---
product_id: 2275685
title: "Celestron StarSense AutoAlign Telescope Accessory"
brand: "celestron"
price: "KSh4741"
currency: KES
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.co.ke/products/2275685-celestron-starsense-autoalign-telescope-accessory
store_origin: KE
region: Kenya
---

# 40,000+ celestial objects database Advanced mount modeling 3-min auto alignment Celestron StarSense AutoAlign Telescope Accessory

**Brand:** celestron
**Price:** KSh4741
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

## Summary

> 🌌 Align Fast, Explore More — Own the Night Sky Effortlessly!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Celestron StarSense AutoAlign Telescope Accessory by celestron
- **How much does it cost?** KSh4741 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.ke](https://www.desertcart.co.ke/products/2275685-celestron-starsense-autoalign-telescope-accessory)

## Best For

- celestron enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted celestron brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Key Features

- • **Trusted Brand & Support:** Backed by Celestron’s 2-year warranty and expert US-based customer care.
- • **Vast Celestial Database:** Access over 40,000 stars, planets, and galaxies instantly for endless exploration.
- • **Precision Pointing Power:** Advanced mount modeling ensures pinpoint accuracy for astroimaging and observation.
- • **Effortless 3-Minute Setup:** Auto-align your telescope in just minutes—no star-hunting required.
- • **Plug & Play Compatibility:** Seamlessly integrates with most Celestron computerized mounts—upgrade without hassle.

## Overview

The Celestron StarSense AutoAlign is a cutting-edge telescope accessory that automatically aligns your Celestron computerized telescope in about 3 minutes using patented star pattern recognition technology. Compatible with a wide range of mounts, it features a database of over 40,000 celestial objects and advanced mount modeling for superior pointing accuracy, making it ideal for both beginners and experienced astroimagers. Included are the StarSense camera and hand control, all backed by a 2-year warranty and dedicated US-based support.

## Description

Become an instant astronomer, even if you've never used a telescope before, with the one-of-a-kind StarSense AutoAlign. The Celestron StarSense AutoAlign enables automatic alignment of your Celestron computerized telescope, making your telescope easier and more rewarding than ever. Simply replace your finderscope, push align, and Celestron's patented StarSense technology "sees" star patterns overhead in three minutes and matches them to its internal database to automatically orient the telescope. Whether you're an experienced astroimager or just starting in the hobby, adding this game-changing accessory will ensure you have more quality time under the stars. StarSense AutoAlign has a database of over 40,000 celestial objects and will automatically slew to all the best stars, planets, galaxies, and more currently visible in the night sky. This affordable accessory replaces the expensive software amateur astronomers usually use for advanced mount modeling. The StarSense AutoAlign provides superior pointing accuracy from horizon to horizon. When your alignment needs to be perfect, add up to 10 additional calibration stars to achieve a new level of accuracy, great for locating objects in the camera's field of view for astroimaging. The StarSense AutoAlign works with Celestron CGX-L, CGX, CGEM II, Advanced VX, CPC GPS XLT, CPC Deluxe HD, NexStar Evolution, NexStar SE, NexStar SLT, Astro Fi, and more computerized mounts. The AutoAlign also works with Celestron software and accessories, like CPWI and the SkyPortal WiFi Module, for a seamless solution that fits in perfectly with your existing telescope setup.

