CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Does anyone have experience with the Celestron Star Sense Autoalignment, hearsay evidence will be heard also. I have the Celestron CGEM Mount and a GPS unit too. Will it give me the accuracy I want for my 9.25" scope Astrophotography??? Thanks Sonny in advance. Hahaha
Craig

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

(Download)

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Not me. That's above my allowance level.

So I fretter along at simpler levels...
Like bottom dweller levels....

Joe Crocker said it best.

My Russian Friends take me around the Universe with Stellarium.

And you guys are my Mainstay, my Meat and Potatoes, as I fumble along.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

So you spent your money on a WiFi setup and use Stellarium to align and select objects???
Craig

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Haven’t used it, but heard good things about it. I recently bought the Polemaster, it is amazing. I can align in minutes, what would previously take me hours to get.

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

I also have the Polemaster and agree it’s quick and nice.
I also have this device but I do not have a cable for it. Can you give me the color wire pin out for the cable to mount? I tried Hooking it up with just a usb cable but it is not seen with that alone. The starsense came with my CGEM that I got in August.
Until I get it talking, I’m not much help. (If you could take a pic of both ends together with the clip retainer up I can make my own cable.)
Jim

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Well, yes and no.
I had a Toshiba laptop and started using it out at the mount to operate it remotely, when Ronnie clued me in about Team Viewer, and later I found Tight Vnc, to use as a computer to computer interface.
Then I pretty much wasted a chunk of change on the Intel Compute Stick. It worked, but was rather slow and had a lot of drawbacks.
Then after my Toshiba Laptop up and died after 12 years (The black screen of death), I now have the Baby Dell 2 in 1 Laptop/Tablet. Which runs the mount and telescope out back, and WiFi's to my desktop inside. (Very fast and reliable, I'll add.) When I revamped everything for the compute stick, I moved my StarTech powered USB hub onto my telescope, and hooked up the mount to it.
So now I use a single USB cable from the hub down to the Baby Dell USB3 port. The Baby Dell also has a big size advantage with a 500 Gb hard drive, and 4 Gb of RAM, and a micro SD card slot. I use the micro SD card to store my image gatherings. Then I can move that to my desk computer for processing.

Stellarium runs my mount as a selecting and slewing program. It has since I learned how to have it control my mount.

I'm doing my alignment the same way I learned initially. 2 + 4 alignment stars. Except I'm using the Infinity camera and the main telescope, instead of my guide scope, to center the alignment stars.
It works good for me in part due to I don't move my mount. So my Polar Alignment is as stable as if I was using a pier. I simply check that Polaris is in my Guide Scope, then run through my alignment.
Alignment always goes out the window when the NexRemote is shut down, and the mount is shut down.
I've never really timed how long it takes me to run through an alignment, but probably 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour, I'd guess. (Maybe less)
The quality of object acquisition is good, always in the Infinity's FOV, and usually close to the middle. I fine adjust it and then start PHD2 to guiding. After that an object stays right where I started until I'm ready to move on.

I hope it works great for you. It sounds like it does plate solving to get it's alignment. Poke a button on the provided hand controller, and it goes from there.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I have one that I will sell. I use SGP or Astrotortilla for plate solving and have absolutely no need for it. Now with that being said, finding it may be another problem Since we moved - big house to little house, I have boxes packed with gear and not too sure where to look for it. But if interested, PM me. I used once or twice at my former residence but I didn't have enough viewable sky for it to work.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Yes, it will probably give you the accuracy required for a 9.25" scope. I use it quite successfully with an 8" Edge HD and have used it with a previously owned C11.

However, you do have to calibrate the StarSense unit to the scope, i.e.: you run the AutoAlign, select an object, maybe a bright star, then calibrate the scope to be centered on the same object. Once this is done the scope will center on any object selected.

I have three StarSense units; one on each of an AVX, CGEM DX and Evolution mount.

bwa

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Thanks Brian for all your information. I have a tossup on the Starsense and the Polemaster.
Craig

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

I'd go with PoleMaster first. Polar alignment is more important than really accurate star alignment, at least in my opinion.

bwa

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Thanks Brian that's the response I was really looking for in the first place. After watching several videos I was wondering about polar alignment with the StarSence, that it would have to be done before doing the Star Alignment. Polemaster was getting wonderful PHD2 results.
Craig

W7MEV

I have a StarSense that I have been using on my C10-NGT (which was just replaced with an as-yet untried C11 SCT. I can give you a couple hints that make the StarSense a little better than out-of-the-box. First, add all the USER ALIGNMENT POINTS you can - I have 9 point memorized in mine. When aligning, I always select the "user auto align" function an let it crank through all 9 locations. Then I slew to a star in or near my intended target, insure it is centered in the visual field and change from an eyepiece to the camera. Next I select the "Calibrate" function and carefully center my selected alignment star in the camera field. Once the calibration is complete the StarSense will automatically do a realign. At that point the target I am selecting, and everything near it in the sky will be centered in the camera field at the end of each new slew.

StarSense?? Wouldn't be without it!!!

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Thank you very much for the information on using the StarSence.
Craig

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

I went ahead and got a new PoleMaster, due to arrive Fri for my weekend Seeing.
Craig