Am I thick or Just unlucky ? help

[dafed]

There's not much we can do with no information about what went wrong with the StarSense align.  You get quite a lot of information while the mount is going through the align dance.

One thing that helps is to remove the cover from the StarSense camera!

I tried the SSA with my Astro Society's CPC1100, this was entertaining because I had to drive the dome so the scope could see out before it was aligned but as long as I kept up it aligned with no problems.

Chris

Hi Chris,Yes I appreciate there is a lack of info from me , one thing i have noticed is various members have reported they can input there location by city , this is something i can not find I can enter the time and date but that's it, I shall try and take photos of my handset as it goes through the motions.

david

[Chris Rowland]

It seems to be difficult to get to the location info once it's been set but pressing ENTER or BACK when setting the time can get you to the location data. The option button, the one with the Celestron logo, can be used to toggle between the city database and the location as latitude and longitude.

I've not much experience with an AltAz mounted StarSense but AFAIK the position may not matter much. It gets images of the stars and plate solves them to get where it's looking.  After three positions it has enough information to determine how the mount is aligned and can assume that it is more or less level to get the horizon.

The interesting bit of the alignment is what is shown as the mount is doing the star sense align it should cycle through moving to position, acquiring image, sensing, a number of stars found, then solving with a % and finally solved.  Meanwhile it's moving to the next position and when it get there and has solved the previous position it goes to the acquiring image stage.  If it doesn't find enough stars, or fails to solve the image it will try again in a different position.

One thing that catches a lot of people is that the default maximum altitude limit for the Alt Azm mounted scopes is 70 deg. This is to stop the scope running into the mount.  Objects above that limit will not be shown in the list.  If your mount is OK going higher then you can edit the limit.

Chris

PS once you get a successful align you need to do a Calibrate.  This is the equivalent to aligning a finder scope. Once you have done it - and the new SS align it will need - stars and DSOs should be close to the middle.

The manual is older than the software in the HC.  If there's a difference the instructions shown on the HC are more likely to be correct.

C

[davedownsouth]

Hi Chris,Yes I appreciate there is a lack of info from me , one thing i have noticed is various members have reported they can input there location by city , this is something i can not find I can enter the time and date but that's it, I shall try and take photos of my handset as it goes through the motions.

david

Hi David,

to get to the chose city option do this:-

1.  Turn in on and you should see the base menu option:-

2. Hit the Menu button (No. 7) and you should see this:-

3.  Using the number 6 / 9 scroll, find this screen:-

4.  Hit enter and you should see this:-

5.  Using the number 6 / 9 scroll, find this screen:-

6.  When I hit enter I see this:-

7.  Hit the Celestron button (the one below the No. 7 button) and you should get this screen:-

Now just change the settings.  I find the Latitude / Longitude better to use as London is the closest town to me, but it is still 35+ miles away  .  Hope this all makes sense??

[dafed]

Hi David,

to get to the chose city option do this:-

1.  Turn in on and you should see the base menu option:-

2. Hit the Menu button (No. 7) and you should see this:-

3.  Using the number 6 / 9 scroll, find this screen:-

4.  Hit enter and you should see this:-

5.  Using the number 6 / 9 scroll, find this screen:-

6.  When I hit enter I see this:-

7.  Hit the Celestron button (the one below the No. 7 button) and you should get this screen:-

Now just change the settings.  I find the Latitude / Longitude better to use as London is the closest town to me, but it is still 35+ miles away  .  Hope this all makes sense??

Dave Hi, thanks for going to all that trouble for me, everything you have shown in the photo's , is the same as i get except when i get to image no 7  I was told to press the celestron logo button , I shall try it again using the no 7 (menu) button,

But thank you so much for your efforts, I do feel such a nuisance but this is not as straight forward as the manufactures make out, and i am definitely not dumb .

Thank you

david 

[dafed]

OOps I meant i hit the logo button and nothing happens. but i shall have another go.

david