Celestron StarSense Autoguider

Celestron StarSense Autoguider

The Celestron StarSense Autoguider is an all-in-one solution that makes operating your telescope easier and more successful than ever before. This small, powerful device connects to your Celestron mount, increases GoTo accuracy, and helps to capture sharp, long-exposure astrophotographs with little effort. Whether you´re just starting out in the hobby or have years of astrophotography experience, this accessory will help you make the most of those clear nights even more effectively.

Automatic alignment: Ready for observation in a few minutes

The StarSense autoguider automatically finds the reference stars for alignment at the touch of a button - you don´t have to do anything else. Celestron´s patented StarSense technology detects star patterns in the sky and matches them to the built-in database so the telescope knows where it´s pointed. You no longer need to manually approach and center alignment stars, but can focus on what´s important - observing and photographing.

Precise GoTo: Maximize positioning accuracy

Celestron mounts are already known for their high positioning accuracy, but your mount will be even better when you use the StarSense autoguider. Your targets are now not just in the field of view, but exactly in the center of the eyepiece or camera - even at high magnification or with a small camera sensor.

Autoguiding: Create the perfect image

Astrophotography is one of the most exciting fields of activity for telescope owners. But for perfect images, you need an autoguider - it automatically makes the small corrections to keep the telescope tracking perfectly to a target in the sky, even over a long period of time. Classic autoguiding solutions are complicated and expensive. They usually involve a guiding scope, another camera and a computer. With the StarSense Autoguider, all that becomes unnecessary - and even beginners can dive headfirst into the adventure of astrophotography. Your objects are captured clearly and sharply in the image, and background stars remain in pinpoint focus and are no longer distorted into streaks or hooks by tracking errors.

Support when polar aligning: Set up the mount in the best possible way

Many users have come to the conclusion that with the StarSense Autoguider they achieve such an accurate GoTo that they no longer need to neatly align their parallactic mount when observing visually or just taking the occasional photograph.

But if you want to achieve the best results, the StarSense autoguider makes your job much easier. Just follow the instructions on the hand controller or in the CPWI software and you can fully align the mount within 5 minutes.

High-quality, four-element optics

The StarSense autoguider uses a four-element optical design calculated by famed optical designer Mark Ackermann. The unique design provides a sharper image than other mini guide scopes. The tube has a connection thread for 2" filters. So you can use an IR pass filter to set up the telescope already at dusk, or a gray filter to focus during the day.

The unit also includes a built-in computer and a high-sensitivity Sony IMX290-DLL monochrome CMOS sensor, all working together to provide exceptional tracking accuracy. If you want, you can also see the camera´s image live on the PC.

Options for advanced users

Experienced users will appreciate the ability to further tweak the settings of their autoguider setup in CPWI. You can set dithering to move the camera a little between exposures so you can get the most out of the frames later in image processing.

With CPWI you can also track to a comet. Simply select the comet from the database, which contains over 100,000 celestial objects and is updated regularly via the Internet. If you track directly to the fast moving comet, the result will be better than if you track to the fixed stars.

Best of all, you can look forward to more exciting features throughout the life of the StarSense Autoguider. Future firmware updates cost no additional money and no subscription fees. Celestron engineers are constantly working to expand the functionality of our products, and with a simple firmware update, you´ll be back up to speed.

Compatible with your existing telescope

You decide how you want to control the StarSense autoguider. You have the choice between the NexStar+ hand controller of the current Celestron mounts and the CPWI software, the latter either via a cable connection to your PC or via WLAN (with the SkyPortal WiFi module or a mount with integrated WLAN). The autoguider also works with the other Celestron accessories, so everything works in perfect harmony.

The StarSense autoguider works with most current Celestron GoTo mounts, both altazimuth and equatorial mounts. Check the following table to see if your mount is one of the compatible models.

Please note: for telescope sets with pre-installed StarSense AutoAlign module, you need an additional NexStar+ hand controller to operate the StarSense autoguider. (The StarSense autoguider is only compatible with the NexStar+ hand controller and not with the StarSense hand controller).