Review: BUY THE DAMN THING NOW - BOTTOME LINE: buy this thing now! Full Review: My first attempt using this was a disaster. was ready to return the product. The manual is well out of date (lists the Hand controller with a phone jack port, its actually a usb mini which is awesome, and many other examples). I bout this for astrophotography for my celestron AVX and CGEM mounts. I have an edgeHD 8 OTA, and a 4.25in stellavue triplet apo. I followed hte instructions as best I could accounting for it being well out of date, as there have been many firm ware upgrades since the instructions were writing, and it needs a massive update. The most critical error is the first few lints of the instructions says to not bother leveling the mount. This will be prove to be my undoing. First night I went exactly by the directions in the book, and this thing was so inaccurate I was enraged. Stayed up to 3am on a work night as I couldn't let it go, power cycling and re aligning, adding 10 ref points to the 4 points it takes automatically, and this thing was 100s of arc minutes off. It was bad. My first concern was the steps listed in the manual did not automatically occur as it was listed. For instance there option to set the date and time, location, etc did not pop up, luckily I have experience with the mounts already and knew how to jump through menus and make these adjustments, but Im on the east coast and it defaults to California. But its worth the trouble to have the usb interface on the HC. The most egregious error was the instructions state you do not have to level the scope. You dont have to polar align the scope (this is true). Night # 2 I decide to give it one more go before sending this thing back, and OHHH am I glad I did. I decided to use my normal setup routine for when I use the 2+4 manual alignment procedure, so I levels the scope ( use use a 10" 3$ level from harbor freight) which only takes like 2 minutes of extra time adusting the tripod leg lengths, I did a cursory polar alignment with my polar alignment scope, wasnt dark so this was not very accurate, I made sure date and time were correct and they were, turn on the mount, it takes about 20 secs for it to give me the message that the mount has synced with the camera, it says press align to start the alignment, so I do. I sit back and it about 90-120 secs, it slews on its on to 4 areas of they sky, stopping for 15-30 secs on each to take a pic, of course you dont see this pic, but the HC LED display keeps you constantly updated on what its doing, including the % complete while its calculating the stars it discovered to its database, and how many stars it sees in each frame. If the scope points towards something blocking the sky, such as my house, it quickly identifies this and moves to a new area. After the initial automated process, it suggests for astrophotography purposes, but I decided to slew to Virgo just to see how accurate this was, and BAM, damn near top dead center. U use backyard EOS and a canon T5i, and in the frame and focus panel of BYEOS, this thing was just at tiny bit off center, I dont know the arc secs or arc minutes, but it was about 4 widths of the star virgo on the screen. THis was darn near as accurate as my manual aligment process. Slew to orion nebula. WIth my scope and the focal reducer, with teh T5i, orion takes up 1/2 the field of view on the photo, its a little off center, i set the motor to speed of 3, move a bit, snap a pic, now I know what directions to go, move the other way a few times while snapping pics, and boom its now dead center. I took 60 second exposures, oh head theres drift, so I polar align, then let it manually re-align, I slew to orion, was a litte off, move away from orion and added a ref point, moved to the other side of orion, new ref pt, did this 4 total times (took like 2 mins), and autoslew back to Orion and BAM, it was perfect. I actually moved the scope just to take it off center for visual asthetics. 60 sec exposures, no problem with the alignment, but i live in Athens GA, and the light pollution is so bad I had to cut back to 45 sec exposures. To review: Once the scope is leveled and balanced, i fire this thing up, 20 sec wait for software to load, I click one button, sit back and drink a beer until the scope stops moving (~ 2 mins), I move to the object I want to photograph, I then add 3-4 extra ref points, slew back to that object and then use the star to polar align. The polar alignment takes just about 2 mins for me to adjust the scope with manual knobs to get the star in the cross hairs. Now I auto align again (2 mins), move to a target, add 4 ref pts (2 mins), and off I freakin go. What just a few nights ago took me literally 1 hour, and this hour mind you was spent laying ont eh cold ground on my back siting starts, torquing my neck, crawling on my hands and knees to visually get these starts in my view finder to to the alignment manually... now the whole damn shabang takes 15 mins, and I do it from the comfort of a chair w/o having to put down my beer. I have used the scope every night, as I dont have to worry about the 30 min scope setup time and the 1 hour alignment, polar alignment, and realignment jsut to be killed by clouds taking out the sky and negating my efforts. The times this saves me allows me to photograph on work nights and be in bed by 11pm, to get up before work and get a few shots of an item in the wrong season, I could not be more thrilled. If this is compatible with your mount BUY IT NOW. Heres the pic
Review: Amazing device! - I apologize for the length of this review, but I thought the details might be helpful for folks interested in this awesome little gadget. My Celestron StarSense arrived last week, and I’ve had a couple of chances to try it out. I’ve used the device exactly twice, but I think my experience may provide some useful information to others who are thinking of purchasing this device. My focus is on astrophotography and my rig is 100% portable on a tripod, so alignment is a frequent chore. I held off buying the device because I had read that it had severe issues integrating with Celestron’s native polar alignment process, ASPA (All-Star Polar Alignment). Once those issues were corrected by Celestron and I read a positive review of the device in Sky and Telescope, I went ahead and bought it. So far, I’m very glad I did. After unboxing, I immediately updated the firmware on the StarSense camera and the included hand controller. Be sure to do this – as