Star sense and sky portal alignment problems

[Eduardomoon]

first off, I am a beginner! I have a celestron 127slt MAK with the star sense auto align and wifi module.I am having trouble using the sky portal app and star sense to align my scope.I have tried in both the auto and manual modes, but the scope seems to slew wildly independent of the slew controls on the app. I am forced to cancel the alignment or power down the scope. I am able to align the scope with the star sense hand controller.. I am assuming the problem is with the app, or am I doing something wrong?. My question is: if I align my scope with the star sense hand controller, can I then use the sky portal app for the go-to functions or do I still need to align the scope using the sky portal app? Any advice anyone can give will be appreciated!

[ronin]

No specific advice as I do not have either, from "aligning" and using software other then the handset it would make sense that the Starsense does the alignment all on its own.

Then at the end the Starsense will have completed successfully and be pointed at a star - last one it use for alignment seems sensible.

Then I would expect (not fully) that you have to select that star on/in the Sjy Portal app and tell the Sjy Portal app that that star is where it is pointed at, in effect you synchronise the app to the scope. It would make sense that that is how it would operate, but I can see that maybe you would not have to - all depends on how and where the movement to the next goto object is defined.

It depends if the app tells the scope the movement to make, or tells it where to go and the scope determines the movement reqiured. But I would say you have the sync the Sky Portal app to the scope. I know you do on the PC software packages I have met.

You should not need to repeat the align using the Sky Portal app as that makes no sense.

However as said initially I do not have either and the Skywatcher software tends to oprate a bit odd.

Is that big aquarium still at Chattanooga ?

[alanjgreen]

Hi,

i had both star sense and sky portal wifi unit on my cpc1100.

you can EITHER align with starsense hand control and then use only the hand control OR align with sky portal app  (or sky safari 5) selecting star sense auto align as the alignment method from within the app and then use only the app (not the hand controller).

you cannot align with the hand control and then switch to the app, this will not work!

when you align with the hand control, the alignment data is stored in the hand control. When you align through the app, then the alignment data is stored in the app. there is no data sharing between the hand controller and the app.

Wild slewing is usually a sign of the scope not being setup for the actual LOCATION where you are. It may think it is somewhere else on the earth surface. Check the location and time data in the app as it seems that you can align ok when only using the star sense hand control. I would have a good check through ALL the app settings to be sure they are correct.

Also, please tell us what power source you are using for the scope. Dodgy inconsistent voltage is another cause of wild slewing on Celestron scopes.

 

[Flyingfuzz]

I use Starsense with no problems apart from it not being dark enough.

I agree with the comments above, in almost all reports of Starsense not aligning its down to location or date and time. The handset needs the date, time and location to be input or it uses the default which i think is California. Sky Portal will take location and date and time from the phone or tablet providing it can be supplied.

As advised don't mix handset and app it will not work.

[Eduardomoon]

Thanks to all for your help!