Celestron AVX Starsense Alignment "Jerky"

[Barry]

Hi

After selling all my equipment some time ago I have now started the hobby again with a C925 on an AVX mount.  Last night was my first chance to try out the Starsense Accessory, which seemed to work quite well.  However I was a bit concerned that when doing the calibration for the SSA camera position and during the Polar Alignment routine the tracking seemed very jerky at higher magnifications.  The video I took of Jupiter after alignment did not seem to show this (although poor in all other ways) so I don't know if the jerkiness is something to do with tracking mode used by the SSA handset during alignment. It could also be a mount fault or poor balance but I would expect that to show in the video?

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks

Barry

[Joel Shepherd]

Haven't experienced that, but a couple common things to keep an eye out for:

1. Cables getting snagged. I've ruined at least one otherwise delightful evening due to this.
2. The RA and DEC axes tightening levers interfering with the movement. Check and make sure that they won't hit other parts of the mount as the telescope moves. If they will, loosen the center screw in the lever, pull it off, rotate and re-install. Again, at least one decent night ruined by this as well (hard to troubleshoot in the dark!).
3. Less likely, but make sure your balance is reasonably good.

Hope one of these solves your issue.

[Barry]

Thanks Joel.  I do not think that any of these were the cause.  The alignment star stayed in the EP centre even though not smoothly.  As the tracking in the imaging seems good I will put it down to the SSA!

 

Barry

[noah4x4]

Have two Starsense cameras, one on an Evo 8 and another on a Nextstar SE4. Both work smoothly and brilliantly. However, I did once try to use the built in wedge feature on the SE4 and hence attempted a Polar Align (done after a manual or auto-align) and it's movement was then somewhat jerky. But it did seem to work fine. I think the trick here (Polar Align)  is possibly to add Cal Reference points (see p16 of Starsense manual). But as I am not into astrophotography I haven't pursued this since. I like the simple life of aim and look.