Star Sense

[Beardy30]

Hi 

just wondering for the 6SE if star sense is worth the investment and if it really is better than sky align that the 6se comes with ...anyone used both who would know ? 

[Wyvernp]

I have always found the 2-star auto align works better than the skyalign on the nexstar controller and only takes a min or 2 to set up so i'd try both first before investing in anything else. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Wyvernp

[Beardy30]

My scope has sky align built in 

[Wyvernp]

30 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

My scope has sky align built in 

Yep, all the nexstar scopes have. It has multiple options when it comes to alignment. Star align requires you to align 3 stars unspecified stars in your viewfinder whilst 2 star auto alignment allows you to specify 2 named stars. I have found this to result in a better chance of a successful alignment. 

As for the star sense, it may be worth the investment if you are really struggling to get a successful alignment but in my opinion the cash would be better spend on decent eyepieces.

Wyvern

[Cosmic Geoff]

I have Starsense fitted on my C8 SE.  I  still have to enter time/date/location, but it eliminates a lot of annoying alignment activity each time I set up the telescope. The final result does not seem to be any more accuurate than a 2-star align.  On the other hand, the handset has some very handy menus for classes of deep sky object, arranged in order of brightness.  Whether you think this is worth £300 is entirely up to you.

BTW, you can store the settings and use the Starsense with up to 2 other scopes.

I have GPS on another Nexstar scope, which eliminates all the annoying setting of time/date/location, so I just have to do a 2-star align.