The Story

One of my children visited an observatory and came back with just one sentence:

"That was so cool."

So I bought a telescope for Christmas. A small Dobsonian. Nothing fancy.

At first, it worked: Moon, Jupiter, Saturn. Amazing.

But after a while, it got boring. Not because space is boring — but because I couldn't find anything else.

The kids lost interest. And I kept asking myself: Was that all there is?

I kept going. Same objects, again and again. Until one night I pointed the telescope somewhere random — and suddenly: wow. It was the Pleiades.

I started reading. There is so much out there. But I still couldn't find it.

GoTo was an option. But: enter numbers, the motor moves. No learning. No connection.

So I asked: How does GoTo actually work?

Vectors. Orientation. Rotation. And then it clicked — the iPhone already has all the sensors.

I started building. The first version used only the compass. Very inaccurate — but it sort of worked. Then came the Messier catalog, better calibration, sensor fusion, better math. And slowly: I started finding things.

At the same time, I learned everything else the hard way: why eyepieces matter, what magnification actually means, why some nights show nothing, what light pollution really is — street lamps and neighbor lights included.

The app grew with that journey. More objects. Better calibration. Observation logging. Equipment tracking. And most importantly: I started to understand the sky.

StarHop Navigator is the tool I wish I had when I couldn't find anything beyond Jupiter.

Made in Austria. Built out of passion for visual astronomy.