Out under the stars
The first thing you need to do with this scope is set it up on level ground and run a program that enables the StarSense unit to calibrate itself. Included instructions and a link to an online video tutorial make that very simple. That first night I was in a hurry, so I set it up on my driveway to give it a quick run-through. Although a portion of the sky was blocked by a tree and the house, I was curious to see what would happen.
So began my adventure with StarSense Autoalign. The camera mounts atop the scope’s tube with a heavy bracket and plugs into a port on the mount. To begin the calibration procedure, you start with the scope’s tube positioned horizontally. A hand controller allows you to input choices and, once the scope is aligned, target countless objects. I uncorked the scope’s mirror, the StarSense camera’s cover, and the diagonal’s cover before plopping a very nice E-lux 32mm Celestron eyepiece into the diagonal.
I powered the scope on, chose “Align” on the hand controller, set the time, date, and time zone, then stepped back and watched. Over the course of about 10 minutes, the scope slewed to and fro and occasionally noted on the controller that it had imaged a certain number of stars. Would this work with the handicap I gave it in my rush to test the scope? After a short time, “Alignment complete” came up on the controller.
Next, I followed the protocol by calibrating on a known star. I punched in “Vega” and the scope immediately slewed upward, capturing Vega’s position. When I peered into the eyepiece — low power, no doubt — the star was dead center. The final step is a calibration on the star itself (Vega in my case), and this can be done with a high-power eyepiece to maximize precision. You can then realign the StarSense and, in another few minutes, the mount is ready to use all night; you can simply punch in targets and let the scope slew to them.
This full calibration procedure needs to be performed only once, when the StarSense Autoalign is first attached to the telescope’s tube. From there, a full calibration is not needed unless the StarSense is bumped or the bracket removed.
Wow. Here is the kind of telescope that could revolutionize astronomy. This is a telescope that anyone can use without any knowledge of old-style polar alignment. It is really quite amazing to see this work just as magically as is advertised, with objects showing up dead-centered, just as requested from the database.