Celestron Starsense

[TerryC]

I purchased one of these recently and finally got to try it out last night. The installation was very straightforward, and the alignment process quite simple once you entered your location and time. On starting the alignment process, the scope moves around a number of times, pointing to what looks like arbitrary parts of the sky searching for stars in its library. The alignment process seems to need around 100 stars for completion.

Once the alignment process is complete you then have to select a bright star (magnitude 2.0 or less) to complete the calibration with what you see in the eyepiece. A separate finder is enormously valuable at this point ! The calibration process only needs to be completed once.

I am using it on a Skywatcher Az-Eq6. Part of the reason for going this route is I prefer the Celestron hand control to the one that comes with the mount. The additional ease of alignment makes this money well spent.

Australian retailers sell these for about $699. I found they can be purchased from UK for around $450 landed.

[Martin_S]

Once you are aligned with Starsense you can connect the hand controller via the USB port and control the mount with Cartes du ciel. You just select Celestron telescope from the drop down box in telescope settings.

[Hemi]

I’ve been using stsrsense on my AZEQ6 fir a couple of yrs now, and it’s great. But not perfect if you do a combination of visual and imaging.

It works great with the celestron focuser, but not the WiFi dongle. (So no native way to use sky safari(which I enjoy immensely).

I much prefer the star sense/celestron HC over the SW SynScan HC. But usb connection to pc shows the mount as celestron (ascom) so didn’t work with Eqmod. Which I also immensely like when imaging/computer control.

..... looking for the holy grail of perfecto visual and imaging without a lot of swapping cables etc

CS

Hemi

[TerryC]

I haven't used Cartes du ciel, tell me more...

[Martin_S]

an alternative to Stellairium, plenty here to read.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Cartes+du+ciel&rlz=1C1AVFC_enAU798AU798&oq=Cartes+du+ciel&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59l2j69i65l3j6 9i60l2&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[TerryC]

Thanks Martin.

I wonder why they don't put real time clocks in these hand controls. If you don't have a wireless connection it's a pain entering the accurate time every time you switch on. All PC's have them.

[garymck]

I had one as well (Starsense for Skywatcher) but returned it as I found that pulse guiding would not work. I was never able to get a completed calibration with it, (tried varying pulse lengths and got it to occassionally respond, but not consistently. I tried the st guide port on the mount (HEQ5) but got crap guiding with it. Celestron did not bother replying to my email for help, and the Team Celestron site was unable to assist.

It worked great for visual, but was unsuited to imaging.

FWIW
Gary

PS I have a Starsense on my CPC925 and it works well.

[Martin_S]

I found the same thing Gary ,I just use my Starsense on my Evo mount for visual.

Martin

[TerryC]

Not familiar with pulse guiding. Is this something specific to Skywatcher mounts ?
I take it that you can't do any guiding with the Celestron Starsense.

[garymck]

There are two modes off guiding used generally when imaging. The default mode for most people is pulse guiding. The other mode is ST4 guiding (the original method, now not used by many people.) This is often fitted to mounts and labelled as a guide port. Almost every company fits them to their mounts, but most people rarely use it as pulse guiding seems to give better results.

Pulse guiding does not appear to work with the Starsense for Skywatcher. ST4 guiding did not work for me either, though this should have had nothing to do with the Starsense....but then I've never had ST4 guiding work on a genuine Celestron mount either......or a straight Skywatcher mount....

Gary

[TerryC]

Gary, I wonder if the pulse guiding problem you experienced with the HEQ5 is the same for the other Skywatcher mounts ?
BTW, the alignment procedure failed the first time for me as well, but second time was successful. I'll see what happens next time I'm out.