Why aren’t there more push-to smartphone & app mounts and accessories?

[IB20]

As far as I’m aware the Celestron Starsense seems to be the only thing that fits this bill. Strikes me as odd that versions of this aren’t everywhere? If it’s a patent issue, I’m surprised certain markets haven’t ignored these or why Celestron feel the need to flog this as a whole package rather than stand alone kit.

 

[DaveL59]

Well, there's a number of us that had DIY's a phone carrier or adapted the OEM one to use on other scopes. You can also use SkEye in a similar way though it doesn't plate solve so accuracy can be problematic when using the phone sensors alongside a steel tube. You'd need to come up with a phone holder and mounting method to suit the scope of course but isn't expensive to do. There's a couple threads on either on the forum.

As to whether Celestron will eventually market their system as an add-on, I think it may, eventually and there's been several voice interest. When it works it is very convenient and almost no setup time compared to a GoTo system.

[StevieDvd]

It's been debated on forums a few times. I still can't understand how people assume that Celestron would make a fortune if they sold the units to fit any scope/mount. A large company like Celestron would know that far better than the average person. 

So the need is profit.

 

 

[IB20]

2 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

Well, there's a number of us that had DIY's a phone carrier or adapted the OEM one to use on other scopes. You can also use SkEye in a similar way though it doesn't plate solve so accuracy can be problematic when using the phone sensors alongside a steel tube. You'd need to come up with a phone holder and mounting method to suit the scope of course but isn't expensive to do. There's a couple threads on either on the forum.

As to whether Celestron will eventually market their system as an add-on, I think it may, eventually and there's been several voice interest. When it works it is very convenient and almost no setup time compared to a GoTo system.

Thanks for this, I’ve been down a rabbit hole and think I may have found some bits to cobble together to try a makeshift version.