StevieDvd

If you open the Ports section in the devices manager do you see a COM1 port? If another number is present uncheck the automatic port on the firmware panel and enter the port number manually. If there are no ports it may be that you don't have the driver for the USB serial cable and it's flagged in the other devices as not working. The other solutins that others have mentioned in the past is that the home network wifi drowns out the synscan so to try the update away from your home network if possible (via a laptop in garage or garden shed for example).

What a lot of people forget to add in to their price guestimates is the post sales support that Celestron & the app authors have to provide. Several members here have had issues with phones on the compatability list who can attest to this. So it's not the same as the Celestron Nexyz phone holders which are hardware only which go for £50 or more and share a modular design with the Starsense to reduce costs.

Did you get a Com port when you connected the cable to the PC? You may need to change the Synscan settings to pick up the port or set it manually.

If you were Celestron would you sell them standalone if that earned less than selling complete scope/starsense sets? They've most likely worked out what's best for them!

Really like the idea of the side attachment. In my head I had the side connection being an attachment under the bottom of the base holder but your design is better imo. I mentioned modular before as had not realised the side mount you made was a modular one - I thought the side mount findershoe was part of the print and not an bolt-on.

Would I have preferred to buy the app & mount alone? Yes, of course and I too would like it to have been £25 for both, and I guess other scope manufacturers would like as well. But let's be honest here, the app is written for Celestron by Simulation Curriculum Corp and includes a star catalog, plate-solvings and other features from their Sky Safari app which alone sell for £20 plus and don't need a phone mount. I'm sure Celestron have looked at the options for the Starsense Explorer mount/app and have decided that selling as part of a product pack gives them a better return. They have a similar phone holder mount that can get sales figures on (that sells for around £50) which does not include an app. Similar comments have been made at CN forum and sent to Celestron who rejected the sale of stand alone units being viable for their business model. However, what I really wanted to post was that I think I found an issue and a solution for it that might help others. I was using the Starsense without a problem until I zoomed in on an area and set a new target. The unit kept trying to find the position and seemed to be in a loop. As platesolving uses settings like fov I realised that a zoomed in image might not plate-solve. I zoomed out a bit and the plate-solve worked and the position was found and directions displayed on screen.

It's a helical focuser. Usually used when the scope has a rough focuser like a pull/push out and this does the final focus with finer precision. Some finderscopes have them like this one.

If you are using an ethernet cable then you are connecting the Asiair to your 'home' network, but you have not said how you are connecting the AM5. Is it via a USB cable between them? Or are you connecting the AM5 to the same home network? With wired/wireless connections your network address allocations can change the last part unless it's reserved for that connection. Perhaps a safer solution is a direct ethernet to the Asiair and a USB between the AM5 & Asiair.

First thing I'd do is to get a rough focus during the day, on a distant landmark, aerial etc. Use ASIStudio (or SharpCap if you have it) and of course for daytime use very short exposures. Next step is to try the same at night but on a reasonable target (the moon perhaps). For the mount you'll need a polar alignment method to get a reasonable unguided image - later you might consider a guide scope/software. Polar alignment is down to your preferences, either manula or software/hardware assisted. If you have a good North view then the paid for add on in Sharpcap may be suitable. The free ones that come with other software can be daunting as part of a full astro package. Steve

I have Fusion 360 as well but a bit rusty so have been using Tinkercad and finishing in Fusion to tidy up the STL files. I used brass inserts for the cradle locking screw and for the parts where they are assmbled/disassebled for changing the footer part from dovetail to finder shoe.

What scope(s) and which of the Starsense units? Some have a side mounting option, like the DX130AZ, which might be easier to make an adapter for your mount.

What software are you using for the design? Have you considered a more modular design, where the cradle/holster stays the same but different connectors bolt on the base for a standard finder shoe, left/right side connection etc? With a securing bolt either side (only one used depending on the side fitting) with the 'proper bo' brass inserts too.😉

In Win 11 you can add a network connection (especially if it is not broadcasting itself) via settings. Use Settings > Network & internet > WiFi > Manage known networks You should see an 'Add network' button that opens a dialogue where you can enter the details.

I'm not a NINA user (yet) but have seen info on the framing assistant. Have you used that? https://nighttime-imaging.eu/docs/master/site/advanced/framingassistant/ I'd be interested to see your results if you give it a try.

The skies were not crystal clear or dark enough to merit going out earlier so decided to wait till midnight and have a look at the moon when it came over the house behind us. As well as visual I attempted a few image captures but on a manual mount at the magnification it was moving in the view too fast for a decent number of frames to record. So I switched to viewing Saturn and running through the magnification of my Svbony zoom. I got to see probably my best visual of Saturn and that was all done on a manual AZ (Altair Sabre) so quite chuffed to locate it without IT support. Feeling good about that I went for Jupiter as well and again probably my best visual of that too. I think I timed it well as I saw one of the moons just disappearing behind Jupiter as well as the other moons in the same view. This was all on my Lyra 102/1000 refractor that I'd made a mess of cleaning the optics but which Es Reid did a marvellous job doing it properly. I've yet to check the moon captures on my laptop but don't expect much worth posting the planets made up for that. Edit Stacked video not too bad.

Have you tried a differeny USB cable in case that's the culprit?

Have a look at NINA - this can do an alignment without a view of polaris. I have not done it personally, so just picked a video by a well known astro blogger. Example video here

It's taken a month for you to recover from the view then. 🙃

I had a 4SE and the mount was smaller and has a built in wedge for eq mode.

How about finding the star on Stellarium, where you can enter the co-ordinates. If it's near a more well known object then you can focus on that area of sky, or even show them their star on Stellarium first. If you want to use Starsense/SkySafari for that note that the IOS Sky Safari has the starsense option built in but the Android update does not yet have it. You need SkySafari Plus (or the Pro) to get the option. I can't see an option to enter the co-ordinates in SKySafari but then I'm not that familiar with it to say for sure that it is not possible.

I decided to use the supermoon to test an old DMK41 camera versus my ASI178 but could not synch well with the times the moon was clear enough. With some haze this was the best I could get at the time, quite a lot of post processing. The DMK41 still worked well on Sharpcap but the conditions did not allow a good comparison, only managed to grab a couple of videos. Then just a quick video on the ASI178 before it was too clouded over. Manual AZ mount with SW Evolux 62 & ASI178MM And as this was captured this is the view I got of it next After I packed up another clearer patch came along, doh!

I had a brief look to see what the sale price ones were and compared with those on Amazon which were still the higher price. The ones on Amazon had parfocal in the details. The others on Ebay and elsewhere did not mention that. The dearer SV191 on Amazon are part number EUW9150A, the others W9150B. Whether this indicative of a difference in quality/model I can't say but worth noting or investigating before a purchase. I have bought from Retevis both on Ebay & Amazon before. They got the new Svbony SV165 40mm for me, on a one-off basis as it had just come out and was not listed on Ebay or Amazon.

You just need an adapter like this example off EBAY. They are widely available and probably best obtained locally or via an Astro or Photo club/site/merchant in Romania.

Oh and for those who have lost their code you can get it emailed to you via this link: https://www.skysafariastronomy.com/retrieve/ It wil tell you the code you last used for that email address, but not how many usages or the scope type it belongs to.

The 585 is good for DSO as well. There's a big thread on the cameras with the same sensor. I've only used my ZWO585MC for DSO so far and happy with what it can do.