Celestron StarSense Automatic Alignment Telescope Accessory

[jpelli]

All,
Before I sink $329.00 (Amazon) on the Celestron StarSense Automatic Alignment Telescope Accessory, do any of you have this accessory for your CGE mounted telescope? I have a Celestron CGE1100 SCT and I want to make sure it works well on the CGE telescopes. The CGEs are included on the list of compatible scopes but it would be good to hear from someone who loves this thing as apparently many do. In addition to its usefulness for night viewing, is it effective in any way for daytime viewing i.e. the sun? My telescope, which I paid well over four thousand dollars for is no longer supported much by Celestron. That's why I'm skeptical about this accessory. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[ronin]

No input directly but I cannot see why there should be a problem, the underlying software will be the same. So they should communicate without problems.

It will be no use for daytime, it need stars, so daytime alignment will be out of its possibilities.

Do you need it? Ask as there seems a lot of troubles getting it to work. The setup and data seem to be at odds with the scope software and data. I have suspect a classic race condition, as in who gets going first. On CN there is or was a guide written by someone to setting up Starsense. Seems that once a person has found out what they need to do it is no real problem, the finding out how to get it all functioning is the problem.

At a guess whoever wrote the scope software did not write the Starsense software and there are minor incompatibilities to overcome.

Is it worth it, on that I am unsure, You will have a narrow field of view on the 1100 and so an aid in alignment may well be useful. On many I often wonder why people bother - is it really difficult to put 2 stars in the center and press Enter? On a couple of big scopes like yours a club here does not do the "alignment" as such. Scopes are on a pier and they are simply mounted on the pier and then one star is centered and synched. That is it. I suppose it is the accuracy of the pier that is in effect the alignment. But it makes it very, very easy.

Seems there are 2 manuals from Celestron for Starsense, which means the first had problems otherwise they would not bother with the second. Thought I had a copy of the CN one but if so it is hiding on the PC.

[newbie alert]

I was mis sold mine for my intended use..

I did what the manual said and took off my finder scope to attach the camera..result was it didn't align and no way of using it with my normal handset as I couldn't star align as I was missing the finder and 10 miles from home..wasted night no 1..

Decided to try at home..didnt align..asked the shop I bought it from as obviously doing something wrong..he suggested I update the film ware..  ok..no cable supplied..phoned the shop...arh yes,you need a special cable,haven't got one here but you can get them from pc world etc,they never heard of one...Tried again..re-read the pamphlet over and over as must of missed something..still didn't align..tried different alignment settings as the quick alignment wasn't working..still no..Emailed celestron support..got a reply 2 weeks later which was..it shouldn't do that..that don't sound right!.. suggests updating the film ware..(no cable).. Getting abit peeved...Anyway tried 6 times..it aligned once.. so 5 wasted nights..Then I find out its a star alignment aid,not a polar alignment aid..yes it has the ASPA feature on it but don't consider it accurate enough for imaging and already got it on my AVX.. so sold it and bought a polemaster ,now more than happy..so message to celestron,test so it's full proof and write a manual to follow that actually works..message to suppliers,update the film ware before customers hand over the cast or at least hold a quantity of cables if the customer wants to do it themselves...as mine didn't work straight out of the box..so my thoughts are no..you don't need it and can't justify  £270 on star aligning aid..

[PeterCPC]

I had one but let it go. It was good if you want to just observe but for imaging it was no good at all.

Peter

[noah4x4]

Brilliant bit of kit. I have two. I set it in motion while fetching the rest of my kit (EP'S etc) and when I get back I enjoy perfect alignment; hence spot on GoTo's.  But you need to be patient; set it up carefully; calibrate it carefully;  also add (up to) ten additional alignment stars spread across sky/seasons for best results.

However, you cannot use its camera for astrophotography or for autoguiding. It is a simply an aid to alignments, which I originally found difficult. Now, I can comfortable handle complicated alignments using only a Nexstar + HC. But it's a bit like Sat-Nav. You probably don't need it. But would you go back to map and compass in your car?