Star sense

[Pauls Space]

Hi 

Has anyone had any problems with the star sense app not being accurate in a not so dark area ?

[Starwatcher2001]

Welcome aboard SGL Paul. Good to have you with us.

I've not seen that problem here. There can be a bit of a learning curve and messing around getting it going to start with (getting the right settings, aligning the camera with the tube etc), but after that I've never had any trouble. In fact I'm surprised how well it works and aligns itself in twilight. I'm using using the SkySafari  app.

 

 

[banjaxed]

Hi and welcome to SGL, as long as you have access to a reasonable area of sky you shouldn’t have any problem. Sometimes people forget take the lens cap off the camera.

[Pauls Space]

Hi 

Thank you all for the warm welcome and  help with the StarSense issue 

I look forward to our conversations 

 

[Pauls Space]

12 hours ago, Starwatcher2001 said:

Welcome aboard SGL Paul. Good to have you with us.

I've not seen that problem here. There can be a bit of a learning curve and messing around getting it going to start with (getting the right settings, aligning the camera with the tube etc), but after that I've never had any trouble. In fact I'm surprised how well it works and aligns itself in twilight. I'm using using the SkySafari  app.

 

 

Hi  Starwatcher

thank you for your time 

my StarSense is manually powered it’s the app that uses your smartphones camera 

Its the smartphone camera and app that I’m having trouble with as it won’t see objects in a not so dark sky

cheers

 

[pointedstick]

Yes, I've had that problem with mine. I find that it's most accurate on a dark, clear night. The brighter and cloudier it is, the more the app struggles to get its bearings--much like myself lol

[Starwatcher2001]

Ah sorry Paul, my mistake. Celestron stupidly have two entirely different products called "StarSense" - StarSense Autoalign which uses a camera to align the telescope, and StarSense Explorer - the app that you use.  You did mention "app" in your post and I totally missed that bit.

https://www.celestron.com/products/starsense-autoalign

https://www.celestron.com/collections/starsense-explorer-smartphone-app-enabled-telescopes

 

 

[banjaxed]

I missed the app also, sorry I can’t help as mine is the auto align.

[Pauls Space]

2 hours ago, Starwatcher2001 said:

Ah sorry Paul, my mistake. Celestron stupidly have two entirely different products called "StarSense" - StarSense Autoalign which uses a camera to align the telescope, and StarSense Explorer - the app that you use.  You did mention "app" in your post and I totally missed that bit.

https://www.celestron.com/products/starsense-autoalign

https://www.celestron.com/collections/starsense-explorer-smartphone-app-enabled-telescopes

 

 

Ah ok sorry my mistake it’s the explorer app although the camera app sounds good unfortunately I’ve got the manual one one a 6” Schmitt 

 

[Geoff Lister]

I have Starsense camera and software built-in to my Celestron SkyProdigy mount. The camera is a 640 x 480 pixel device, similar to a basic webcam, and needs fairly dark skies to "see" enough stars to perform its plate solving. If it cannot "see" several tens of stars, it tries another section of sky, but eventually gives up.

I also have the Skywatcher Skymax mount. The Synscan software requires the user to select alignment stars, and manually centre them in the eyepiece. I recon that I can perform a "Brightest Star" 2-star alignment, using bright stars such as Vega, Altair or Capella, a good 45 minutes before it is dark enough for Starsense to work. On a dark night, the Starsense system gets me aligned a couple of minutes faster than I can achieve with the Synscan system.

Geoff

[Louis D]

7 hours ago, Geoff Lister said:

The camera is a 640 x 480 pixel device, similar to a basic webcam, and needs fairly dark skies to "see" enough stars to perform its plate solving.

So, if you're way north in the summer, you can forget about this technology working during the "night".

[Geoff Lister]

7 hours ago, Louis D said:

So, if you're way north in the summer, you can forget about this technology working during the "night".

The version of Starsense fitted in the SkyProdigy has 6 possible settings to help the alignment. "Hazy/Urban" seems to be the default. "Full Moon" is probably the best for northern summer. The others are "Suburban", "Dark", "Windy" - to ignore blurred stars, and "Custom" - it may be possible to adjust the settings to get alignment under semi-dark conditions. I have also found that, if the camera is not finding quite enough stars, it is worth doing a power down, rotate by about 20 degrees azimuth, power up and start again. If this fails, or you have obstructed views, there is a manual alignment option so you can point the 'scope towards a few areas of sky with a reasonable number of visible (through a low magnification eyepiece) stars.

Geoff

[Louis D]

8 hours ago, Geoff Lister said:

you have obstructed views, there is a manual alignment option

That's my situation since my trees matured.  I have a sliver of sky about 20 degrees wide to the south and overhead that are clear.  The rest is either partially or completely obscured.  Two star aligning my DSCs is a real chore because of this.  I'm lucky if I can see one bright star at any given time.  That's why I really like SkEye since it requires no initial alignment.  I then refine alignment on objects that are visible.  It's been helpful in getting my bearings when I can't see an entire constellation or group of them.