I mentioned, Celestron fixed some major problems with the software since the release of the device, and you’ll want to be sure to capture these. Be sure you have the appropriate cables and adapters ready for this. Once the firmware was updated, I attached the SS camera to my scope. I have a non-Celestron OTA, but a Celestron Advanced VX mount. This was one point of annoyance with Celestron. They provide two mounting methods – a super-solid one for Celestron OTAs, and a not-so solid one for everyone else. I was mounting to a dovetail plate, and it was annoying that I couldn’t use the more solid method just because Celestron had made the mounting holes too narrow. If they had just provided a couple of holes at the standard mounting sizes they could have given folks a lot more options. Left with the secondary mounting method, I was glad I had an extra mounting base available, because Celestron doesn’t provide one with the unit (they assume you’re replacing your finderscope with the SS camera). I sacrificed my mounted laser pointer in favor of the SS camera and continued. If you have a single finder\guider and no other mounting base available when the unit arrives, you’ll be waiting for desertcart to deliver before you can use the unit. After setting up outside and doing a rough polar alignment with a polar scope, I turned on the mount with the new HC and SS camera attached. The first thing the HC does is search for the SS camera, which it found with no problem. At startup, the HC gets a little “bossy” – there doesn’t seem to be a way to start up without going through the SSA (StarSense AutoAlign) process before doing anything else. I’m used to entering the Date\Time and location, but that didn’t seem to be an option at startup. You can press the Menu button to add those details, but I didn't know that at the time. I let the SSA do its thing, and it slewed to four different sections of the sky. I was in my side yard, where the house and trees block much of the horizon, and light pollution is fairly severe. I had also neglected to turn a bright flood light attached to my roof off, just to keep things interesting. I started quite early, and I could only see 5-10 stars visually. I noticed that the HC was reporting that it was finding dozens of stars in areas of the sky where I still couldn’t see any. After a couple of minutes, the SSA wrapped up and reported success. At this point, I was 90% certain that the device hadn’t actually done anything – it was just a little too quick and easy. I told the HC to find Albireo. There it was – off center, but within the FOV of my 20mm eyepiece. Not bad. I told it to find Antares in the south. There it was. Whoa. At this point, Celestron has you resolve the error between the SS camera and your telescope by performing a centering procedure. This is done in the HC’s software and doesn’t involve adjusting the camera physically, which was a relief – I think I’ve had enough “dance of the thumbscrews” for one lifetime. The HC has a process for this that involves centering the star in your eyepiece and then confirming that it is centered with the HC. This was simple enough, but the (printed) instruction manual actually has a mistake in it about the steps in the process. It's a good idea to just download the (corrected) online manual if you buy this device. After the centering procedure, the HC tells you that you will need to repeat the SSA process. At this point it was a little unclear whether it expected me to simply run the process again or actually reset my mount to the alignment marks and start over. Thankfully, the former seemed to work just fine. Now, I had done all of this before entering the date, time or my current location. It seemed wrong to move on to polar alignment without entering that data, but then again – does the HC need to know the time or location if it knows the positions of all of the stars, especially if you’re not targeting solar system objects? The HC certainly didn’t seem concerned about it – I had to go menu surfing to even find where to enter the date\time\location – I was never prompted for the information. I went ahead and entered the info and the HC told me to perform SSA again, which I did. The polar alignment process was simple. ASPA normally has two steps – the first where you center a star using the direction buttons on the HC, then the second when you’re asked to center the same star using the mount’s ALT and AZ alignment knobs. With SSA, the first step is done automatically and the user is left with the ALT and AZ adjustments. After the centering\calibration process and ASPA, any stars or objects I selected were perfectly centered in the reticle eyepiece. I spent some time selecting objects near the four points of the compass and just being amazed when they all came up dead center. I started guiding and did some test shots using the CCD – I had perfect pinpoint stars for 12 minute exposures. That night I took 14 12-minute exposures of the Pelican Nebula and had some of the sharpest, roundest stars I’ve ever imaged. Long story short - ASPA was very easy and very accurate. On the second night out, I was just doing a rough alignment so I could take pictures of the moon with my bigger scope. I simply took the device off my refractor and put it onto my SCT, put the OTA on the mount, hooked it up, turned it on and let it align. I started even earlier that night, with only a few stars visible to these middle-aged eyes. No re-centering or fine-tuning, no entry of date or location, no polar alignment. A couple of minutes later, the SSA was done and the GOTO put the moon in the FOV of my 20mm eyepiece on the first try – this is with a 10” SCT – the FOV was less than a moon-width. I also tried several stars and they were all close to center, despite a different OTA and not performing a new centering\calibration procedure. The bottom line: this device exceeded expectations on its first two nights out. I’d say if you have a portable setup this is a no-brainer purchase. Pros: Easy setup (other than the firmware update); easier telescope alignment; simplified ASPA; more accurate polar alignment (at least in my experience). Works in twilight, so you can start your alignment earlier. Works despite trees and\or buildings obstructing large parts of the sky. Fast. Cons: Mounting brackets aren’t all that they could be (see above). Finder mount base not included. New HC has small-print display by default – can be hard to read especially from a distance.

