Why does finding things easily have to be so hard?

In a previous post, I noted that I had gone over to the "Dark Side" and bought a 6-inch tabletop reflector with go-to, the ability to punch in an object and have the motor slew the telescope to it. This is a Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 150P.

Well, so far I'm not impressed with the Dark Side. Like most tech gear, I have a love-hate relationship with it. I love it when it works. When it doesn't, which seems more and more of the time now, I hate it. I can't count the number of times just in the few weeks that I've had it that I wished I could just push the scope where I want it to go, like a manual dob. That always works. Always.

So what are the issues? For one thing, you need two suitable stars to do the initial alignment. These are selectable from a list. In a partly to mostly cloudy sky, which is common around here, two suitable stars may not both be visible at the same time. Understandably a limitation of the sky conditions. But if they are visible, the scope may slew many degrees away from the target star, so you need to choose only the brightest stars that are easiest to navigate to manually and recognize in the eyepiece as the correct star. 

Then there's the accuracy. Maybe because it's a cheaper mount (the scope retails for $470 and I paid even less on sale), but an initial alignment almost never lasts the whole observing session, which for me is usually between two and four hours. Sometimes, despite leveling, centering the alignment stars, and doing all the required tasks, the first object I punch in after alignment is still several degrees off. Occasionally it's right in the middle, but most of the time it's either on the edge if I'm lucky or somewhat outside a low power (30x) field of view. When it's several degrees off, I can starhop my way over to it with the help of the Sky Safari chart. Again, somewhat of a limitation of the technology.

Then there are the random take-offs. I'll have an object in view and then as I am watching, with the phone on the table, the scope suddenly decides it wants to look at something else and slews on its own. Hmm.

How about connection drop outs? This scope has WiFi, to which the Synscan app connects so you can control it with your phone. Synscan is very rudimentary in its interface for selecting objects (and the font for that function is inexplicably small). So I tried using Sky Safari to select and go-to the objects I want to look at. At first things were great, except that Synscan would drop the connection every 15 minutes unless it was in the foreground. Despite ensuring the Android settings would prevent this, it still did it. I could live with that. 

But then either Synscan or Sky Safari must have done an update (à la CrowdStrike), and Sky Safari would no longer connect: the Gray Screen of Death (GSOD) in the screenshot. So I used the apps separately, selecting an object in Sky Safari and pointing to it with Synscan, then going back and forth between apps to actually get it in the field. This is supposed to be the easy way of finding stuff? I later found that if I just move Synscan to the foreground and then back to Sky Safari, the latter will reconnect. But...really?

Lastly, I find that having to look down and press buttons on a cell phone when I'm observing is distracting and clunky. It also doesn't help with maintaining night vision, despite a "night mode" in the app, which is not well implemented. You can slew at different speeds, but it's aggravating to keep overshooting over and over. I tried the "tilt to slew" feature in Sky Safari, whereby you tilt your phone a little one way or the other and the scope slews in response. That is even more masochistic, no matter how slow I set it. Sometimes I give up, loosen the clamps on the axes, and just move it by hand. Always works. But that kind of defeats the purpose of go-to, doesn't it?

Well, by now you either think I'm a total crank, or maybe that go-to is not everything it's cracked up to be. In fact, I have come to the realization that both are true. 

I am now experimenting with using the free progressive web app Astrohopper as my "push-to" way of finding things (see my initial review on Astrohopper here). It works well for that purpose and is more reliable than the go-to. I can still use the tracking once I find an object, and that's my main reason for getting the go-to version over the non-go-to. I can't use straight-through finders anymore due to physical limitations, otherwise I'd still be starhopping, which is the simplest, most reliable, and most rewarding way to navigate with a telescope.

By the way, the scope itself is great. It's the tech part that could use some refining, to say the least. The Synscan Pro app gets a 2.2 star rating on Google Play. The non-pro version only gets 1.7 stars. I may end up staying with Astrohopper as my finding tool, then turn on the tracking. That works. [9/21/2024 Update: I got fed up with the go-to, and Astrohopper seems to not be able to geolocate after browser updates, so I added an azimuth circle to the scope base and use that and my digital angle gauge to navigate now. I only use the tracking, and that is often out of whack, but it's nice when it works. Maybe I'll write up how I did the azimuth circle in a future post.]

Snarling dog image by Albert Leung via Flickr (CC 2.0).

Can we pronounce “Uranus” better?

NASA/ESA and Erich Karkoschka, University of Arizona

Years ago everyone pronounced the seventh planet from the Sun, “Your-ANUS,” emphasis on the “anus.” Okay, it was fun for a while, but then the jokes got really old, so scientists changed it to “URINE-us.” Really? That’s the best they could do- just go from being the “butt” of jokes to the flip side?

I have a suggestion that no one will heed, but I’ll throw it out there anyway. “Oo-RAHN-us, with the emphasis on the middle syllable. This is closer to the ancient Greek pronunciation of roughly “Oo-rahn-OS,” with the emphasis on the last syllable, but it preserves the emphasis that we got used to, while removing the association with excretory bodily functions. He’s an ancient Greek god, for crying out loud. 

Let’s show some respect and bring it at least closer to the original pronunciation. This will get rid of two ugly pronunciations and quell some of the giggling.

I’m going to start calling it that, and I don’t care what people think. Will you join me to promote “Oo-RAHN-us” and make public star parties and science classes a little less awkward (notwithstanding we are a bunch of sometimes socially awkward astro-geeks to begin with)?