User Guide

StarHop Navigator is a push-to navigation app for Dobson telescopes. The app uses your iPhone’s sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, GPS) to show you in real time which direction to move your telescope to find a celestial object.

Main Screen (Guide) — Push-to navigation to the target object
Catalog — Browse stars, DSOs, planets, and constellations
Calibration — Align the sensors with the sky
Favorites & Lists — Quick access to saved objects and lists
Observation Log — Record your observations
- Sky Conditions — Seeing, transparency, and the Bortle scale
Equipment — Manage telescopes, eyepieces, Barlows, and filters
Help Banner — Contextual hints on the main screen
Settings — App configuration
Glossary — Terms and abbreviations

Welcome Screen

On first launch, a welcome screen appears explaining the basic workflow:

Mount your phone on the telescope tube
Calibrate using known stars
Select an object from the catalog
Move the telescope — follow the arrows

From here you can also start the help video. There are three options:

Get Started — dismiss the screen permanently
Remind Me Later — shown again on next launch
Watch Video — opens the help video

The welcome screen can be reopened at any time via Settings → Help & Documentation → “Show Welcome Screen”.

Introductory Tips

On first use, the app shows contextual tips as help banners:

Mount Phone — appears before the first calibration
Second Star — appears after the first calibration
Move Telescope — appears when a target is selected
Check Finder — appears when the target is reached

Tips appear every time the respective condition is met. The “Got It” button permanently dismisses a tip. Existing users (with observation log entries) do not see introductory tips. Tips have lower priority than operational hints.

Help Video

The app includes an embedded comic-style help video explaining the basic workflow. The video is accessible from several places:

Welcome Screen: On first launch via the “Watch Video” button.
Main Screen: In the menu under “Help Video”.
Documentation: In the Help section under “Getting Started” as the first entry.

The video does not start automatically on launch.

Quick Start

Launch the app — Wait until location and sensors are ready (loading screen). The sky view fills the entire screen — you see stars, constellations, and objects in the sky. At the bottom is a unified action bar with Calibrate, Log, calibration indicator, and Menu.
Find stars — Hold your phone toward the sky and the sky view rotates with the sensors. Compare the displayed star patterns with the real sky — compass accuracy is sufficient for visual pattern recognition. You can pan the sky view by swiping with your finger at any time. A help banner shows “View offset” with a “Reset” button to return to the sensor position.
Calibrate — Tap a star in the sky view that you can identify in the real sky. A help banner shows “Mount phone on telescope” with the current mounting mode (e.g. “Camera forward” or “Flat on tube”). The “Switch” button in the banner lets you toggle the mounting mode directly without opening Settings. Mount your phone, point the telescope at the chosen star, and press the Calibrate button in the bottom bar. Use the X icon in the banner or the “Deselect” button in the expanded banner to deselect.
Select target — Tap an object in the sky view or open the Catalog from the menu (e.g. M42 Orion Nebula)
Navigate — Move your telescope in the indicated direction. The distance to the target is shown live. As you approach, the app gives haptic feedback. The bottom bar stays the same — no layout change between calibration and navigation.
Observe — When the crosshair is on the target, look through your eyepiece!

Tips

Multiple calibration stars improve accuracy significantly. At least 2 stars are recommended.
Recalibrate if the telescope was moved or rotated (e.g. after an eyepiece change).
Night mode protects your dark adaptation (Settings → Appearance).
Text size in the sky view can be adjusted via the slider in Settings → Sky View (80%–200%).
The Caldwell catalog is hidden by default and can be enabled in Settings.

Center on Target

When a star or deep-sky object is selected, a Center button appears in the help banner. This shifts the sky view so the selected object is displayed in the center — useful when you have panned the view manually and want to quickly return to the target. Alternatively, the “Reset” button in the “View offset” banner resets the view to the current sensor position.

Time Travel

The sky view normally shows the current sky. With Time Travel you can shift the displayed sky to any date and time — ideal for planning observation nights or revisiting past observations.

Open Time Travel via Menu → Tools → Time Travel (clock icon).

Time Travel Panel

Date/Time picker: Choose any date and time as a starting point. Default is “now”.
±12h slider: Quickly shift the time up to 12 hours forward or backward from the selected point. Stars, constellations, planets, and grids move in real time.
Snap to zero: The slider automatically snaps to zero at ±60 seconds.
Time display: The currently displayed time is shown at the top of the panel.
Close/Reset: The × button resets the date and slider back to “now” and closes the panel.

Time Offset Notice

Help banner: When a time offset is active, a notice “Time offset active” appears with the displayed time and a “Back to now” button. If a different date is selected, the date is also shown.
Calibration is unaffected — the time offset only affects the display.
Observation log always uses the real time, not the offset time.

A help banner appears at the top of the main screen, showing contextual hints and recommended actions. The banner guides the user through the workflow:

Uncalibrated: “Calibration recommended — Tap a star in the sky to calibrate”
Star selected for calibration: “Calibrate with [star name] — Point your telescope at this star and press Calibrate” with an X icon to deselect and a “Deselect” action button
Calibration aging: “Calibration aging — Consider recalibrating with a star”
Calibrated, no target: “Ready to observe — Select an object in the sky or open the Catalog” with action button “Open Catalog”
Time offset active: “Sky shows [time] — not the current position” with action button “Back to now”
Target selected: “Target: [object name] — Point at this object” with action buttons “Deselect”, “Center”, and “Show Details” in the expanded banner

The banner:

Shows the most important active hint (by priority)
Can be dismissed by swiping up
Disappears automatically when the condition no longer applies
Is styled in red/dark in night mode

Expanding

Tapping the banner expands it and shows:

The full hint text without truncation
Action buttons, if available (e.g. “Open Catalog”)
All active hints (not just the most important), if multiple are active simultaneously

The expanded banner overlays the sky view without shifting the content. It can be closed by:

Swiping up
Tapping outside the expanded area
Tapping an action button (performs the action and closes the banner)

A small chevron symbol (↓) in the compact banner indicates it can be expanded. Tapping the banner always expands it — regardless of state. Actions such as deselect or show details are available as buttons in the expanded banner.

The banner can be completely disabled in Settings → Help Banner.

Favorites & Lists

Under Menu → Favorites you will find two tabs: Favorites (individually saved objects) and My Lists (named collections).

Seasonal Lists

The “Seasonal” tab contains prepared lists for each of the four seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) with 2–3 sky regions to choose from, grouped by constellation area. Each region contains deep-sky objects that suit the respective sky region.

The detail view of a region shows a sky preview (SkyPreviewView): a star chart showing the current sky at the observer’s location — stars at their actual Az/Alt positions with brightness-based sizing, constellation lines, and highlighted targets. Night mode is supported.

All seasonal lists are read-only and bundled with the app. The “Visible only” toggle hides objects that are currently below the horizon.

The “Copy to My Lists” button creates an editable copy of the list in which objects can be added or removed.

My Lists

The “My Lists” tab contains your custom lists. New lists can be created via the + icon. Objects can be added from the catalog or favorites view.