## Features

- LEVEL-UP YOUR CELESTRON TELESCOPE WITH STARSENSE AUTOMATIC ALIGNMENT TECHNOLOGY: StarSense AutoAlign attaches to your Celestron computerized telecsope and automatically aligns the GoTo system in about 3 minutes with no user input needed.
- GREAT FOR BEGINNERS: Astronomy newbies can let the telescope align itself without the need to identify or locate a single star in the sky. Spend less time aligning and more time having fun!
- ADVANCED MOUNT MODELING: Advanced observers and astroimagers will love using StarSense AutoAlign to align on numerous stars across the sky for extremely precise GoTo pointing accuracy.
- STARSENSE HAND CONTROL INCLUDED: StarSense AutoAlign includes a StarSense camera that captures images of star patterns overhead and the exclusive StarSense hand control, which calculates the telescope's position based on data from the camera.
- WORKS WITH CELESTRON COMPUTERIZED MOUNTS: Compatible with all current Celestron computerized mounts (except LCM) and many older mounts, too. Check product description for full compatibility info.
- UNBEATABLE WARRANTY & SUPPORT: Buy with confidence from Celestron, a leading telescope brand in California since 1960. Your purchase includes a 2-Year US Warranty and unlimited support from our team of US-based experts.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN | B00EZILDLS |
| Additional Features | Automatic Alignment, Advanced Mount Modeling, Wide Compatibility |
| Best Sellers Rank | #339 in Telescope Accessories |
| Brand | Celestron |
| Built-In Media | StarSense Camera, Hand Control, Small Camera Braket, 4mm Allen Wrench, Camera to Auxiliary Port Cable and 2 Thumbscrews for Large Camera Bracket |
| Coating | StarBright XLT |
| Compatible Devices | Advanced VX, AstroFi, CG-5 Aux, splitter, CGE, CGE Pro, CGEM, CGEM DX, CGX |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,039 Reviews |
| Exit Pupil Diameter | 16.04 millimeters |
| Eye Piece Lens Description | Fiber Optic |
| Field Of View | 0.85 degrees |
| Finderscope | Reflex |
| Focal Length Description | 1.57 inches |
| Focus Type | Manual Focus |
| Global Trade Identification Number | 00050234940054 |
| Item Dimensions D x W x H | 9.84"D x 9.25"W x 4.33"H |
| Item Highlight | Automatically Aligns GoTo Telescope in 3 Minutes, Compatible with Celestron Computerized Telescopes, Advanced Mount Modeling |
| Item Weight | 980 g |
| Manufacturer | Celestron |
| Manufacturer Part Number | 94005-CGL |
| Model Name | StarSense AutoAlign |
| Model Number | 94005-CGL |
| Mount | Fiber Optic |
| Objective Lens Diameter | 40 millimeters |
| Optical Tube Length | 9.25 inches |
| Optical-Tube Length | 9.25 inches |
| Power Source | USB 2 .0 |
| Telescope Mount Description | Fiber Optic |
| UPC | 050234940054 |
| Unit Count | 1 Count |
| Warranty Description | 2-Year Warranty |
| Zoom Ratio | 50 |

