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SkySafari 6 Pro | Does SS6 Pro Support Celestron StarSense Via Celestron WiFi (Answer: No, Not At This Time)

I just happened across someone else having similar issues to be with the Celestron Evolution support on Mac (via Celestron WiFi). I think at least one of my problems might actually be a documented difference but I cannot find a reference to it.

1) StarSense support is not parity with iOS? The StarSense works perfectly on iOS but I cannot find any option to use on the Mac

2) Align button does nothing on Mac (as per this thread)

3) Connecting to a scope that has been aligned correctly from iPad shows a different set of positioning coordinates on Mac. I verified that both devices have the same location set but the Mac consistently shows a completely different set of coordinates to the iPad (the iPad is correct)

 

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7 comments

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    Bill Tschumy

    1. No, we don't support StarSense alignment on Mac.

    2. Fixed and will be released in a couple of days.

    3. Can you give an example of this?  How far off are the coordinates?  My first guess would be that your precession epoch is set differently on the two.  Check the Precession settings and may sure they agree.  This can account for a few degrees of difference at most.  If you are talking about a several degree difference then something else is going on.

  • 0
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    Tom McPhail

    Thanks for the feedback Bill. After writing this I did find the information about StarSense (which I suspected was the case), out of interest do you have any plans to extend the support to the Mac?

    With regard to (3) I will check the precision and/or try to reproduce this over the coming few nights to make sure it is in fact reproducible and provide you with some video/screenshots if that is the case. With any luck it is as you describe ... my error :)

     

  • 0
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    Bill Tschumy

    Tom,

    It is on the ToDo list but I don't know when we will get to it.  It does require some cooperation with Celestron and the person I was working with there is no longer available.  The new guy is still getting up to speed.

    I will await more info on #3

  • 0
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    Tom McPhail

    Hi Bill,

    Sorry about the much delayed reply. I tried this again last night and there is definitely a problem of some sort. My workflow was the following:

    1. Confirm that my iPad and Mac copies of SS6 had the same time, location and precession settings.
    2. Confirm the same scope setup (Celestron WiFi)
    3. Perform StarSense alignment from iPad and confirm
    4. Disconnect iPad
    5. Connect Mac

    The results were a little different on the three different times I tried which I guess could indicate any number of things. In all cases the Mac copy of SS6 successfully connected to the scope and registered that tracking was happening (the coordinate were changing as the scope tracked an object). In all three cases though the Mac did not seem to understand where the scope was actively pointing. On two of the three instances it seemed to default to the chart center and the third time almost seemed to be an arbitrary set of coordinates.

    In all three instances the iPad correctly returned to the scope's current location when disconnecting the Mac and reconnecting with the iPad.

    To the best of my reckoning I confirmed that the scope settings were all identical across the two platforms.

    I'll try to do a video of this tonight to demonstrate, I was a little disorganised last night.

     

  • 0
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    Bill Tschumy

    Tom,

    If I understand you correctly, this will not work.  You cannot do a StarSense alignment via the iPad and then switch to the Mac.  The alignment model is stored in the iPad, not in the mount.  If you switch to the Mac, you lose all alignment information.

    Not that this limitation is only when using Celestron Wi-Fi.  If you connect through the hand controller, using something like SkyFi, then all the problems go away.

  • 0
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    Tom McPhail

    That's interesting Bill, makes sense.

    Ultimately the problem I'm trying to solve is not needing two devices to handle routing and then imaging on those nights where I am taking photos. I guess that specific problem will be solved if/when you have StarSense support in the Mac version.

    Of course I haven't yet tried but I assume I can do a normal alignment without using the StarSense camera from the Mac also.

  • 0
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    Bill Tschumy

    Yes, you can do a normal non-StarSense align from the Mac when connected via Celestron Wi-Fi.

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