Quote:
Originally Posted by Placesinthedark
It's a 90GT Celestron "Cosmos".
For me, fiddling with the phone and app after connecting is just not fun and you can't look through the red dot finder and move the scope at the same time as the buttons on the app are not intuitive and give no feedback! Those buttons often freeze, even on different phones.
I really wish I could just manually move the scope but it only allows me to move it up and down.
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Hi Stephen,
I believe the Celestron Cosmos mount is similar enough to the rest of the "Astro-Fi" line. I too experienced all the frustration that you have described with my Mum's Astro-Fi SCT. I improved this in a few ways:
1. Check that the Mount firmware was up to date. My Old Girl's Astro-Fi was, but check anyway.
https://www.nexstarsite.com/Firmware...FiFirmware.htm
2. An update to the Celestron phone app late 2017 made a huge difference to the dropouts.
3. Using the mount in "infrastructure mode", as opposed to Ad-hoc helped again. Only good if your home WIFI signal is good, maybe counterproductive for if not.
4. Update to the paid SkySafari 6 App.
Now is the time (thanks Julian) Version 6 uses a neat phone tilting method to move the scope in all directions manually. As you know, you can't feel the buttons on screen, which is frustrating.
5. I ended up buying a cheap Celestron SLT mount and Nextar AZ hand control from eBay. Some LA based sellers were flogging off thousands of (I suspect) store return stock. The mount and hand control was $160 delivered. I ended up pier mounting the SLT, so no waste there. The hand control makes the Cosmos mount a standard light duty Nexstar AZ mount.
Personally, I think the 12" Dob (transport allowing), will be the best thing you can do. I hope the above helps you experience some satisfaction and value from what you've already spent however.