## Product Details

- **Brand:** Celestron
- **Eye Piece Lens Description:** Fiber Optic
- **Finderscope:** Reflex
- **Focus Type:** Manual Focus
- **Model Name:** StarSense AutoAlign
- **Objective Lens Diameter:** 40 millimeters
- **Optical Tube Length:** 9.25 inches
- **Power Source:** USB 2 .0
- **Product Dimensions:** 9.84"D x 9.25"W x 4.33"H
- **Telescope Mount Description:** Fiber Optic

## Images

![Celestron StarSense AutoAlign Telescope Accessory - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ATPWoee+L.jpg)
![Celestron StarSense AutoAlign Telescope Accessory - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/412V8JgElSL.jpg)
![Celestron StarSense AutoAlign Telescope Accessory - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41BYn8V8GXL.jpg)

## Questions & Answers

**Q: I'm abit confused with this device.  Does it take the place of the finder scope or attach to it?  Can this be used with autoguiders?**
A: Takes the place of the finder. You can mount it in addition to the finder but the finder is no longer  used in the alignment process.

**Q: Sooooo, this is not an auto alignment device if you have to manually align it, then hope it maintains what star you picked to go back to “realignment?**
A: The StarSense accessory is indeed an auto-alignment tool.  However, as the camera and firmware cannot assume the the center of the StarSense camera is perfectly aligned with the center of your eyepiece, a calibration routine needs to be done when first installing to tell the StarSense precisely which pixel on the camera lines up with the center of your eyepiece.  This calibration is saved in the camera and only needs to be re-done if the StarSense bracket is adjusted or the camera is moved onto another telescope.  The StarSense looks at fields of stars, not individual stars, and it uses those fields to determine the exact center of the FOV for each alignment "point."

**Q: Does this work with the Celestron CPC 925 Schmidt-Cassegrain?**
A: According to the compatibility chart in the instructions it is compatible with the CPC models. I have a CPC925 also, but have it attached to a Nextstar6 evolution. I think because the evolution is a newer model I had to upgrade the firmware. Probably might have to upgrade it for the CPC. All the Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrains use the large bracket that attaches the camera to the scope. The camera slides off the bracket making it easier to attach bracket to scope. Once attached slide camera back on bracket and use the special long screw (bolt) that keeps camera on the bracket. Celestron website has firmware update with instructions on how to use. Celestron tech support was also helpful with email on how to upgrade. The picture attached to my original post shows the cables needed to upgrade the firmware and how to set up.  Good luck, I hope my cpc works after a year in storage, terrible clouds and fog in this area.

**Q: Does this align accurately enough on a CGEM or an AVX for astrophotography with C9.5.  I need prescise and accurate goto, at times @ focal length 11**
A: If you take your time and follow the instructions it should be perfect.

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ BUY THE DAMN THING NOW
*by M***. on November 24, 2016*

