Celestron gps

[daz01968]

How good  are skysync gps. Are they worth the money. I have a celestron nexstar 6se and can never get it set up properly . Was thinking about celestron gps to make things easy

[baggywrinkle]

It certainly will always mean correct date time and position are set. You will still have to do an alignment. One of my colleagues uses both skysync and syncscan on his 8SE and AVX. Swears by it.

[daz01968]

Is there any way you dont have to do alignment 

[noah4x4]

14 minutes ago, daz01968 said:

Is there any way you dont have to do alignment 

No, but Starsense is of great assistance if you find alignments difficult or uncomfortable (bending/sciatica etc). Starsense and SkySync GPS work well together. 

[daz01968]

Many thanks for your help 

[Shimrod]

18 hours ago, daz01968 said:

Many thanks for your help 

I would suggest Startsense and Skyportal rather than Skysync GPS. I have read of some issues )on here and TeamCelestron) with the SE, Starsense and GPS module not working well together. The Skyportal wi-fi is cheaper  than the GPS module, and you can then control your telescope from your phone, tablet or laptop. The mount will take your date, time and location from your phone settings instead. I use Starsense on my AVX mount and it makes set up much easier and quicker.

[daz01968]

Thanks so much bit better for my budget at the moment 

[Dr Strange]

If the goal is no manual alignment then your best and really only option is StarSense. It works well and handles alignment for you. 

[garryblueboy]

They work well but terribly overpriced for a basic GPS  

[cloudsweeper]

All depends on what you like and can work with.  I tried WiFi control, and didn't get on with it.  The GPS unit however is great for making setting up easier.  Starsense makes the whole thing easy, but is costly.  

For me, GPS and one- or two-star alignment is quick, easy, and effective.

Doug.

[Shimrod]

2 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

All depends on what you like and can work with.  I tried WiFi control, and didn't get on with it.  The GPS unit however is great for making setting up easier.  Starsense makes the whole thing easy, but is costly.  

For me, GPS and one- or two-star alignment is quick, easy, and effective.

Doug.

I guess it depends on how much you like the interface on the various control software available. I find it much easier searching and selecting from the tablet app (or starry night on my laptop) than working with a couple of 40 character lines on the handset. Using CPWI (the free celestron software) I do most of my control with an xbox controller!

[Cosmic Geoff]

12 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

For me, GPS and one- or two-star alignment is quick, easy, and effective.

One of my outfits has built-in GPS and Nexstar+.  The GPS reduces the setup effort by half, to just doing a 2-star auto align and I don't feel the need to have the Starsense on it as well. I mostly use the handsets for controlling the scopes rather than introduce another level of complication and potential failure.

[Shimrod]

4 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

 I mostly use the handsets for controlling the scopes rather than introduce another level of complication and potential failure.

I guess it's that line between simplicity and complication. I've always found the handsets difficult to work with (I first had an LX90 in 2003) and the scrolling text on the Starsense handset a particularly hard to read. Being able to choose where to point the telescope and select objects from what is available in the sections of sky I can see for me creates a much more enjoyable observing experience. I see this as simplifying the experience, but appreciate that may not be true for all.

[noah4x4]

On 16/05/2020 at 09:15, Shimrod said:

I would suggest Startsense and Skyportal rather than Skysync GPS. I have read of some issues )on here and TeamCelestron) with the SE, Starsense and GPS module not working well together. The Skyportal wi-fi is cheaper  than the GPS module, and you can then control your telescope from your phone, tablet or laptop. The mount will take your date, time and location from your phone settings instead. I use Starsense on my AVX mount and it makes set up much easier and quicker.

I think this could confuse some people, so let me clarify...

A SkyPortal WiFi device can connect your scope to either a tablet/phone (using SkyPortal or SkySafari APP) or connect to a laptop (using CPWI). These devices then replace the hand controller.  Celestron third generation SkyPortal WiFi usually works fine, but it's range is short and in densely populated urban locations can occasionally be a bit flaky as it depends on the cluttered 2.4Ghz channel that is also known to conflict with nearby USB3 devices (like cameras). In the 'great outdoors' away from urban clutter  there is greater stability.

In both cases where computer control is employed rather than HC, then GPS is not normally required as date/time can be sourced from the control devices <location services>. However, this only works if the control device has recently been connected to the Internet at that location (time will normally be fine). If at a different location where there is no Internet signal (dark sky site?) then GPS can be of assistance as regards determining location. A thought here, if you can't connect to the Internet, it might not be easy to determine your latitude and longitude (has caught me out!). 

The reported problem is that this combination sometimes doesn't work. There seems to be an issue when Windows is wrestling with multiple Celestron devices (Starsense + GPS + Focuser) and one or other isn't recognised by CPWI. However, GPS works fine in isolation with Starsense and HC.

Hence, I only use my SkySync GPS with Starsense or Nexstar + HC where it is helpful. But if using a control device with Internet access is in proximity, you don't require GPS.