StarSeek 5 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
It may be possible to get a refund for your purchase, but not from us, since the apps are sold through the App Store. Instead, you should contact Apple about this.
Apple's iPhone Support site has information on how to do all of this, and more.
Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Compass Calibration
Finally, a word of caution: the solid-state compass built into the iPhone/iPad is notoriously inaccurate, and easily affected by interference. It can easily be wrong by ten degrees or more. The compass may be useful for locating bright objects in a general part of the sky, but it's certainly not accurate enough to point a telescope.
Be aware that the IntelliScope controller is programmed to shut off after being idle for 50 minutes, to preserve battery life. So when using an iOS device as your "controller," be sure to press the FCN button on the IntelliScope before 50 minutes has elapsed to extend the ON time for another 50 minutes. If the controller does turn off, you will need to repeat the initial alignment procedure.
If the entire field of view is green, you are probably looking below the horizon. If the Use Accelerometer setting is turned on, then you'll always be looking below the horizon if you're looking down at the phone. Turn off this setting, or hold the phone above you.
Zooming out should make this clearer. You can also try making the horizon translucent to view the stars underneath it; go to Settings > Sky & Horizon to do this.
Unrestricted Bluetooth access may be possible with a jailbroken phone. But we can't support that, so currently our apps do not use Bluetooth at all. If unrestricted Bluetooth access is allowed in future versions of the iOS, this may change.
If your device's Location Services are turned off, StarSeek may be unable to determine your current location. A common symptom of this problem is that your latitude, longitude, and time zone will all be zero. To correct this, go into your iPhone's Settings > General > Location Services screen; make sure Location Services are turned ON, and also turned ON for StarSeek.
If rise/set times are off by exactly one hour, the problem is almost certainly that your time zone is incorrect, or that StarSeek thinks daylight savings time is in effect when it really isn't (or vice versa). Governments frequently change the rules for Daylight Savings Time, and while we try to keep up with them, we may have missed something. You can manually set your time zone, and turn StarSeek 's automatic daylight savings time correction ON or OFF, in StarSeek 's Settings > Date & Time view.
You also might want to make sure that your location, time zone, date/time, etc. are correct — if you've accidentally set your observing location to California, but you're really in Colorado, that will make a big difference!
Every telescope mount has a different star-alignment procedure, so for details consult your telescope manual. But the basic idea is this: manually point your telescope at one known bright star, then tell the telescope mount controller that you are aligned on that star. Repeat the process with a second known bright star. Now the mount can compute its orientation relative to the celestial coordinate system, and the mount controller can tell StarSeek exactly where the telescope is pointing, to a very high level of accuracy. The more carefully you've aligned your scope, the more accurate your GoTo object location will be.
Admittedly, star alignment is one of the trickiest problems encountered by new telescope users. StarSeek can help you with this, by using your iPhone's compass and altimeter to help you find bright alignment stars in the sky. You'll still have to point your telescope at them, following the alignment procedure specific to your particular telescope controller. In the end, though, there's no substitute for knowing your way around the sky — and for knowing how to use your telescope equipment properly. StarSeek can help you with the former, but is not a replacement for the latter — at least not yet!
See the section on Observing Lists in StarSeek's built-in Help file for instructions on how to import them into the program. Briefly: you can use iTunes file sharing to get them into or out of the program. You can also email observing lists to yourself, and open the .skylist file attachment from your iPhone. Or you can use the Safari browser on your iPhone to download and open them directly from various web sites.
If you want to convert your own observing lists to a text file that StarSeek can import, here's an example of the format that you need to use:
StarSeekObservingListVersion=3.0
SkyObject=BeginObjectObjectID=4,0,701
CatalogNumber=M 42
CatalogNumber=NGC 1976
CatalogNumber=LBN 974
CommonName=Orion NebulaEndObject=SkyObject
SkyObject=BeginObjectObjectID=2,0,971
CatalogNumber=Alpha CrB
CatalogNumber=5 CrB
CatalogNumber=HR 5793
CatalogNumber=HD 139006
CommonName=AlpheccaEndObject=SkyObject
SkyObject=BeginObjectObjectID=1,0,5
CatalogNumber=
CommonName=Jupiter
DateObserved=2455758.204807
Comment=Great red spot was great! And red!EndObject=SkyObject
SkyObject=BeginObjectObjectID=1,0,4667
CommonName=Garradd
CommonName=C/2009 P1EndObject=SkyObject
SkyObject=BeginObjectObjectID=1,0,14877
CommonName=1998 DD24
CatalogNumber=42608
EndObject=SkyObject
Some comments:
1,-1,-1 for solar system objects
2,-1,-1 for stars
4,-1,-1 for deep sky objects
StarSeek will try to find the object based on the CatalogNumber or CommonName values, and fix up the ObjectID values internally after it imports the list.
This feature is intended to let you quickly see where all objects in a particular list — for example, Messier objects, or an observing list that you've created — are located in the sky. You might have highlighted that list by accident. The green list icon always brings you back to the list that is highlighted.
For more information, see the StarSeek 5 features page and the compatibility list on the Orion StarSeek Wireless Telescope Controller page.
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