Celestron Skysync 93969

[DC Firefighter]

I have a Celestron NexStar 127 SLT telescope, Celestron Zoom eye piece 93230, StarSense Auto Align camera, and a Skysync GPS 93969. My StarSense Auto Align hand controller is plugged into the hand control port. The StarSense Auto Align camera and the Skysync GPS are plugged into a Celestron port splitter which in turn is plugged into the auxiliary port. When turned on I notice 2 things: 1. The local coordinates on the hand controller don't match what my GPS app on my phone says. The phone app even shows the street I'm on so I'm guessing it is accurate. and 2: The display on the hand controller doesn't show the same prompts or "steps" that the controller instructions say I should see. When I try to do an auto align, the tube keeps dropping below horizontal which doesn't make sense to me.

Does this indicate that some type of update is required? Has anyone heard of or experienced this and can help me figure things out?

Thanks

[johnoelliott]

I'd first try the original HC connected and the GPS plugged in without the Starsense to see if it picks up the correct coordinates. If it doesn't, you might have a bad GPS unit but you should be able to enter the information manually without the GPS. If it does pick up the correct coordinates, try removing the original HC and connect the Starsense HC and try plugging the camera into the port on the GPS unit instead of  using the port splitter. If none of this works, try connecting everything as you originally had it with the port splitter and update the firmware and try again. If you haven't updated the firmware in a while or ever, you should probably do that anyway.

[DC Firefighter]

Thank you. I will try what you suggested. I've been back and forth with Celestron via email but didn't seem to get anywhere. Also...would you know if the cable to do firmware updates is proprietary or can it be purchased at a local electronics store?

[johnoelliott]

That depends on the version of the star sense controller you have. Mine is a standard mini USB connection but older versions have an RS232 serial connection 

[ronin]

What is the difference between the 2 sets of coordinates?

The synscan is likely degrees and minutes whereas the mobile is likely degrees and decimal. so 45 30 N in Synascan would be 45.5 N in the mobile.

Star sense seems a slightly questionable addition at a guess from everything 2/3 of the people have problems getting it operating. Also and may seem odd check the operation of the GPS on your setup, some odd vague memory says that it doesn't work with all the celestron items. Came up about 3 or 4 months back but cannot recall the details.

Back to Starsense, on one astro forum site there is a guide to using Starsense and getting it working, been produced by someone that had trouble, then answered others how to sort it then wrote the guide. It would seem that as far as Synta are concerned the term "plug and play" has yet to be realised.

When the handset powers up it should display the data that it has and so will use. What is yours set to? Also it could be useful to allow a couple of minutes for the GPS to get the data.

Even with GPS I suggest you check and set the timezone as a seperate item. Timezone is not available as best I know from GPS and the scope uses it. The default timezone is likely to be Pacific, which might account for the scope pointing down at align.

[ronin]

This is not the one I thought of initially as I have the idea it was a guide that someone had written, this is not a "guide" as such. I might be wrong.

CN Starsense

If you go visit the section itself there are lots and lots of questions about Starsense. I am sure it just quicker and easier to do it yourself.

[Cosmic Geoff]

I'd question the utility of the GPS unless you regularly move the outfit around the country. The mount will retain the Lat and Long once these are correctly entered, so if you don't move the outfit you only have to do it once.   It may be that the time you spend trying to make the GPS work will exceed the time you'd spend entering the  co-ordinates manually. 

Yes, the Starsense HC plugs into the handset port on the mount, and the camera into the Aux port.

[johnoelliott]

I thought the SS might just be a waste of money too until I stuck it on my scope. It's so nice to plug it in, turn it on and walk away to continue getting everything organized for the evening and come back in a couple of minutes and be able to start using the scope and it can do its job even when I can barely make out Vega in the sky! At that point the gotos are good enough to get the object I'm looking for well within the FOV of my 17mm for the rest of the evening. If I'm in a nitpicky mood or need really precise alignment, I'll throw in the 6mm and do a calibration after the auto align is complete.

As for the GPS, it was given to me so it cost me nothing and I have it just in case I go somewhere that I don't already have the coordinates for and my mobile can't get a signal. Most of the time I don't use the GPS.

Now, getting the Starsense to polar align on the Wedge is a whole different story with a bug that Celestron is working on so I work around that by first using the original HC and doing the alignment manually, then the ASPA, then unplug the HC and plug in the SS and SSHC and perform an automatic alignment. Unfortunately, that means having to wait until it's dark enough but the notes on the Team Celestron site regarding the problem indicate that they're confident they found where the bug is so they should have a fix for that soon as well

[DC Firefighter]

Thanks for all the info. After hooking the hand controller to the GPS which in turned is plugged into the HC port, the GPS coordinates match my phone app and Sky Portal app but the date is showing July and time is showing about 7 hours ahead. GPS is selected in my HC and Eastern time zone is also selected. I've also found info saying the Sky Portal app can take the place of the HC as well as input date, time, and location. Does anyone know anything about the Celestron Wi-Fi adaptor before I decide to buy another attachment that may or may not work? If I move the telescope somewhere should it still work using the Verizon network?

Thanks again to all who have posted ideas the help to help.