Star sense

[Beardy30]

Hi all I’m a newbie trying to get my head around my new Nexstar 8se 

i have heard starsense is a better version of sky align and that starry night is a planetarium package like sky safari but could some one explain CWPI ... I’m I right I’m saying g it’s laptop incorrectly control of your mount ?? 

[JG777]

I think your answer to CPWI and Starry night were answered in another thread. As for Starsense this is a camera you mount to your scope in a view finder bracket and connect to a new handset which is supplied in the package. It basically automates the alignment process. Upon start up you add a few details like date, time, location as you would normally, then starsense takes a few images of the night sky in an automated process, you will see your scope slew automatically, once done you will be aligned.

A few things, its a bit of a luxury, it just automates the process. On my Evo 9.25 I can get just as accurate alignments using auto 2 star if I'm careful and take the time. It just takes a little longer. 

The starsense handset menus are different and  missing some of the features an Evolution has , nothing critical, so this may not affect your SE. Also the text is smaller as there are more lines in the display harder to see with older eyes! Last time I checked you can't alter the scroll speed for example. Finally the tour feature on the HC is a car crash, not as intuitive as the standard one with nexstar.

Lots of info here https://www.nexstarsite.com/

So yes its useful, but not essential, some get more from it than others, remember though it cannot be used for general imaging, only alignments.

 

[Beardy30]

Cool cheers sounds like it’s a level up from sky align that comes with the scope but don’t think I’ll bother for a while 

[Beardy30]

Do I need to update my skyalign handset that came with the scope ? Before I start observing , I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that I do need to 🤔

[PeterCPC]

You can update the firmware here if you want to. https://software.celestron.com/updates/CFM/CFM/

Peter

[JG777]

5 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

Cool cheers sounds like it’s a level up from sky align that comes with the scope but don’t think I’ll bother for a while 

I always found auto 2 star the most reliable on my Evo, skyalign offers little or no advantage really, you can fine tune your alignments during a session anyway.

1 minute ago, Beardy30 said:

Do I need to update my skyalign handset that came with the scope ? Before I start observing , I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that I do need to 🤔

You can update the firmware, if it needs it, check your version in the HC against the fixes onCelestron web site. https://www.celestron.com/pages/firmware-update-history

Your looking for Nexstar+ hand control. 

Updating firmware is a whole load of other fun and games.

[Shimrod]

1 hour ago, Beardy30 said:

Cool cheers sounds like it’s a level up from sky align that comes with the scope but don’t think I’ll bother for a while 

I use Starsense as a quicker way of getting set up. once the scope and mount are in place, I can leave Starsense running to align the scope for me while I am still bringing other bits of astro kit out of the house. It can also do the alignment before it is properly dark so enables getting set up a bit earlier in the evening.

For your original question, Starry Night, Sky Safari and CPWI can all be used to control your scope -Sky Safari is tablet/phone based only and you would need to add Skyportal or Skyfi (wi-fi adapters) to your telescope to use. CPWI and Starry Night can be used via wi-fi or a cable to your hand controller. I find it much easier to select objects from a screen rather than using the hand controller. They provide a lot more information on what is visible, and offer 'best of the night' tours. I don't use a hand controller at all with my mount (AVX).

[Shimrod]

1 hour ago, JG777 said:

I always found auto 2 star the most reliable on my Evo, skyalign offers little or no advantage really, you can fine tune your alignments during a session anyway.

You can update the firmware, if it needs it, check your version in the HC against the fixes onCelestron web site. https://www.celestron.com/pages/firmware-update-history

Your looking for Nexstar+ hand control. 

Updating firmware is a whole load of other fun and games.

 

I would suggest getting to know what you've got before updating the firmware. The updates aren't that frequent and for a new telescope, I would expect it to be more or less up to date.

[JG777]

4 hours ago, Shimrod said:

 

I would suggest getting to know what you've got before updating the firmware. The updates aren't that frequent and for a new telescope, I would expect it to be more or less up to date.

Its not unusual for scopes to be in a warehouse for a year or more before being sold, nexstar+ had 5 updates in 2019 alone, some of these more important than others and sometimes bugs are chased out by previous updates that didn't go quite right. In the light of any issues the OP might have ,the first thing Celestron will say is update the firmware before we can help you! 

On the other side of the coin if your scope is doing all you want it to do without issue there is a good case to leave it alone. I usually update a while after the last release if no issues are reported.