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Celestron StarSense Accessory

Chris Rowland

By Chris Rowland
in Member Equipment Reviews

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TwinkleTwinkle

TwinkleTwinkle

Posted
Posted

I ended up buying one , tried it last night to no success , think I'll have to read the instructions , thinking I need a gps thing too as the closest the location it allows is Leeds , while I'm on the outskirts of Bridlington :)

Needs one good clear skies now ..

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davedownsouth

davedownsouth

Posted
Posted

I ended up buying one , tried it last night to no success , think I'll have to read the instructions , thinking I need a gps thing too as the closest the location it allows is Leeds , while I'm on the outskirts of Bridlington :)

Needs one good clear skies now ..

Add the location via your latitude / longitude, very easy to do with the star sense  :cool:

Iv just thought, where will the wire go from the gps if the starsense is using the aux port?

 

Use a splitter.  If you go down the gps route, one will probably come with the gps.

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tekkydave

tekkydave

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Posted

I ended up buying one , tried it last night to no success , think I'll have to read the instructions , thinking I need a gps thing too as the closest the location it allows is Leeds , while I'm on the outskirts of Bridlington :)

Needs one good clear skies now ..

If you press the button with the Celestron Logo on when entering the location it will toggel between City & Lat/Long mode.

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tekkydave

tekkydave

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Iv just thought, where will the wire go from the gps if the starsense is using the aux port?

The GPS has a pass-thru port on it. You can plug the Starsense or the Hand Control into it. I plug the SS into the AUX port, the GPS into the HC port and the HC into the spare port on the GPS unit. No splitter needed. You will only need a splitter if your mount only has a single port socket. See my earlier post about the HC port and the AUX port on the mount being identical (Post #205)

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  • 2 weeks later...
davehudsn

davehudsn

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Hello All,

Just adding a follow up and a point that I had the opposite effect as everyone else.  I have had the SSAA every since it first came out - i was on the pre-order list.  I fought with it for a few months before giving up. Back in December or January, I decided to try it again and upgraded to v1.07.   I was amazed - the SSA performed flawlessly!  I had a great night out with it and was so happy that it finally worked.

Cold and bad weather prevented me from going out for a couple of months and before i went out i made the mistake of upgrading to the v1.10 verison.  Now the SSA suddenly stops on RA after about 20 degrees or rotation.  At first I thought my mount was busted (AVX).  I cycled power and same thing... slews along and then bam - stops like it hit something.   So i then took off my SSA and put my stock controller back on and..... no problems.  The mount works great.  So i then did a factory reset, etc and tried the SSA again.  Same results.

Its a shame that this product is so buggy.  It has such great potential, but Celestron has done a horrible job of supporting it.   I saw in one of the posts that the response was from "WilG" - funny - he must be the only support person at Celestron support as every time i've contacted them he has been the one to reply.

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TwinkleTwinkle

TwinkleTwinkle

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i think i will need a splitter as i have skyfi plugged into my hand control  :afro:

i gave it another go with the starsense ast night...to no avail, it was going near mars as thats where it was pointing , but when i looked down the eyepiece , it was just darksky,  maybe i need to calibrate it ?

im definatly going to buy a gps skysync this week as i dont know longitudes , zones etc, dont think thats helping, then  hoping after 2 month of having my scope and equipment im going to see a planet for the first time ! how sads that!!  (cue violin!)

  :undecided:

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Astral Enigma

Astral Enigma

Posted
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i think i will need a splitter as i have skyfi plugged into my hand control  :afro:

i gave it another go with the starsense ast night...to no avail, it was going near mars as thats where it was pointing , but when i looked down the eyepiece , it was just darksky,  maybe i need to calibrate it ?

im definatly going to buy a gps skysync this week as i dont know longitudes , zones etc, dont think thats helping, then  hoping after 2 month of having my scope and equipment im going to see a planet for the first time ! how sads that!!  (cue violin!)

  :undecided:

Like you I've had my scopes a couple of months, and had problems aligning them (though resorting to reading instructions properly does help). But last night was my first chance to use the polar alignment scope I'd added - amazed how much difference that made for starters. Also stuck a little bubble spirit level on too, and that helps just getting everything level and pointing the right way and certainly tracking improved. 

My other problem was getting a couple of recognisable stars to align on - i could see them with my eyes but not sure i was then getting the same one(s) in the finderscope when there's a reasonably clear sky. Last night I added a Telrad finderscope for the first time - and wow did that make things SO much easier - like having a heads-up display you just look straight through and know your're looking at what you think you're looking it. Best £40 I've spent yet...

So hopefully I can delay a starsense until the bugs are ironed out. I can't say my scopes are quite finding everything precisely yet - but the planets have been very close to correct, as have obvious stars. Sadly, that hasn't been good enough to find galaxies yet - though I did find (I think) M51 the other night...

Hope that helps!

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  • 2 weeks later...
tekkydave

tekkydave

Posted
Posted

If you go to the celestron website you can download the CFM (Celestron Firmware Manager) update here

http://www.celestron.com/support/manuals-software?article=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.celestron.com%2Fc3%2Fsupport3%2Findex.php%3F_m%3Ddownloads%26_a%3Dviewdownload%26downloaditemid%3D771%26group%3Diframe

There is a ReadMe file that explains how to use it and also an image that shows you how to connect it all up. You will need to connect your mount to your PC via a serial port or serial-usb adapter. You will also need to connect the StarSense camera to the PC via a USB lead. The StarSense also needs to be connected to the mount via the cable you would normally use it with. Hope that helps.

Edit: the link in my previous post refers to a beta release on the Team Celestron website not a public release. You can access it if you join the website. The CFM on the normal Celestron support site (above) should be the current stable release. The CFM utility connects to the Celestron support site and downloads the latest drivers so its possible that you will get the latest release anyway - I checked on TeamCelestron just now and it says the beta release ( v1.11.14164 ) been released to the public :grin:

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PeterCPC

PeterCPC

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Posted

I updated Java and tried again. All seemed to be going ok and it said that the firmware was updated but then said that it could not find the camera. I did this several times.

The handset now says the versions are:

Handset 01.10.14008

Camera 01.02.13343

Motor control Azm 7.8, Alt 7.8

Very similar to:

Hi all just downloaded the new firmware it now says.
CFM: 1.7.4125
HC: 01.10.14008
SS: 01.02.13343
Motor: AZM Ver: 5.14
ALT Ver: 5.14
Doses anyone know if this is correct ?

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

So have I updated it? I am beginning to wish that I have never bought Starsense.

Peter

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