Problem calibrating starsense calibration

[West Lancs Bri]

Hi all…I have a nexstar 5se and recently decided to upgrade the tech and purchased the starsense camera, wifi adapter and downloaded the sky safari app onto my iPad. Clear nights have been at a premium in West Lancashire in recent months, but tonight under a clear sky, I had a go at setting it up, but sadly didn’t find it to be as easy as it’s made out to be…though I’m aware I may be doing something dumb and fundamentally wrong!…all lens caps off and a dew shield in situ to ward off condensation.

The WiFi worked fine off the adapter to the app, longitude and latitude all fine, the scope aligned 3 stars and invited me to calibrate. I picked Sirius on the app, tapped the app and it slewed nicely in its general direction. Then using a 25mm lens I couldn’t see anything…all dark. I slewed slowly around the periphery of Sirius and still nothing. I sent the scope to Rigel and same result.

I’ve no idea where I’m going wrong and I don’t know whether the starsense needs a firmware update or not, given it’s a recent UK purchase and I’d struggled to find a UK supplier with COVID/shipping issues etc.

Any helpful suggestions would be most welcome!

🙂

 

[michael8554]

Do you have the 5SE and the finderscope aligned to each other ?

Then you can centre Sirius in the finder, then in the 5SE.

Michael

[Shimrod]

5 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Do you have the 5SE and the finderscope aligned to each other ?

Then you can centre Sirius in the finder, then in the 5SE.

Michael

I suspect the finder has been removed to fit the starsense camera - which can make the first time setup and calibration a little awkward - I fitted a second finder mount to my 8" SCT so I could use both.

[Shimrod]

On 04/03/2022 at 21:37, West Lancs Bri said:

Hi all…I have a nexstar 5se and recently decided to upgrade the tech and purchased the starsense camera, wifi adapter and downloaded the sky safari app onto my iPad. Clear nights have been at a premium in West Lancashire in recent months, but tonight under a clear sky, I had a go at setting it up, but sadly didn’t find it to be as easy as it’s made out to be…though I’m aware I may be doing something dumb and fundamentally wrong!…all lens caps off and a dew shield in situ to ward off condensation.

The WiFi worked fine off the adapter to the app, longitude and latitude all fine, the scope aligned 3 stars and invited me to calibrate. I picked Sirius on the app, tapped the app and it slewed nicely in its general direction. Then using a 25mm lens I couldn’t see anything…all dark. I slewed slowly around the periphery of Sirius and still nothing. I sent the scope to Rigel and same result.

I’ve no idea where I’m going wrong and I don’t know whether the starsense needs a firmware update or not, given it’s a recent UK purchase and I’d struggled to find a UK supplier with COVID/shipping issues etc.

Any helpful suggestions would be most welcome!

🙂

 

I do not think you have done anything wrong, if you are getting in the general direction - but it depends on how 'out of line' the starsense camera is with the telescope as to how easy it will be to locate the selected star when viewing through the eyepiece. This is what calibration aims to fix, but it can be a bit frustrating when you can't easily get the calibration stars in the eyepiece view.

It helps if you can get the initial alignment as accurate as possible - if you are only centring the star using a low power eyepiece, try switching to your highest power eyepiece to ensure the star is as centred as possible. I found using a reticle eyepiece massively improved my ability to centre stars and made my alignment much more accurate. 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I assume we are discussing the hardware Starsense camera and handset here, not the smartphone app? 

My suggestion is to get the system working without the wifi etc and then add the wifi and ipad.

On 04/03/2022 at 21:37, West Lancs Bri said:

The WiFi worked fine off the adapter to the app, longitude and latitude all fine, the scope aligned 3 stars and invited me to calibrate. I picked Sirius on the app, tapped the app and it slewed nicely in its general direction. Then using a 25mm lens I couldn’t see anything…all dark. I slewed slowly around the periphery of Sirius and still nothing. I sent the scope to Rigel and same result.

You might have to temporarily refit your finder (without unplugging or powering down the camera) if the alignment is a way off.

[banjaxed]

There are some tutorials on YouTube which I found to be very helpful.

[West Lancs Bri]

Thanks for your helpful suggestions folks…will try each in turn 👍