BOTTOME LINE: buy this thing now! Full Review: My first attempt using this was a disaster. was ready to return the product. The manual is well out of date (lists the Hand controller with a phone jack port, its actually a usb mini which is awesome, and many other examples). I bout this for astrophotography for my celestron AVX and CGEM mounts. I have an edgeHD 8 OTA, and a 4.25in stellavue triplet apo. I followed hte instructions as best I could accounting for it being well out of date, as there have been many firm ware upgrades since the instructions were writing, and it needs a massive update. The most critical error is the first few lints of the instructions says to not bother leveling the mount. This will be prove to be my undoing. First night I went exactly by the directions in the book, and this thing was so inaccurate I was enraged. Stayed up to 3am on a work night as I couldn't let it go, power cycling and re aligning, adding 10 ref points to the 4 points it takes automatically, and this thing was 100s of arc minutes off. It was bad. My first concern was the steps listed in the manual did not automatically occur as it was listed. For instance there option to set the date and time, location, etc did not pop up, luckily I have experience with the mounts already and knew how to jump through menus and make these adjustments, but Im on the east coast and it defaults to California. But its worth the trouble to have the usb interface on the HC. The most egregious error was the instructions state you do not have to level the scope. You dont have to polar align the scope (this is true). Night # 2 I decide to give it one more go before sending this thing back, and OHHH am I glad I did. I decided to use my normal setup routine for when I use the 2+4 manual alignment procedure, so I levels the scope ( use use a 10" 3$ level from harbor freight) which only takes like 2 minutes of extra time adusting the tripod leg lengths, I did a cursory polar alignment with my polar alignment scope, wasnt dark so this was not very accurate, I made sure date and time were correct and they were, turn on the mount, it takes about 20 secs for it to give me the message that the mount has synced with the camera, it says press align to start the alignment, so I do. I sit back and it about 90-120 secs, it slews on its on to 4 areas of they sky, stopping for 15-30 secs on each to take a pic, of course you dont see this pic, but the HC LED display keeps you constantly updated on what its doing, including the % complete while its calculating the stars it discovered to its database, and how many stars it sees in each frame. If the scope points towards something blocking the sky, such as my house, it quickly identifies this and moves to a new area. After the initial automated process, it suggests for astrophotography purposes, but I decided to slew to Virgo just to see how accurate this was, and BAM, damn near top dead center. U use backyard EOS and a canon T5i, and in the frame and focus panel of BYEOS, this thing was just at tiny bit off center, I dont know the arc secs or arc minutes, but it was about 4 widths of the star virgo on the screen. THis was darn near as accurate as my manual aligment process. Slew to orion nebula. WIth my scope and the focal reducer, with teh T5i, orion takes up 1/2 the field of view on the photo, its a little off center, i set the motor to speed of 3, move a bit, snap a pic, now I know what directions to go, move the other way a few times while snapping pics, and boom its now dead center. I took 60 second exposures, oh head theres drift, so I polar align, then let it manually re-align, I slew to orion, was a litte off, move away from orion and added a ref point, moved to the other side of orion, new ref pt, did this 4 total times (took like 2 mins), and autoslew back to Orion and BAM, it was perfect. I actually moved the scope just to take it off center for visual asthetics. 60 sec exposures, no problem with the alignment, but i live in Athens GA, and the light pollution is so bad I had to cut back to 45 sec exposures. To review: Once the scope is leveled and balanced, i fire this thing up, 20 sec wait for software to load, I click one button, sit back and drink a beer until the scope stops moving (~ 2 mins), I move to the object I want to photograph, I then add 3-4 extra ref points, slew back to that object and then use the star to polar align. The polar alignment takes just about 2 mins for me to adjust the scope with manual knobs to get the star in the cross hairs. Now I auto align again (2 mins), move to a target, add 4 ref pts (2 mins), and off I freakin go. What just a few nights ago took me literally 1 hour, and this hour mind you was spent laying ont eh cold ground on my back siting starts, torquing my neck, crawling on my hands and knees to visually get these starts in my view finder to to the alignment manually... now the whole damn shabang takes 15 mins, and I do it from the comfort of a chair w/o having to put down my beer. I have used the scope every night, as I dont have to worry about the 30 min scope setup time and the 1 hour alignment, polar alignment, and realignment jsut to be killed by clouds taking out the sky and negating my efforts. The times this saves me allows me to photograph on work nights and be in bed by 11pm, to get up before work and get a few shots of an item in the wrong season, I could not be more thrilled. If this is compatible with your mount BUY IT NOW. Heres the pic

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazing device!
*by A***8 on August 27, 2015*

