Celestron Sky Prodigy

[Rock Doctor]

Hi all,

 

has anyone any experience with  the Starsense auto alignment that the Sky Prodigy comes equipped with?

 

Just wondered if it's as good as the Celestron blurb suggests as it looks as though this technology will soon be made available for the rest of the Celestron mounts. As I understand it, you still have to do a polar alignment, but then  it replaces the  finderscope with a camera and during the calibration process you are required to centre a known star in the OTA  so that it can work out an off-set via it's software This is a one time only operation. You then press the alignment key and it then it looks at star patterns against its database and aligns it's self while you go away and make a cup of coffee.  

[Big Al]

I was trying to find out more about these and there seems to be remarkably little info on them from actual users. You would think that something so innovative would have attracted more attention. I pretty much discounted the idea due to the very limited horizons I have at home, as the little info I found mentioned this as being a problem.

[Brantuk]

There's not a lot of reviews cos it's so new. Not sure what the take up will be in the astro community. If you can polar align your scope and do a star alignment in a few mins then the system seems overkill and overpriced imho. Though it may appeal more to the less experienced and/or beginners with money to burn. Just my penny's worth.

[BAZ]

I would have thought the Americans would have gone for these, what with their love of gizmo's. But as you say not much at all.

I think one of the British mags did a write up, but as always it was mediocre. I think Kim hit the nail on the head, why buy this when the money can go to a more suitable mount, and with a bit of practise is a better option.