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Celestron StarSense Accessory

Chris Rowland

By Chris Rowland
in Member Equipment Reviews

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tekkydave

tekkydave

Posted
Posted

Yes the mount is an AVX so no problem there - it's just how to attach the camera to a Skywatcher scope.

Peter

Sorry, I assumed you had a SW mount. The cameras fairly weighty so a stick-on adapter might not work. Does your ota have a mount for a finder? You can get adapters to put 2 devices into one mount.

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PeterCPC

PeterCPC

Posted
Posted

No that will not work. The Starsense is attached with a Celestron specific mount attachment - what it needs is some sort of adapter that allows you to fix the Starsense bracket to a Synta bracket but nobody seems to have made one yet.

Peter

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tekkydave

tekkydave

Posted
Posted

No that will not work. The Starsense is attached with a Celestron specific mount attachment - what it needs is some sort of adapter that allows you to fix the Starsense bracket to a Synta bracket but nobody seems to have made one yet.

Peter

It fits the finder shoe on my 127slt. I assumed it was a normal synta mounting.
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tekkydave

tekkydave

Posted
Posted

No, what I mean is that the Starsense sits on a sort of sledge http://www.365astronomy.com/Spare-Large-Bracket-for-Celestron-StarSense-Accessory.html  that fixes tohttp://www.365astronomy.com/Spare-Large-Base-for-Celestron-StarSense-Accessory.html

I don't see anyway to fix that onto a Skywatcher scope.

Peter

Mine came with an alternative bracket that lets it fit a standard synta shoe. I did a review here http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/200930-celestron-starsense-on-nexstar-127-mak/

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PeterCPC

PeterCPC

Posted
Posted

Yes that's fine but it means that you have to remove the camera from 1 bracket and fit to the small bracket. What I wanted was a way to leave the camera in the "sledge" and fit a large bracket base to a Skywatcher OTA so that I wasn't having to move the camera but I guess that's going to be the only solution. Thanks for your input. I'll post if 365 have another solution.

Peter

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tekkydave

tekkydave

Posted
Posted

Yes that's fine but it means that you have to remove the camera from 1 bracket and fit to the small bracket. What I wanted was a way to leave the camera in the "sledge" and fit a large bracket base to a Skywatcher OTA so that I wasn't having to move the camera but I guess that's going to be the only solution. Thanks for your input. I'll post if 365 have another solution.

Peter

I think I understand now. You want to keep the large bracket on the camera but attach to a small shoe via an adapter. That noise in the background was the penny dropping :grin:

If you are not using the camera on another scope why do you not want to use the small bracket? I use it on mine with no issues. The alternative is maybe get the spare large shoe from 365 and screw to OTA alongside the small bracket.

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tekkydave

tekkydave

Posted
Posted

I use the Starsense on my C9.25 and would prefer it to have the large bracket on there but it looks like I'm stuck with changing the bracket. Just me being awkward I suppose  :undecided:

Peter

Changing the bracket would be the simplest but you could use scope rings and the 365 spare shoe with the 120ED. It would save screwing any holes which would be a shame on such a nice OTA. Does your C9.25 have a synta shoe already? It would be annoying having to swap the bracket every time you switch OTAs.
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PeterCPC

PeterCPC

Posted
Posted

Just ordered an Orion synta shoe bracket for the C9.25. I'll use the small camera bracket with the Starsense. Easiest solution all round. 365 said the only other way would be to drill a tube ring to fit the big bracket and I can't be doing with that. Thanks for your input. 

Peter

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  • 1 month later...
High Time John

High Time John

Posted
Posted

I have a Celestron 8SE. I ordered the SSAA and had some initial problems with it. The software they shipped it with was 2 years old. I had to have Celestron send me the cables to do the SW upgrade. After upgrading the software and since the inital calibration the SSAA has worked perfectly. I am thrilled with it. Previously I was wasting 40 minutes trying to align without SSAA which is a long time when my backlyard sessions are usually about 2 hours. Now I turn it on and in a few minutes the alignment is complete and everything is dead on in the eyepiece. As a noob this accessory will help keep me interested. I highly recommend SSAA.

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  • 2 months later...
billhinge

billhinge

Posted
Posted

Don't know but the replacement splitter they said they had sent has still not arrived - at the moment it is unuseable with my CG5 - very poor support from Celestron

Just an update, contacted Celestron tech support rather than Team Support, they gave me some tests to do and confirmed the unit was u/s and suggested I return it for a replacement

Fortunately, I bought through FirstLightOptics and dealt with Steve, he arranged for a replacement unit which arrived today (thankfully it has a 2 year guarantee as it's nearly 18 months old and never been tried in anger!)

Gave it a quick test and the problem I had before was gone and everything appears to work, just need to give it a field test 

So moral is, if you have a problem try Celestron Tech support for quick resolution not the Celestron Team support page

Great customer service from FirstLight as usual

Steve

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  • 4 weeks later...
pyrasanth

pyrasanth

Posted
Posted

I use the StarSense with my evolution 9.25 & with a firmware update for mount & StarSense it works superbly. Don't forget the step of aligning the camera center with your optical center otherwise your pointing will be spot on but outside your field of view which is annoying.

I used the setup at a dark site in Cornwall and was very impressed by the ease of use. However cable tangle is an issue as the mount has no capability for through the mount cabling so be careful as if your cables get tangled there is no stopping the movement of the scope which has the potential to damage cables & connectors but I digress.

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Gazabone

Gazabone

Posted
Posted

I use my starsense on my 6se and am delighted with it. The targets are not absolutely centre but very usable. I originally got it to use my C8 on an AVX mount but I couldn't get it to work accurately enough but it doesn't do too bad a job if I use my Evostar 120 in place of the C8.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Seafury

Seafury

Posted
Posted

Hi I have just ordered one of these gadgets and I have a couple of questions please, can someome give me the link to update the software?, I have the CGT5 mount with sky sync gps do I leave this on with the star sense?, lastly am I right in thinking that after it does it's first alginment, you then need to do the polar align and then repeat the first auto align?

cheers Gordon

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Gazabone

Gazabone

Posted
Posted

Hi I have just ordered one of these gadgets and I have a couple of questions please, can someome give me the link to update the software?, I have the CGT5 mount with sky sync gps do I leave this on with the star sense?, lastly am I right in thinking that after it does it's first alginment, you then need to do the polar align and then repeat the first auto align?

cheers Gordon

Should find it here

http://www.celestron.com/support/manuals-software

Make sure once you've downloaded it you then unzip the files into a new folder. It took me 18 months of utter frustration before I found that bit out!

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Gazabone

Gazabone

Posted
Posted

I encountered my first Starsense problem this evening. Alignment failed 7-8 times before I got a "successful alignment" but it was way off. It was noticeable that it is near full moon which was in the SSE and drowning much out. There is also a street lamp in the NNW. Is there just too much light around for the Starsense to work? Just wondered if anyone else had similar problems. I've been delighted with it until now, this is the first time it's let me down.

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  • 2 months later...
Pig

Pig

Posted
Posted

No problem with mine so far Gaz, I wonder if anyone knows if its possible to align then park the scope and unplug the camera ... Strange , i know !

No is the short answer.... It wont work even if you replace the lens cap after initial alignment  :happy8:  of course I only know because a friend told me so !!!!!

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