I apologize for the length of this review, but I thought the details might be helpful for folks interested in this awesome little gadget. My Celestron StarSense arrived last week, and I’ve had a couple of chances to try it out. I’ve used the device exactly twice, but I think my experience may provide some useful information to others who are thinking of purchasing this device. My focus is on astrophotography and my rig is 100% portable on a tripod, so alignment is a frequent chore. I held off buying the device because I had read that it had severe issues integrating with Celestron’s native polar alignment process, ASPA (All-Star Polar Alignment). Once those issues were corrected by Celestron and I read a positive review of the device in Sky and Telescope, I went ahead and bought it. So far, I’m very glad I did. After unboxing, I immediately updated the firmware on the StarSense camera and the included hand controller. Be sure to do this – as I mentioned, Celestron fixed some major problems with the software since the release of the device, and you’ll want to be sure to capture these. Be sure you have the appropriate cables and adapters ready for this. Once the firmware was updated, I attached the SS camera to my scope. I have a non-Celestron OTA, but a Celestron Advanced VX mount. This was one point of annoyance with Celestron. They provide two mounting methods – a super-solid one for Celestron OTAs, and a not-so solid one for everyone else. I was mounting to a dovetail plate, and it was annoying that I couldn’t use the more solid method just because Celestron had made the mounting holes too narrow. If they had just provided a couple of holes at the standard mounting sizes they could have given folks a lot more options. Left with the secondary mounting method, I was glad I had an extra mounting base available, because Celestron doesn’t provide one with the unit (they assume you’re replacing your finderscope with the SS camera). I sacrificed my mounted laser pointer in favor of the SS camera and continued. If you have a single finder\guider and no other mounting base available when the unit arrives, you’ll be waiting for Amazon to deliver before you can use the unit. After setting up outside and doing a rough polar alignment with a polar scope, I turned on the mount with the new HC and SS camera attached. The first thing the HC does is search for the SS camera, which it found with no problem. At startup, the HC gets a little “bossy” – there doesn’t seem to be a way to start up without going through the SSA (StarSense AutoAlign) process before doing anything else. I’m used to entering the Date\Time and location, but that didn’t seem to be an option at startup. You can press the Menu button to add those details, but I didn't know that at the time. I let the SSA do its thing, and it slewed to four different sections of the sky. I was in my side yard, where the house and trees block much of the horizon, and light pollution is fairly severe. I had also neglected to turn a bright flood light attached to my roof off, just to keep things interesting. I started quite early, and I could only see 5-10 stars visually. I noticed that the HC was reporting that it was finding dozens of stars in areas of the sky where I still couldn’t see any. After a couple of minutes, the SSA wrapped up and reported success. At this point, I was 90% certain that the device hadn’t actually done anything – it was just a little too quick and easy. I told the HC to find Albireo. There it was – off center, but within the FOV of my 20mm eyepiece. Not bad. I told it to find Antares in the south. There it was. Whoa. At this point, Celestron has you resolve the error between the SS camera and your telescope by performing a centering procedure. This is done in the HC’s software and doesn’t involve adjusting the camera physically, which was a relief – I think I’ve had enough “dance of the thumbscrews” for one lifetime. The HC has a process for this that involves centering the star in your eyepiece and then confirming that it is centered with the HC. This was simple enough, but the (printed) instruction manual actually has a mistake in it about the steps in the process. It's a good idea to just download the (corrected) online manual if you buy this device. After the centering procedure, the HC tells you that you will need to repeat the SSA process. At this point it was a little unclear whether it expected me to simply run the process again or actually reset my mount to the alignment marks and start over. Thankfully, the former seemed to work just fine. Now, I had done all of this before entering the date, time or my current location. It seemed wrong to move on to polar alignment without entering that data, but then again – does the HC need to know the time or location if it knows the positions of all of the stars, especially if you’re not targeting solar system objects? The HC certainly didn’t seem concerned about it – I had to go menu surfing to even find where to enter the date\time\location – I was never prompted for the information. I went ahead and entered the info and the HC told me to perform SSA again, which I did. The polar alignment process was simple. ASPA normally has two steps – the first where you center a star using the direction buttons on the HC, then the second when you’re asked to center the same star using the mount’s ALT and AZ alignment knobs. With SSA, the first step is done automatically and the user is left with the ALT and AZ adjustments. After the centering\calibration process and ASPA, any stars or objects I selected were perfectly centered in the reticle eyepiece. I spent some time selecting objects near the four points of the compass and just being amazed when they all came up dead center. I started guiding and did some test shots using the CCD – I had perfect pinpoint stars for 12 minute exposures. That night I took 14 12-minute exposures of the Pelican Nebula and had some of the sharpest, roundest stars I’ve ever imaged. Long story short - ASPA was very easy and very accurate. On the second night out, I was just doing a rough alignment so I could take pictures of the moon with my bigger scope. I simply took the device off my refractor and put it onto my SCT, put the OTA on the mount, hooked it up, turned it on and let it align. I started even earlier that night, with only a few stars visible to these middle-aged eyes. No re-centering or fine-tuning, no entry of date or location, no polar alignment. A couple of minutes later, the SSA was done and the GOTO put the moon in the FOV of my 20mm eyepiece on the first try – this is with a 10” SCT – the FOV was less than a moon-width. I also tried several stars and they were all close to center, despite a different OTA and not performing a new centering\calibration procedure. The bottom line: this device exceeded expectations on its first two nights out. I’d say if you have a portable setup this is a no-brainer purchase. Pros: Easy setup (other than the firmware update); easier telescope alignment; simplified ASPA; more accurate polar alignment (at least in my experience). Works in twilight, so you can start your alignment earlier. Works despite trees and\or buildings obstructing large parts of the sky. Fast. Cons: Mounting brackets aren’t all that they could be (see above). Finder mount base not included. New HC has small-print display by default – can be hard to read especially from a distance.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ It aligned with high clouds and only planets and moon visible to naked eye. Was blown away!
*by D***. on June 13, 2016*

