOW WORKS WITH ANDROID.
There are
several similar products on the market, but if you dig down a little, you’ll
find most of these are based on SkyFi, just as many different astronomy apps
are actually SkySafari under a different name. There’s a good reason for that:
the hardware and software products of Simulation Curriculum are tops and
companies like Celestron and Meade don’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel.
Brand Specific Solutions
SkyPortal Link
If you own a
Celestron telescope/mount, the ultimate after-market solution is a little
widget called SkyPortal Link (formerly SkyQ Link and SkyQ Link II). This is a Wi-Fi
dongle that plugs into the Aux or HC port of your compatible Celestron mount—and
most are compatible with the exception of the earliest NexStars like the
still-popular GPS scopes. What this basically does is turn your Celestron GEM
or fork mount into an Evolution scope—with a few caveats.
Now, I’m
glad I held onto the Link. Celestron wasn’t giving up on the device, and while
they conceded it wouldn’t ever function as a NexRemote - VX link, they intended
to make it work with their telescopes and smart devices. The eventual solution?
Give up the poor SkyQ app and get Simulation Curriculum to do a version of
SkySafari for them. This free application, SkyPortal, available in iOS and
Android flavors, not only works with the SkyQ Link, it allows users to dispense
with the NexStar hand control entirely.
I was still skeptical.
I almost dug out the link gadget a time or two, but remembering the
frustrations I’d experienced with it in 2013, I hesitated. Until I had some
hours with the Celestron Evolution under my belt. It was so much fun using my
iPhone as an HC that I decided I just had to try that darned Wi-Fi dongle with
my VX and CGEM mounts.
So it was
one clear evening that I set up the CGEM with my 6-inch refractor, Bit Ethel,
plugged in the SkyQ Link, and had a go. Once I turned the mount on and selected
the link’s Wi-Fi “network” which appeared in my phone’s settings, the iPhone
connected to the scope immediately. I was pleased to see that the SkyPortal
app, which I used initially, was just like good old SkySafari (albeit with a
limited number of deep sky objects—waddayawant for free?). I went to the
settings in SkyPortal, chose “German mount” and “Celestron Wi-Fi,” pushed the
“connect and align” button onscreen, and was soon doing a 4-star alignment.
After centering
two stars on each side of the Meridian, SkyPortal claimed I was ready to rock.
Well, we’d see about that. My
skepticism soon went away. Any object I requested was nearly centered in an
8-mm wide-field eyepiece in the 6-inch f/8 refractor. There were no hiccups and
no disconnections. The app would
disconnect from the scope if I let the iPhone go to sleep, but as soon as I
woke it up it would immediately reconnect without me having to do anything.
Anything I
didn’t like? There are a few rough edges. While the circuitry in the SkyQ Link (and its identical but differently named successors, the SkyQ Link II and SkyPortal Link),
is the same, I’m told, as in the Evolution series, the signal seemed a little
weaker. When I was in the backyard with houses and Wi-Fi signals all around, my
Android tablet would struggle to connect. My iPhone 6s would always work,
however.
Initially, I
thought the alignment process was going to be a problem. First couple of times
out I had a hard, hard time centering
stars with the onscreen buttons on my iPhone, often mashing the wrong thing and
sending the scope to never-never land. I was almost ready to plug in the
hardware HC (you can use the direction buttons on the NexStar HC in conjunction
with the app, but only the direction
buttons), when, the third night out, the onscreen buttons began to feel normal
and alignment began to be easy. Even in the initial attempts when I got the
telescope pointing to the ground, moving it to the proper star and centering
that would always result in an excellent alignment.
Meade’s Stella
Meade has
just come out with a Wi-Fi set up for their Autostar scopes, and while I haven’t had
a chance to test it yet, it’s safe to say they’ve taken a rather different
path than Celestron. This appears to be based on SkyFi, with (I assume) the
only difference other than a different name and different shaped electronics
box being that it comes standard with a Meade style RS-232 cable. I was rather
surprised to see that it doesn’t, like Celestron’s SkyPortal Link, come with a
free app. You have to purchase StellaAccess
separately. The upside being that StellaAccess appears to be SkySafari Plus,
and has many more objects than Celestron’s freebie—it is also inexpensive.
Stella is
advertised, unlike SkySafari, to work with Android, so that’s a plus, and,
unlike the Celestron Wi-Fi adapter, Stella can be used with other brands with
the addition of the proper serial cable, so that’s also a definite advantage.
On the other hand, I assume that there are no Meade-centric features here. It
sends your scope on gotos and you have to have the Autostar connected to the
mount for it to work.
What’s it
like using a smartphone (or tablet) enabled telescope? It fulfills not just my
desire to be freed from that dratted hand control wire, but also satisfies
another dream: to have a hand control that shows a color depiction of the sky.
All through the 1990s and into the 2000s, I hoped somebody, someday would make
a telescope HC that was like a Nintendo Game Boy. It would have a color screen
and would have a built in planetarium program in ROM.
That finally
did happen about ten years ago, but when Vixen released its (wired) Starbook
for the Sphinx mount it was already being obsoleted by the smartphone explosion.
An iPhone or Galaxy is always going to be much superior to any hand controller made
by any telescope company. Yeah, I thought I’d miss the lack of tactile feedback
from real buttons, but as above, the more I use my iPhone 6 with the scope, the
less I miss that.
Above all,
using my phone is freeing. Not just
from that always short coiled hand control cable, but from my laptop and its
wires and widgets. I still use the lappie when I take astrophotos, but
otherwise, there is no reason to. SkySafari Pro is the equal of any PC program
I’ve used. In fact, the experience has been so liberating, that it’s now hard
to make myself drag out the Toshiba even for DSLR imaging. Yes, it’s easier to
focus on the big laptop screen than on the DSLR display, but I’m finding I’m
willing to put up with that to eliminate more wires and batteries and STUFF.
Long live wireless astronomy!
Comments:
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Hi, Rod.
I use Orion's StarSeek5 app with my Orion StarSeeker IV alt-az mount. Along with the Orion wireless controller, it provides a nice wireless control for my 127 Mak-Cass.
But WHY can't telescope makers make a BUILT IN dew control system ???! THAT would REALLY let us go wireless !!!
I use Orion's StarSeek5 app with my Orion StarSeeker IV alt-az mount. Along with the Orion wireless controller, it provides a nice wireless control for my 127 Mak-Cass.
But WHY can't telescope makers make a BUILT IN dew control system ???! THAT would REALLY let us go wireless !!!
One app to check our that has extra functionality like multi star align for improving goto accuracy is http://www.astromist.com/.
Dwight
Dwight
Rod, you are a brave man to embrace these new wireless devices--as well as other cutting edge technologies. That's a good thing for the rest of us crusty, stick-in-the mud, middle-aged folks who stick to the manual star-hopping and print atlases! Thanks for this great blog.
Hi Rod, thanks for your article! I have an AVX and thinking of getting this gadget. I only have an Android tablet at the mo'. What model iPhone are you using to make it all work so well?
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