Skysense Camera

[David Hardie]

Hi all. I have a celestron avx mount and i bought the Sky Sense accesory.

Now though I have a Skywatcher mount also.

Does anyone know if I have to buy a complete new kit for Skywatcher,  or can I buy individual parts so I can use the same camera unit on both?

Cheers. David

[noah4x4]

Sorry, but they are not interchangeable when bought as a package. The Skywatcher version is more expensive than Celestron as it requires an additional electronic component..

However, what you appear to be proposing is buying a Skywatcher Starsense HC and using your existing Celestron Starsense camera.  That might possibly work if the Camera's internal firmware is common to both types of HC. But is that likely? 

Identifying whether this works might be difficult.. You need to find somebody that owns both, but your volunteer might be unhappy if he/she then discovers that it does work and/or if the Skywatcher mount electronics and AUX ports differ from Celestron and blow an expensive circuit if incompatible. Frankly, I wouldn't risk it..  I also can't see Skywatcher or Celestron encouraging this even if it does work. 

 

[Cornelius Varley]

11 hours ago, noah4x4 said:

Sorry, but they are not interchangeable when bought as a package. The Skywatcher version is more expensive than Celestron as it requires an additional electronic component..

However, what you appear to be proposing is buying a Skywatcher Starsense HC and using your existing Celestron Starsense camera.  That might possibly work if the Camera's internal firmware is common to both types of HC. But is that likely? 

Identifying whether this works might be difficult.. You need to find somebody that owns both, but your volunteer might be unhappy if he/she then discovers that it does work and/or if the Skywatcher mount electronics and AUX ports differ from Celestron and blow an expensive circuit if incompatible. Frankly, I wouldn't risk it..  I also can't see Skywatcher or Celestron encouraging this even if it does work. 

 

The Skywatcher version of the Starsense camera includes an interface adapter required to allow communication between the Celestron Nexstar handset provided in the kit and the Synscan mount. I don't think that the Nexstar/Synscan interface is available as a separate item. But there would be no harm in asking a friendly dealer or OVL if you could buy one.

[noah4x4]

39 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

The Skywatcher version of the Starsense camera includes an interface adapter required to allow communication between the Celestron Nexstar handset provided in the kit and the Synscan mount. I don't think that the Nexstar/Synscan interface is available as a separate item. But there would be no harm in asking a friendly dealer or OVL if you could buy one.

The other unforseen problem is affixing the Starsense camera to the second OTA. The Celestron version comes with a very clever 'shoe'. You can remove and reinstall the Camera from this 'shoe' for transport without recalibration. You can even save seperate calibration profiles for each OTA. The problem is you can't buy a seperate 'shoe.' Hence, you may find it impossible to buy a HC/interface adapter plus 'shoe'. Yes, it could be affixed using other accessory mounts, but would need recalibration on every use. Faced with this,  I ultimately bought two Starsense units for my main scope and seperate 'grab & go' ! 

[David Hardie]

4 hours ago, noah4x4 said:

The other unforseen problem is affixing the Starsense camera to the second OTA. The Celestron version comes with a very clever 'shoe'. You can remove and reinstall the Camera from this 'shoe' for transport without recalibration. You can even save seperate calibration profiles for each OTA. The problem is you can't buy a seperate 'shoe.' Hence, you may find it impossible to buy a HC/interface adapter plus 'shoe'. Yes, it could be affixed using other accessory mounts, but would need recalibration on every use. Faced with this,  I ultimately bought two Starsense units for my main scope and seperate 'grab & go' ! 

Thanks all for the replies. I indeed Just had to do the same - buy both!!!