Funky Tech magic for the functioning Luddite

[Visionary (David)]

Being a functioning Luddite isn't a desirable when your favoured pursuit is Astro-stuff. I had grown accustomed to poor star alignments, alignments falling way short of anything approaching accuracy but.... all this has changed!
Recently I purchased a Starsense unit and it has worked a miracle upon my mount. Now when I slew from one target to another target, the desired target actually appears dead centre in my WO EWA 9mm eyepiece. This phenomenon of targets appearing in eyepieces is taking requiring considerable mental adjustment. My previous references were guesstimating how far "up and to the right" etc: was the desired target. The old need for my trust 56mm Meade 2" eyepiece is ancient history.
My only criticism of Starsense is the ridiculous manual that completely fluffs the implementation/initialization of Starsense. Implementing Starsense is little different to using a mount for the first time ie: ensuring long-lat is correct and that the RTC is set correctly and that the mount is correctly orientated, not difficult stuff but definitely not "plug & play" as the marketing guff (the manual sic) of Starsense would have you believe. You still need to interact with a hand controller that lacks intuitive characteristics.
In conclusion... how good is Starsense? If the objects I slew to appear dead centre in the field of view of a 9mm eyepiece then... it's bloody stunning and worth every cent of its asking price! Starsense works seamlessly with my magnificent CGEM DX mount and has helped reveal the extraordinary pointing accuracy and repeatability of the CGEM DX. I have for the first time sufficient confidence to take the next step and I will soon start engaging in that strange beast, Astrophotography. It could well be that in Starsense Celestron has produced some real magic, techno-magic rivalling that of Hogwarts, a magic that transforms Luddites into the Techno savvy.

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

Hi!, that is good news. Correct me If I am wrong but the star sense corrects an internal pointing model for the scope so that your point to point slewing is accurate ? It does not requires you to re align your mount after solving to make a better polar alignment does it? Or can you use it to solve the first sky pic, then slew to a second and do manual adjustments to align the second thereby increasing polar alignment accuracy?
I think to take long exposures you would still need a good polar alignment. But the CGEM DX has that anyway with the ALL Star polar alignment routine
Graham

[casstony]

I use Starsense on my AVX and CGEM. I let Starsense align the mount, then do an ASPA (polar alignment), then Starsense needs to do another mount alignment since the mount was manually moved during polar alignment.

The main advantage of Starsense is that I don't have to center 8 or more alignment stars. I don't bother using it with my alt/az mount. It's a very nice gadget to pick up second hand but a bit pricey new.

[Visionary (David)]

Graham, the mapping function of the Skysense is the key to its overall accuracy and the key to improving the accuracy and time taken to complete an All-Star-Alignment with the CGEM.
Once having completed a scope-Starsence camera alignment (done once) the steps in achieving solid alignment run as follows

1) Switch the mount on
2) Run Starsense, get things nicely aligned. Find a convenient star, say, Crucis maintain the pointing of the mount upon Crucis.
3) Run the All-Star-Polar-Alignment, employing the known of Crucis
4) Run the Starsense procedures again, thereby achieving stunning pointing accuracy whilst maintaining Polar Alignment achieved with the All-Star procedure.

Graham, as you correctly described this is all achieved with a mapping function. The Starsense unit "discovers" where it is on the surface of the planet, then references that position to the "pointing" of the mount. The map solution references hundreds of more individual stars within a camera frame. Strangely, this all makes great sense once you get your head around it and is an ideal solution to those two vexing issues of accurate Polar Alignment & Pointing Accuracy.
This business of running the Starsense procedure twice sounds time intensive, it isn't, as Starsense is a fully automated process. The scope will simply "do its thing", requiring zero input from you whilst Starsense runs. The only step that demands some user attention is the All-Star-Alignment procedure.
I hope I have clarified how Starsense maps the sky, superimposing its view against the thousands of maps contained within the memory of the unit. If I have left anything out in describing the function of Starsense please excuse as I am still a newbie with the unit.
Casstony provides a much more succinct summary of the procedure than my rambling. The Starsense unit makes those two crucial steps, Polar Alignment and Pointing and makes them easy and manageable process, requiring little time and little effort from the user.

[deanm (Dean)]

Sounds like a nice bit of kit to have - but I guess it won't work through an NEQ6 mount, will it - only Celestron?
Dean

[Visionary (David)]

Originally Posted by deanm

Sounds like a nice bit of kit to have - but I guess it won't work through an NEQ6 mount, will it - only Celestron?
Dean

I don't believe there is a NEQ6 version, though I am only new to the device. I remember coming across a reference to a Skywatcher version, but I think that may be limited to Celestron type Skywatcher mounts.

[casstony]

There is a version for Skywatcher. It has the similar parts to the Celestron version but with an added adapter box. It also costs a lot more than the Celestron version and they don't sell the adapter box separately.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...y_watcher.html

[The_bluester (Paul)]

I have wondered a few times how well the starsense setup worked. I actually found aligning the CPC mount I used to have pretty easy, you just had to take care to centre the chosen stars well to ensure a good alignment.

I can see that the starsense could overcome the potential inaccuracy in pointing to stars manually as was done on the CPC mount. I would assume it uses plate solving to work out precisely where it is pointed rather than relying on the wetware (Humans) to accurately point the scope.