SynScan

Skywatcher Apps Team

About this app

Use the SynScan app to control Sky-Watcher telescope mounts via Wi-Fi, USB or Bluetooth LE. Mounts without built-in Wi-Fi can be supported via a SynScan Wi-Fi adapter.

This version of the SynScan app is suited for novice users using alt-azimuth mounts.

Features
- Control telescope mount to slew, align, GOTO and track.
- Point And Track: track celestial objects (including the Sun and planets) without aligning.
- Support gamepad navigation.
- Browse a catalog of stars, comets, and deep sky objects. Or, save your own objects.
- Provide access to mount for use by third-party apps, including ASCOM clients, SkySafari, Luminos, Stellarium Mobile Plus, Stellarium Desktop or customer-developed apps.
- Support access to the mount and the SynScan app from any platform that supports TCP/UDP connections.
- Provide emulator mount for testing and practicing.
- Track fast-moving earth satellites by working with the PreviSat app on Windows PC or the Lumios app on iOS devices.
- SynMatrix AutoAlign: use the smartphone camera to align the telescope automatically.

Ratings and reviews

Very nice app that quickly and accurately gets your scope aligned and finding objects. It's a much quicker and easier setup than the traditional handheld Synscan on my older dobsonian. My only complaint is that it doesn't darken or retract the white bar at the bottom of my Android when in night mode; if i try to work around this by manually retracting it, it keeps popping back up whenever I use the down arrows for adjusting.

Reduced to one star as the latest version (November 2023) seems to be broken. The night view turns off while the mount is slewing to GOTO, so we get a blast of white screen. Also, I can't enter catalog numbers to specify Deep Sky Objects, the pop-up number keypad doesn't work. Don't know what else doesn't work, as it's not worth trying.

Can work well, but the biggest bug for me is that it won't remember the setting for Dual Encoding. I keep switching it on, I save it, but after each session (or even a minor loss of WiFi) it loses the setting. Also, why is the default "off" in the first place? SW (rightly) raves about how great this feature is, but then you default it to OFF?

What’s new

• PM Sharing: changed broadcast interval from every 60 sec to every 3 sec. Make more robust.
• Connect popup: fix problem with multiple popup (connect, choose mode, restore from park) not showing in right order
• AZ tracking: not use trail points to track when aux encoder is enabled
• AutoAlign: ensure screen awake
• AutoAlign: allow page to open when mount not connected
• more on https://www.skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/about/