26 June 2021

Accuracy of SkEye Cam

Update 1, 5th July 2021: A few days after publishing this post, I changed the solver to assume a square pixel grid. This helps converge the solution faster though it changes the results slightly. This post has been updated with the newer results.

Update 2, 14th July 2021: Better accuracy after correcting for lens distortions.

I have created a new app called SkEye Cam. It's a Camera App targeted at hobbyist astronomers (such as myself), and its highlight feature at launch will be real-time plate-solving.

Plate-solving is the act of figuring out which part of the sky has been captured on a camera plate (image). This can not only help identify objects in the image, it can also help find the orientation of a telescope, which in turn can be used for navigation, etc.

Compared to raw IMU sensors, plate-solving has the promise of being more accurate and reliable. But exactly how accurate can it be?

We decided to find out.

DSC test for Android

As I began to add support for Digital Setting Circles (DSC) into my SkEye app, I thought the first step is to get the communication right. That is, the communication between the DSC and the phone, over bluetooth.

I built a separate app for doing this and figured, hey, this could be useful to others as well. Perhaps, to test your setup or simply to learn how your DSC communicates.

Introducing SkEye

SkEye is a Planetarium for Android. It is similar to Google Sky Map, but designed to work with telescopes. It lets you use your phone as a PUSHTO guide without needing any other equipment.

There is now a dedicated website for SkEye.

Accuracy of SkEye Cam

DSC test for Android

Introducing SkEye

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