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Celestron StarSense for Sky-Watcher Mounts


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I confess this took us by surprise! :smile: 

The hugely popular Celestron StarSense is now available for Sky-Watcher HEQ5, EQ6, AZ-EQ5, AZ-EQ6, EQ8 and AZ SynScan compatible mounts. 

StarSense enables a computerised Sky-Watcher mount to automatically align itself with the night sky.

The StarSense camera and hand control both plug into the interface box which in turn plugs into the mount's hand control port - in minutes your mount is aligned and ready to use. 

We should have a price and ETA later this month. 

 

cele_starsense_sky-watcher_94006_6.jpg

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We are receiving emails from people requesting a price and ETA. We really don't know at this stage but hope to have price and availability details in a week or two. 

Rest assured nobody will receive stock before us - I will camp on Celestron's warehouse doorstep if I have to! 

Steve

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 21 May 2016 at 15:40, PeterW said:

Any update on shipping date?

"Sometime in June" they say. 

We are checking every week and will update this thread as soon as we know more. Promise :smile: 

Steve 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 23 May 2016 at 16:20, FLO said:

"Sometime in June" they say. 

We are checking every week and will update this thread as soon as we know more. Promise :smile: 

Unfortunately the ETA has slipped to mid-July.

Please don't shoot the messanger :unsure:

Steve 

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On 11 June 2016 at 00:37, madjock72 said:

Thats kind of a huge price increase.

It hasn't yet been released so the price hasn't had time to increase or decrease, though Celestron's price is higher than we anticipated because aparrantlly we hadn't allowed enough for the interface gizmo (shown in the photo below). 

HTH, 

Steve

 

cele_starsense_sky-watcher_94006_6%5B1%5

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Well thats where the extra 130 pound increase is coming from then. That unit is it a ST4 hub?.

edit:-

3 AUX port accessories: Supports StarSense and optional GPS accessory.  Lightweight and easy to attach with the included tripod strap.

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1 hour ago, madjock72 said:

Well thats where the extra 130 pound increase is coming from then. That unit is it a ST4 hub?.

We don't know for sure what the interface box is/does and probably won't until it is released around mid-July. 

You are saying you think Celestron's price, when compared to the regular original Starsense for Celestron mounts, is too high. We hear you :smile: 

Steve

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11 hours ago, madjock72 said:

But now i know why its higher with a handset and the hub/interface it explains the higher price tag Steve, i think they missed an opportunity here to add motors for an amazing GOTO system. 

Wasn't the handcontroller always part of the package? I don't see how the interface itself is worth the additional £130.

 

 

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4 hours ago, lrt75914 said:

Wasn't the handcontroller always part of the package? I don't see how the interface itself is worth the additional £130.

Yes, both packages have the hand-controller. It appears it is only the interface device that separates them. 

@lrt75914, I see you live in Germany. Here in the UK the retail price for the original Celestron Starsense (for Celestron mounts) has settled at £269 (€339) which is 25% less than Celestron's recommended price. The new Starsense for Skywatcher mounts hasn't been released yet but most UK retailers are already offering it at £395 (€497) which is 17% lower than Celestron's recommended price. If, over time, pricing for the new model follows the same pattern as the current model (so settles at 25% below RRP) then it will probably retail at around £359 (€452). 

Does that help?   

Steve :smile: 

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10 hours ago, FLO said:

Yes, both packages have the hand-controller. It appears it is only the interface device that separates them. 

@lrt75914, I see you live in Germany. Here in the UK the retail price for the original Celestron Starsense (for Celestron mounts) has settled at £269 (€339) which is 25% less than Celestron's recommended price. The new Starsense for Skywatcher mounts hasn't been released yet but most UK retailers are already offering it at £395 (€497) which is 17% lower than Celestron's recommended price. If, over time, pricing for the new model follows the same pattern as the current model (so settles at 25% below RRP) then it will probably retail at around £359 (€452). 

Does that help?   

Steve :smile: 

Hi Steve,

I know the RRP is set by Celestron and you have limited leeway when it comes to the retail price, so I hope you don't think I was criticizing FLO for Celestron's (Synta's) pricing strategy. I have never been a costumer of yours but from what I can tell you are trying to do right by your costumers. ;) 

The actual price difference may come down to 80-100€ but that is still a lot of money for an interface that is probably relatively cheap to design and produce. Since I neither have a NIKON/Canon DSLR nor a suitable laptop for plate solving I was hoping that the StarSense could be a relatively cheap and portable alternative for my Skywatcher mount. With the price being as high as it is I might have to rethink my decision on postponing the acquisition of a DSLR, though - it might be more expensive but I could really use a new camera for daytime photography.  

Thank you for responding to my post, though :)

Cheers,

 

Patrick 

 

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I'm interested in getting one of these for use with my AZ-EQ6GT. However, I would be using it with more than one telescope and it strikes me that I would need to accurately align the camera with the image in the eyepiece each time I moved it, and this would negate some of the advantages of a quick and easy alignment. Has anyone that has the Celestron version had experience of swapping it between scopes? How easy is it? 

But I can't resist a gadget so will probably get one anyway! 

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  • 4 months later...

Trying to answer a question for a friend who has a Skymax 127 Synscan AZ GOTO.

Will he need a GPS mouse as well as the StarSense if he wants full turn on and go functionality.  (He goes sailing and wants to pack the scope to use in different places.)

 

Many thanks

Andrew

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On 21/10/2016 at 15:37, AWR said:

Trying to answer a question for a friend who has a Skymax 127 Synscan AZ GOTO.

Will he need a GPS mouse as well as the StarSense if he wants full turn on and go functionality.  (He goes sailing and wants to pack the scope to use in different places.)

He can use a Skywatcher GPS Mouse with the Starsense but it takes only a minute to enter the date/time/location manually. Also the Starsense doesn't need ultra-precise coordinates to achieve accurate alignment, it pretty-much sorts itself out (there are only a few UK locations on the Celestron handset). 

HTH

Steve

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