I had first light use on this the first weekend I had this at our star party. Because I didn't want to use my existing finder scope mounts (already in use) and wanted to use the original Celestron bracket (designed for Celstron scopes, but I have an Orion Astrograph scope) I ended up mounting it on the front edge of my dovetail mount. This was a good place that kept it out of the way. That was the hardest part of the entire setup literally, and obviously wasn't one of their designed setups. The rest was a piece of cake. Just plug and play on this thing. I have a Celestron CGEM DX mount with the GPS addon, so I had to order the Celestron AUX port splitter to use them both. Can be found on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DQTYNAA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It comes with an updated hand controller to work with the StarSense and adds a couple of features like 4 line display that now shows the RA/DEC of the object you are pointed at. Very nice. Like I said, plug and play. I also use a PoleMaster for polar alignment so that was done first, although manual for the StarSense says it only needs a rough polar alignment. Since I do Astrophotography, I went ahead and did the pole alignment with the polemaster anyway to maximize my tracking. Fired up the mount and right way it found everything, including the Celestron GPS I have on it, and the StarSense, and was asking permission to align. I gave it the ok and off it went....and went....and went. I was starting to have real doubts about it now, because it started even pointing at the ground! Holy cow that isn't right. Then it dawned on me, and I'm embarrassed to admit such a newbie mistake, but I had failed to remove the lens cap on the camera! DOH! So removed that and started it again and after about 5 minutes of slewing it announced it was done. So yeah, check your lens cap before you start. LOL Sent to GoTo over to Vega shining bright to test it, and it was within the view of a 22mm eyepiece, but not centered. Now the manual states you have to do a centering procedure at this point that should be familiar to you, and that just lets it fine tune what the camera sees with what your scope sees in the center. It's essentially and electronic collimation between the scope and the camera, rather than you having to line all that up manually. Very nice and EASY! After you do that very quick procedure, it wants to do another alignment procedure and in 5 minutes or so it was done. If you don't move your scope from site to site, you likely won't have to do that second part very often, but it's pretty quick anyway, and I recommend doing it every time if you do astrophotography. After that procedure I slewed to Vega again and it was much closer to center so I ran the centering procedure again and it was even closer still, though not completely exact, but would get just about any object in your eyepiece as long as you aren't using a 3mm or something. All in all, minus the time the fiasco of not removing the lens cap took, it was ready to start viewing in under 15 minutes with very minimal input from me and it was tracking wonderfully all night. Now, the next night even impressed me more. After a long afternoon of rain our night was plagued with high clouds. We could visually with naked eye only make out the moon, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn and the occasional Vega, and even those would come and go. We decided to give the StarSense a run, just to see what it could do for the hell of it, never expecting it to work. It took it about twice as long, but sure enough it aligned itself up! I couldn't believe it. GoTo was right on. It wasn't from the night before because I had moved the scope some because of the rain that day. We ended up being treated with some astounding views of Jupiter and Mars details with the high clouds acting as a nice filter. I was just blown away that thing aligned itself with all those clouds! I can't recommend this thing enough. Doing astrophotography, the only two things I dislike really are pole alignment and regular alignment, and of course they are absolutely critical for what I do. Between the PoleMaster (which you should also get btw) and this StarSense, it made those things actually fun! One accessory you won't regret spending money on! Be sure and read the short manual just so you have all the details of how it works in your head.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Celestron 94005 StarSense Automatic Alignment Telescope Accessory, Black
- Celestron 93973 Skyportal WiFi Module, Black
- Celestron 93919 Aux Port Splitter, Black

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