Celestron Starsense Bracket & App

[Carbon Brush]

I thought I would contribute my limited experience of a Celestron Starsense.

Having heard about Celestron including a phone bracket on a cheap 70mm refractor with free software, I thought I would give it a go.
The idea being to pass the scope on to a beginner and transfer the Starsense to another scope intended for loan/outreach. But I never got that far.
As I was not at all certain about the product performance, and not had a look at it, I bought from Amazon.
Yes I know about supporting astro retailers - and I do. But in this case I was unsure of the product and considered return a strong possibility.

The Celestron 70 comes on a very basic tripod and mount. Low cost mostly plastic eyepieces - enough said on this part.

On this scope (and many others) you are (in effect) paying to use the Starsense software. The hardware is your phone. The software is tied to your phone by a code provided in the box. I believe you can have 5 different device activations before having to negotiate with Celestron.

The Starsense app is easily downloaded to your smartphone. In my case from the Google Play store. The phone sits on a bracket on the OTA. So far so good.
The bracket comprises a diagonal mirror, phone grip and x/y adjustment mechanism. It looks well built.
Then you locate a distant object (tree, aerial, etc.) and align the phone camera to the OTA - a bit like aligning a finder to OTA.
It is a combination of turning the x/y mechanism and zooming the screen for accurate sighting.
If you want to use your everyday phone, then you have to go through an alignment procedure every time you use the kit.
Then what if you want to use your phone while observing?
I opted to use a redundant smartphone and leave it attached, so making alignment a once only task.
Alignment is best done in daylight, or on a distant street light.

A caution. Your old phone may not have anything like original battery life, which means you should consider a power bank of some description to ensure the phone doesn’t pack up part way through a session.

After installation, Starsense software does not need web access. It does not need GPS. It works by looking at the stars in the phone FOV and deciding where you are.

In practice I found high clouds prevented this recognition. The software started trying to take photos at different exposures. Tried to get web access. The phone I used did not have GPS. How much of the problems were down to my phone, and how much were restrictions of Starsense, I cannot say with certainty. When there was partial cloud, but some stars clearly visible, Starsense did not recognise where it was looking. However, there were enough stars for me to work out where I was looking.

As the phone (screen) is fixed to the OTA, the viewing angle may not suit. Think about this if you intend to fasten on to your own OTA. Had I got this far, it would have been sticky pads until I was happy with the location.

A further consideration is phone brightness. You need to have good control over this to avoid your eyes reverting to daylight vision!

In conclusion this appeared to be a good low cost package for beginners. I think you will get best results from a phone with a good camera. This means the apparently low-cost package actually ties up your (probably) expensive phone.

After several attempts to obtain good results I gave up. The package did not offer me anything better than going out to look using the old established methods. Maybe the poor weather and August (light) skies did not help. Maybe I should have got a better phone?

The clock ticked towards the returns window expiring, that made the decision for me. I could not justify hanging on to the package in the hope of clear dark skies in another month or two giving me good results.

I am sure there are some who have used this kit and got on well, but not me. Please add to the review if you have your own story (good or bad) to tell.

 

[Beulah]

I have had some experience with this product and we came to the same conclusion that you need a good quality camera on your smartphone for the software to work properly.

[cajen2]

8 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

I thought I would contribute my limited experience of a Celestron Starsense.

Having heard about Celestron including a phone bracket on a cheap 70mm refractor with free software, I thought I would give it a go.
The idea being to pass the scope on to a beginner and transfer the Starsense to another scope intended for loan/outreach. But I never got that far.
As I was not at all certain about the product performance, and not had a look at it, I bought from Amazon.
Yes I know about supporting astro retailers - and I do. But in this case I was unsure of the product and considered return a strong possibility.

The Celestron 70 comes on a very basic tripod and mount. Low cost mostly plastic eyepieces - enough said on this part.

On this scope (and many others) you are (in effect) paying to use the Starsense software. The hardware is your phone. The software is tied to your phone by a code provided in the box. I believe you can have 5 different device activations before having to negotiate with Celestron.

The Starsense app is easily downloaded to your smartphone. In my case from the Google Play store. The phone sits on a bracket on the OTA. So far so good.
The bracket comprises a diagonal mirror, phone grip and x/y adjustment mechanism. It looks well built.
Then you locate a distant object (tree, aerial, etc.) and align the phone camera to the OTA - a bit like aligning a finder to OTA.
It is a combination of turning the x/y mechanism and zooming the screen for accurate sighting.
If you want to use your everyday phone, then you have to go through an alignment procedure every time you use the kit.
Then what if you want to use your phone while observing?
I opted to use a redundant smartphone and leave it attached, so making alignment a once only task.
Alignment is best done in daylight, or on a distant street light.

A caution. Your old phone may not have anything like original battery life, which means you should consider a power bank of some description to ensure the phone doesn’t pack up part way through a session.

After installation, Starsense software does not need web access. It does not need GPS. It works by looking at the stars in the phone FOV and deciding where you are.

In practice I found high clouds prevented this recognition. The software started trying to take photos at different exposures. Tried to get web access. The phone I used did not have GPS. How much of the problems were down to my phone, and how much were restrictions of Starsense, I cannot say with certainty. When there was partial cloud, but some stars clearly visible, Starsense did not recognise where it was looking. However, there were enough stars for me to work out where I was looking.

As the phone (screen) is fixed to the OTA, the viewing angle may not suit. Think about this if you intend to fasten on to your own OTA. Had I got this far, it would have been sticky pads until I was happy with the location.

A further consideration is phone brightness. You need to have good control over this to avoid your eyes reverting to daylight vision!

In conclusion this appeared to be a good low cost package for beginners. I think you will get best results from a phone with a good camera. This means the apparently low-cost package actually ties up your (probably) expensive phone.

After several attempts to obtain good results I gave up. The package did not offer me anything better than going out to look using the old established methods. Maybe the poor weather and August (light) skies did not help. Maybe I should have got a better phone?

The clock ticked towards the returns window expiring, that made the decision for me. I could not justify hanging on to the package in the hope of clear dark skies in another month or two giving me good results.

I am sure there are some who have used this kit and got on well, but not me. Please add to the review if you have your own story (good or bad) to tell.

 

A second hand Google Pixel is pretty good: especially using the included astrophotography setting. Mine's an old Pixel 3.

[bosun21]

Mine works flawlessly with my Pixel 6 as well as my iPhone. I bought a relatively cheap android phone(Blackview) to use solely on the Starsense and that worked great as well. It takes seconds after moving the scope to another part of the sky for the plate solving to find where it’s at. I had trouble one night with the plate solving not working. I removed the phone and after taking it indoors to clean it I found a fingerprint on the camera lens. Problem solved and still works great. I find it a good timesaver on my dobsonian.

[tomato]

I had excellent results with an iPhone 11. When the phone was in position it was readily viewable in about 90% of all scope orientations and it only took about 30 seconds to realign when removed from the cradle (this was in July) so I never considered the need for a second, dedicated phone. I’m pretty sure the software version on my phone had a night vision option.