Starsense holiday dilemma

[BRUN]

im going away in a few weeks to somewhere very dark so should be the best seeing ive ever had as long as the weather is good, but ive just bought a new scope that ive only managed to use twice so far, i always planned to buy starsense as an add on but im worried ive not got enough time now so get it setup and all working and aligned properly

im not sure going away with a new add on is the best idea, but the last time i went their were so many stars visible i actually think it might be hard to align normally (im still a newb to this hobby really), the weather doesnt seem to be the best lately

what do you all think ?

im wondering whether to buy it and take it, but dont fit it unless i think i need it ?

[alanjgreen]

I would buy sooner rather than later, the longer you leave it then less time before holiday to get out and set it up. Either do it now or forget about it.

Once you receive it. you can do a dummy setup in the daytime to make sure the handset and camera attachments are working and attached as you want them (there are 2 mounting brackets to choose from in the box, have a play and decide which you will use.

- once you fire it up then the scope will go through the motions but the camera will just report "no stars found " but at least you know it works and fires up.

 

There are also a couple of things to check on the handset that you can do in the daytime.

1 the default slew limits are crap and do not include the zenith. You can change that.

2 location and time will need to setup on the handset. You can do that.

3 have a look through the other settings and download the latest PDF manual to familiarise yourself 

4 you may want to check the software version and download and install the latest (if it's not already on the handset that is). Check Celestron website for details of the latest RELEASED software version and go for that (ignore all the UNRELEASED beta versions). You may find that it is already installed on a new handset.

THEN, you just need a couple of hours to get it aligned to your optical tube (calibrate). Once it has performed the first real alignment it will go into calibration mode and ask you to centre on a star at the eyepiece. Then it takes an image and calculates the centre offset for your scope. Simple. Then it just goes into a 2nd alignment routine and you are done.

- just be sure to start the alignment with the optical tube horizontal and make sure that any blocked views are behind you. The starsense will take an image up from where you choose to start, then turn 90degrees right and take a 2nd image, then finally it will go right again 90 degrees and up 30-40 degrees for the third and final image.

if you watch the display then it reports how many stars it found in each image up to a max of 100 ( it will never report more than that as it does not need more than 100). These stars are then matched with its database to identify with a known position. As long as you get 40+ stars it will generally find a match. If it fails to find a match then you will see it return to this failed position later in the alignment.

- over time you will be surprised how many stars it can see when maybe you can only see the main stars with your own eyes.  

Alan

[BRUN]

Thanks Alan, really helpful

[JG777]

Agreed with everything Alan has mentioned and the first time set up and calibration is about 10 minutes work. Yes you should take it , its a great tool and will save you time and frustration if your unsure about standard alignments, this is assuming it's running recent firmware as earlier firmware was unreliable.