Starsense autoalign problem

[Hopeless Astronomer]

Hi I am new to astronomy and have a ssa and I aligned as it said and was successful but when I asked it to go to Jupiter it went in the direction it should but was off. I live in Manchester in the UK and I did not put in daylight savings time, is this important? Thanks for any help out there.

[ronin]

There are close to countless options, unfortunately. Not helped by the fact that Starsense seems to be somewhat unreliable.

Assuming it is data then check the following:

Is Date correct?

The scope use the US format of MM-DD-YYYY

Not the English format of DD-MM-YYYY

If you set it today the scope could think it is December-3rd.

Next is co-ordinates.

We talk of Lat and Long but the input order has to be Long and Lat.

If these are wrong the scope has a location somewhere in Brazil I think.

Not aware of a major city in the US called Manchester, but again check that you have a UK location.

Preferably set your own custom location of your specific Long and Lat.

With your own custom location you need the timezone to be 0, 00, UTC

You are right that DST is No, Off at present.

What power source are you using?

These scopes are prone to going slightly nuts if the power is not adaquate.

Sure I have missed something out???????

[Hopeless Astronomer]

Thanks Ronin.

The power source is a Celestron power tank 12v...it kept the CPC 1100 going well all night and looking at it now I followed as you said the US co-ordinates.

 I would try tonight but as it is Manchester UK.......it is raining!

Thank you once again for your advice, very much appreciated!

[Gazabone]

If it's any consolation I'm having problems with ssa too. I'm using it on an AVX mount. Next time out I'm going to try running using a baadar mains lead; as another contributor has said, power source can be an issue. So far I've run it from a power tank but also been running a heated dew shield from it. I guess I've been asking for trouble!

After I did the calibration, I found that the scope was pointing as if I hadn't touched the calibration.

[ronin]

If you search "starsense" you will get a number of tales of problems, if you read the US forums you get the same.

So it seems there are some hiccups still in the system.

Another thing to do is make sure the scope is as level as reasonable and set to the start position again as best you can without going overboard. Alignment is to determine the corrections that the scope needs to apply so keeping them to a minimum is a good idea.

Looked up Manchester US and Google maps puts up 5 but not seem well known so I guess not in the location selection options.

You may end up going through all the data and having to check each, assuming it is a data problem. Unfortunately it is easy to get something wrong. People often see what they expect. Also not helped by the scope assuming some defaults.

Something says that setting your own custom location helps and not just taklng the offered Manchester UK.

No idea why I say that, but think it has been mentioned.

This means you setting the Timezone also.

Also make sure that the Longitude has the correct number of leading 0's for your area. Have read of the input of this going wrong and you end up in mid-atlantic.

You should have something like -002 15 (002 15W) and 53 30N. If I recall these are displayed at power up on the handset have at look.

When it comes to Starsense you cannot claim the name "Hopeless Astronomer", "Normal Astronomer" is much more like reality. :grin:

Edited March 12, 2015 by ronin

[Praetor6554]

Ola,

1) - when you first set up you need to give it time to get all its positional data from GPS satellites. Doesn't take long no more than 10 mins.

2) - when you align on your stars make sure they centred (there are gizmos for uber precision  and cheaper fixes involving cotton) - if your alignment stars are not centred then you will always be off - 

3) - avoid straight lines

4) - use two star align - it's faster - you just have to know two named stars (or planet)  use two that are a reasonable distance apart (again avoid straight lines) - if you are going to be viewing a while go for the Westerly most objects.

5) - If - like me you decided to override the stupid computer and put in your lat and long and time (just look how fast things move and even seconds adrift will show you how you can end up pointing where Jupiter was 1 minute ago or where it will be in 20 seconds) there is a remedy to our folly.... Factory reset when you power on - you will be prompted to turn off and on again. This gets rid of the mess.

Do this while you are getting bits ready - by the time you have everything ready to go and have a cup of tea the GPS will be set - and you won't look back.

Hope that helps



 

[Praetor6554]

I meant Easterly most ofc - (point4)

[TonyM]

It is worth making sure you have the latest firmware installed for the SSA. There was a problem with pointing at Solar System Objects but I believe that has been solved in the latest version. 

The latest version will also help you with polar alignment.

[PeterCPC]

Even with the latest version, I find that it cannot go to solar system objects very accurately. Just adjust it when you get close.

Peter

[jefrs]

An altazimuth mount has to be horizontal so it knows where zero degrees 'horizon' is. Use a spirit level but it doesn't have to be perfect. The mount has to be levelled anyway  so I have a little spirit level in the toy set.

You have to take the lens cap off (always a good one)

The StarSense AutoAlign has to go through a rigmarole first calibration set up - read the book, there are some how-to on YouTube. 

Read The Book https://s3.amazonaws.com/celestron-site-support-files/support_files/94005_starsense_autoalign_manual_february2016.pdf  

Watch YouTube The set up "Calibrate On A Star" is important and one-off.

After that it can do its normal automatic alignment dance

Yes the clock and latitude and longitude has to be correct. I use a phone app (PS Align Pro) and it's GPS for time, lat & long (the app is for an Equatorial mount really, does the other thing). Lat & long only needs to be set once for each location, time and date every time. I only use GMT (UCT).  Zulu time saves a lot of confusion. No idea why merikans can't use international date format, or metric screws, like something out of the ark. Do they know NASA is all-metric after they nearly mucked up landing on the moon?

Have fun.

Edited March 13, 2020 by jefrs