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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 12:11:22 GMT
I recently purchased a Celestron Starsense to use with my Celestron AVX mount. I have always had problems finding suitable alignment stars due to my somewhat restricted views form my garden. The Starsense would hopefully solve this problem for me and hopefully accuratel goto any object anywhere within my limited views. Well I had a chance for a quick test on Saturday, but failed to complete the initial alignment due to clouds rolling in before I could finish. (Murphy's law strikes again.)
Anyway, Sunday was amazingly clear despite a bad weather forecast. So I was outside by 6pm in twilight. The starsense performed the first alignment flawlessly. I then did the calibration to centre the star in the scope and performed the alignment the 2nd time, as instructed in the manual. Another flawless alignment and afterwards found that every object I chose to view fell onto the camera sensor. The objects were not exactly on the centre of the sensor, but that would be due to using an EP to centre the calibration star. Had I used the camera to centre the star in the middle of the frame, I'm sure every object would have been in the middle also. I will do that next time.
The whole procedure took less than 10 minutes, so in future the star alignment should only take about 4 minutes. First test was very positive. The next test will tell me if the Starsense will hold the calibration from one session to the next.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 12:29:57 GMT
Thanks for the report Allan
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 12:41:11 GMT
Sounds awesome allan its something i looked into myself but wont work with my scope.
How sensitive is the camera? Do you get to see the video feed? Or does it just do everything internally?
Would be cool if it placed a map over the pics of the sky it takes to help you navigate and learn the skies (as im guessing thats what its main function is anyway...i.e. to map the sky for you)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 19:41:32 GMT
It would be great if you could use this cam as a finder, or at least be able to see an image of the sky, but thats not what it does. Everything is done internally and automatically, you get to see nothing. The Starsense slews the scope to an area of the sky, takes an image, plate solves it and moves to the next area and repeats the process. It does this several times until it maps the sky and calculates its position. When aligned it can then accurately take you anywhere you want to go. I did this last night before it was even dark and it worked. The camera must be quite sensitive as it saw lots more stars than I could with my eyes. The only down side Chris is that it might be so good that you never need to learn the skies. You can just goto anything you want to see without actually knowing where it is. Star hopping is just so last century.
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Post by davy on Feb 3, 2014 20:01:12 GMT
Why waste time star hopping eh..embrace technology lol
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 21:05:09 GMT
Shame you cant see the images it takes that would have been very cool. Sounds like a cool toy tho! i reckon i could only find like max 4 objects manually...and yes one of them is the moon
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 21:50:57 GMT
there is no reason why you couldn't just switch on a sensitive finder cam and watch what's going on as the starsense does its thing. It does pause for a few moments to take its own images and process the data. you may get to see what it sees, although its of no real use to you.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 22:06:09 GMT
How does it handle areas that are blocked by trees or buildings? I can only see limited west, east, very limited south, etc.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 22:56:52 GMT
I have a suspicion that if it cannot see properly due to an obstructed view, it will move itself to an area where it can see, but I have yet to test this fully.
There is however a manual align function whereby you can select the manual align option and slew the scope to a clear patch of the sky you want to use for alignment. The manual states that this is not as accurate as the auto option, but you can add up to ten calibration points which should give pretty damn good alignment. (not tested this feature yet.)
I did notice during my initial test alignment that the scope was generally pointing above 20deg and up to the zenith, so low obstructions may not be a conscern.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 23:04:06 GMT
For those that are interested, you can download the manual here. Starsense pdf
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2014 23:52:23 GMT
I recently purchased a Celestron Starsense to use with my Celestron AVX mount. I have always had problems finding suitable alignment stars due to my somewhat restricted views form my garden. The Starsense would hopefully solve this problem for me and hopefully accuratel goto any object anywhere within my limited views. Well I had a chance for a quick test on Saturday, but failed to complete the initial alignment due to clouds rolling in before I could finish. (Murphy's law strikes again.) Anyway, Sunday was amazingly clear despite a bad weather forecast. So I was outside by 6pm in twilight. The starsense performed the first alignment flawlessly. I then did the calibration to centre the star in the scope and performed the alignment the 2nd time, as instructed in the manual. Another flawless alignment and afterwards found that every object I chose to view fell onto the camera sensor. The objects were not exactly on the centre of the sensor, but that would be due to using an EP to centre the calibration star. Had I used the camera to centre the star in the middle of the frame, I'm sure every object would have been in the middle also. I will do that next time. The whole procedure took less than 10 minutes, so in future the star alignment should only take about 4 minutes. First test was very positive. The next test will tell me if the Starsense will hold the calibration from one session to the next. Nice one Allan, I'd love one of these but unfortunately they do not work with a Skywatcher mount, come on Skywatcher catch up.....
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Post by johnno on Feb 3, 2014 23:56:14 GMT
I have a suspicion that if it cannot see properly due to an obstructed view, it will move itself to an area where it can see, but I have yet to test this fully. There is however a manual align function whereby you can select the manual align option and slew the scope to a clear patch of the sky you want to use for alignment. The manual states that this is not as accurate as the auto option, but you can add up to ten calibration points which should give pretty damn good alignment. (not tested this feature yet.) I did notice during my initial test alignment that the scope was generally pointing above 20deg and up to the zenith, so low obstructions may not be a conscern. yep, I watched a video on them, SW prodigy which is similar and like you say it scans the sky till it can identify something.
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