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Celestron Starsense with AVX mount and David Levy 'scope: compatible?


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Last year I bought a Celestron AVX mount on special; then bought an unused Celestron StarSense second-hand.  Being a bear of very little brain it never occurred to me I might have to match these items with a Celestron OTA.  So when a David Levy Comet Hunter came up at a good price earlier this year I thought I had a system.  For reasons I don't have to go into here it was nigh on six months before I could put them all together.  So it was just two nights ago I encountered what may be an insurmountable mistake.  The StarSense does not have an obvious mounting point on the Comet Hunter.  Celestron say that the StarSense can be used with other OTAs, without being specific; after all the StarSense communicates with the AVX mount so why not other OTAs?  However, I am reluctant to start trying to attach the StarSense by fair means or foul if other folk have proved it just ain't gonna work.  Has anyone tried this and failed or, better still, succeeded?

There is a spare mounting point for a finder, etc, but it has a square cross-section instead of a dovetail, which would suit the smaller StarSense mount.  If I remove that it would reveal two fixing points that might match the holes on the StarSense main mount.  A few pictures might show what I mean. 

Any advice greatly appreciated.

CH 1.jpg

CH 2.jpg

StarSense main mount.jpg

StarSense small mount.jpg

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Hi There, and welcome. 

I also have the starsense, and a skywatcher ED80. I had a spare dovetail bar laying around, so I mounted this to the tube rings of the ED80, and managed to modify the starsense to fit on the dovetail. Works a treat. I will take a photo of the setup when I get home and upload for you. I notice the David Levy has a grab handle, could you not fit it on there ?. 

 

John

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There are two ways you might be able to attach the Starsense, if you take the existing finder bracket off:

See if the wide bracket (intended for Celestron SCTs) will fit.

Use the Synta bracket (the slim one) and buy a Synta shoe for it. There are variants of this shoe with different hole patterns sold under different names, so you should be able to track down something that works. I did a similar exercise to attach a Synta-style finder to my SCT via an accessory bar, a shoe and some drilling and tapping.

Here's an example: (& note the Baader on the same page)

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/finder-mounting-shoe.html

 

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16 hours ago, johngm said:

Hi There, and welcome. 

I also have the starsense, and a skywatcher ED80. I had a spare dovetail bar laying around, so I mounted this to the tube rings of the ED80, and managed to frig the starsense to fit on the dovetail. Works a treat. I will take a photo of the setup when I get home and upload for you. I notice the David Levy has a grab handle, could you not fit it on there ?. 

 

John

Thanks, John.  In fact I just discovered today the 14cm dovetail bar on my TS Photoline APO is too short to extend to take a heavy EP and maintain balance on a Skywatcher AZ GTI mount.  Have just ordered a 20cm from Astrogarten.  When that arrives I can probably use the 14cm as you suggest.  I'll also take a look at the grab hamdle tomorrow.  Could be an even quicker fix.

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37 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

There are two ways you might be able to attach the Starsense, if you take the existing finder bracket off:

See if the wide bracket (intended for Celestron SCTs) will fit.

Use the Synta bracket (the slim one) and buy a Synta shoe for it. There are variants of this shoe with different hole patterns sold under different names, so you should be able to track down something that works. I did a similar exercise to attach a Synta-style finder to my SCT via an accessory bar, a shoe and some drilling and tapping.

Here's an example: (& note the Baader on the same page)

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/finder-mounting-shoe.html

 

Thanks, Geoff.  John GM has made a couple of suggestions which might be possible from stuff in hand (or soonto be) but the Synta shoe idea with the slim bracket looks neat.  Either way, great advice as ever from SGL members.

Thanks again,

Peter

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Hi Peter, 

Here are the photos I promised.

All I used was a 1/4 20unc bolt (camera thread) I had laying around from other projects. This matches the thread on the dovetail bar I had. The shoulder nut I used was just to pack out the bolt as it was to long. I could have sawn it down, but I had the nut laying around. Tightened the bracket really tight, its not going anywhere. 

 

Bracket 1 .jpg

bracket 2.jpg

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On 02/10/2018 at 08:29, johngm said:

 I notice the David Levy has a grab handle, could you not fit it on there ?. 

 

John

Thanks, John.  Pictures certainly food for thought.

I've spent quite a lot of time today scracthing myhead over this.  The existing, currently vacant, second shoe is a standard fitting with Meade, Bresser and ES 'scopes and it should be simple to simply swap that for a Synta. However, removing the shoe means the securing nuts drop into the tube and either the meniscus or the main mirror will have to be removed to resecure them to the Synta shoe.  I quail at the thought.  However, your suggested use of the carrying handle seems straightforward.  This shoe from TS

image.png.7735955917ab871936088da7ec493098.png

should straddle the handle and can be secured by bolts through the full length slot in the handle to a convenient position.  I'll sleep on that and probably order one tomorrow.  Thanks again. Very encouraging.

Peter

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On 04/10/2018 at 11:15, johngm said:

Hi Peter,

That would do the trick. It would save you drilling your OTA and having to remove the mirror. The Synta shoes are cheap enough to.

John

Hello, John,

Just to close the book on this I thought you might like to see how this turned out.  With delivery by post from Germany it cost the best part of 40 euros.  Not exactly cheap!  It arrived this morning.  The tube handle was about a millimetre too wode so I had to grind half a millimetre from the internal sides of the shoe but it's now a snug fit and can be moved up or down the handle as required.  A few pictures are attached but I don't know when I'll get to try it. Tomorrow night looks promising.

Thanks for the tip.  It would never have ooccurred to this doddering old fool to emply the handle.

All the best.

Peter

StarSense 4.jpg

StarSense 5.jpg

StarSense 6.jpg

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On 12/10/2018 at 19:46, johngm said:

On another note, I'm envious of your location. Looks fantastic from you photos pal ?  Clear sky's

John

 

 

 

It's our location that got me interested, John, but it's a bit like the girl with the curl.  When it's good it's very, very good; when it's bad...  The last couple of years have seen very few clear skies at night.  Atlantic weather systems pile up against the Pyrenees and the clouds roll in, especially at night.  Last week we had three fantastically good skies on the trot, the best since 2015.  Chucking it down just now - but we live in hope.  All the best, and thanks again for the tip.

Peter

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