Celestron StarSense to Sky-Watcher Mount Interface Box

[Pharian]

http://www.adorama.com/cnsssw.html

Anyone used that thing before? Any good?

I hate aligning my NEQ6, I'm a lazy bastich.

[sil]

Not exactly but I do have a Celestron 6sct SkyProdigy scope (starsense is built into this model not an addon). For various reasons i've had it a while but recently used it for the first time to shoot Mars. I live in a townhouse in suburban Canberra and I used it from the inner area of the complex so it had obscured views of the horizon all around. Obscured under 15deg ALT really. It failed to solve the first few times I tried it with eyepiece in place and it wasnt until after astronomical dark when I tried it again and it finally solved location well but unfortunately at that time I had my ZWO camera in the scope and was hunting for Mars manually and after solving it got pointed at mars nicely but unfortunately not in the FOV of the camera and I didnt try an eyepiece to see how accurate it was. Once I got Mars in the camera the scope tracked it well but not perfect, it still drifted slowly across the FOV. So I guess it doesn't track and only uses the starsense once to determine location co-ords. So I guess its on par with my Celestron 102SLT. NEQ6? no idea. But overall I am impressed it actually worked from suburbia considering it starts its search around the horizon and there are street and parking lights visible to it.

For the lazy it did what it said on the box basically, turning on you choose auto align from the handset, wait a few minutes (have a coffee) and it eventually stops and says alignment worked or failed. But you still have to choose a target for it to point at, unfortunately for the super lazy it has no voice control.

My understanding is direction controls for mounts are fairly standard and simple at least within the main brands if not all. So I guess on the NEQ6 the starsense will park the mount at a start position then look at the sky and move and look until it solves for a location then starts streaming location data as a fake GPS signal in NMEA format for the host mount to read the location data. Anyway I think it'll work for you just fine and you can firmware update from TeamCelestron (http://teamcelestron.com/).

[casstony]

I only have Celestron mounts but I imagine StarSense works fine with the Skywatchers too. I got mine second hand in a scope package and I've only tried it with an alt/az mount so far - works well but it's just as easy to do a two star align anyway.

I plan to try it with my AVX where I think it might be more useful to get the mount ready for imaging, since otherwise I'd need to align/calibrate, do an all star polar alignment, then align/calibrate again.

I don't think I'd pay new price just for basic alignments for visual use though - plenty of other things to spend money on :)

[johnanderson008]

do you guys know if you can get the box separate?

[casstony]

The adapter box isn't available separately John. You could put up a wanted ad or buy the Starsense for Skywatcher from the UK for a few hundred less than they sell for here.

[Martin_S]

I have two of them , one for my Celestron Nexstar 6se and one for my Skywatcher HEQ5 pro. I use Celestron CPWI software via usb cable to remotely control my Nexstar. CPWI does everything from the the PC. Time , location and mount control. I use this setup all the time.

Starsense for Skywatcher is not as versatile, as all time and location data has to be entered manually via the handset . Celestron CPWI software does not work with Skywatcher mounts. But you can use Cartes du Ciel with a usb cable to the handset. I don't use this mount for nighttime viewing as I prefer the Celestron CPWI software as it's so easy to use. So my HEQ5 is now my Solar rig

If you have the Skywatcher Starsense it also works on Celestron mounts.

Here is my setup on Cloudy Nights https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/120354-show-off-your-nexstar/page-61 post #1523

Martin

[casstony]

The Celestron Skysync GPS unit can be plugged into the adapter box on Skywatcher mounts to provide time/location.