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Celestron StarSense Accessory

Chris Rowland

By Chris Rowland
in Member Equipment Reviews

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M4lcs67

M4lcs67

Posted
Posted

Me too, Steve. While I was out with my scope the other night, I found that getting the mount to align correctly with whatever I put into controller a little bit difficult and invariably the object was out. So I used my new Hyperion Zoom at it's widest focal length to capture the object in the eyepiece then centralised it, zoomed in a bit more then aligned. With this in mind I was/am hoping that the accuracy of the Starsense will be better than the onboard system that the CG5 has.

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M4lcs67

M4lcs67

Posted
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Thanks also, Dave. We have been blessed with some great skies for the past few nights, so I had a marathon session the other night. Saw loads. My garden consists of the whole Eastern meridian. I cannot see anything in the West as my house is in the way. It really is only a matter of time before I get one now. I think I have read enough good reports. And also the encouraging info from Celestron as well.

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klytus

klytus

Posted
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I use mine on my patio where there is only sky to north and east. It aligns no problem. Make sure you do the one-off calibration step so it knows how to correct its view of the sky vs the scopes. After that it should be spot on.

Sent from my Samsung G4S using Tapatalk.

Nice to know Dave as i live in a terraced area with visible stars to now and south only.

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tekkydave

tekkydave

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It seems to find those stars, even though you can't see them. The camera must be extremely sensitive or take exposures long enough to reveal the stars. There is the option to manually point it at the areas of the sky you can see which might be quicker. It prompts you when it needs you to slew to the next portion of sky - all you need to do is slew it using the buttons and press ENTER on the hand controller.

A strange thing I have noticed is that after using it a few times the automatic alignment never slews to an area where there is no sky visible e.g. where my house is. I don't know if it learns where it has not found stars before and remembers or if its just coincidence. Has anyone else noticed that?

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hobsey

hobsey

Posted
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It seems to find those stars, even though you can't see them. The camera must be extremely sensitive.

I noticed this.

Even though I had a terrible night the other night while trying it out and seriously bad conditions, it was flashing up 100 stars found in one area. I couldn't see 100 stars in the whole of the sky.

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Radec

Radec

Posted
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I managed to get set-up and sorted last night.

First impressions - IMPRESSED!

The routine (according to the manual) included inputting the nearest city or lat/long position.

Well, the Starsense asked for the time & date, but nothing else.

Anyway, auto align worked flawlessly 4 times - first two as I finished the set-up.

It put stars opposite quadrants firmly in the middle of a 15mm eyepiece - no nonsense.

It wasn't quite so accurate with Mars, but I was expecting that. It was right on the periphery of the eyepiece, so that was no problem.

After adjusting to see Mars, the Nexstar shot straight over to Bellatrix - bang in the middle.

I'm absolutely delighted tbh!

Never managed such accuracy with any of my kit before.

Bring on some clear skies

Radec

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Radec

Radec

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I just had to reverse the alt button direction (up was down in the eyepiece 1 - 6) and so I inputted my lat/long position while I was at it.

I'm guessing it will only ask for the detail if it needs it.

It even managed to plate stars almost at the zenith to avoid my house to the North.

Incredible  or just good luck.

Whichever, I'm hoping the days of faffing with alignment are gone.

Radec

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Chris Rowland

Chris Rowland

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The SLT has a HC and an AUX port so the SS HC can be plugged into one and the SSA Camera into the other.  I tried it last Sunday to see if it would work with a friend's SLT and it was fine as far as it went. It was sunny so we kept the cover on and it sat there slewing around desperately looking for stars but not finding them.

Chris

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Radec

Radec

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I've located a good bargain - should have it next Saturday at Kelling Heath.

So, forgive my confusion, but I'm not totally sure I get what you guys mean.

I will have the Starsense camera plugged into the Nexstar6 Aux port and the Starsense hand controller plugged into the mount, where it belongs.

I surely need a splitter to be able to use the Skysinc GPS, don't I?

I don't want to have the handset plugged in to anything else, other than the mount port, or I won't be able to store the handset in there while viewing.

Since I also break the whole caboodle down for storage, it'll make that a pain too.

Would it work plugging the Skysinc into the Aux port and the Starsense into the spare port on the Skysinc?

Radec

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daveangie0110

daveangie0110

Posted
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Hi all

Doses anybody know how to update the starsense camera, i have downloaded the CFM manager and i have installed the upto date firmware on the hand controler but once it has downloaded 5 of 5 packages it then says HC update complete seeking camera then it says cant find SSA camera! No update performed, i have done everything what celestron support has asked me to do but still no luck i have the telescope conected to my laptop via a RS232 cable to USB and the starsense camera conected to the laptop via a micro USB.

Thanks

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Radec

Radec

Posted
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I didn't know you had both, sorry for the confusion.

Yes, I think that will work:

MOUNT HC ------------- SS HC

Mount AUX -------------- Skysync ------------ SSA Camera.

Chris

Thanks Chris

But to be absolutely clear, you mean the SSA camera connects to the SkySync port and the SkySync connects to the Aux port on the mount?

The alternative would be a port splitter I guess.

Cheers

Radec

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tekkydave

tekkydave

Posted
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I didn't know you had both, sorry for the confusion.

Yes, I think that will work:

MOUNT HC ------------- SS HC

Mount AUX -------------- Skysync ------------ SSA Camera.

Chris

It should work. The HC and AUX ports on the mount are identical and interchangeable. The HC works plugged into either port.

I use mine like this:

MOUNT HC ------------- Skysync ---------- SS HC

Mount AUX ------------- SSA Camera.

And no problems. If you attach the skysync to the leg of the mount it can stay there when stored and you plug the HC in there instead of the mount - only about a foot difference. Try it both ways and see what works best for you.

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