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Review on πŸ“‘ Enhance Your Celestron Experience: SkyPortal WiFi Module for Smartphone-Controlled Telescope by Angel Cortez

Revainrating 1 out of 5

good solid product. Terrible documentation

I've been experimenting with this for a few weeks now. Its main purpose is to automate the star alignment process that you have to do every time you use your telescope (nextstar in my case). You don't have to calibrate it - you can do it manually. But this with the other two accessories theoretically allows this more or less automatically. Three things you need: 1) Skysense camera (for star detection) 2) Skysense GPS (for determining latitude/longitude) 3) Skyportal Wifi (date and location). Wi-Fi also brings them together, so you can use your smartphone or computer to control the telescope, which is much more convenient than a handheld controller. It also allows you to update the software, which is very, very difficult to do via a wired connection to a computer. What I liked about Wi-Fi: 1) The smartphone interface and controls are much, much better than a pocket controller. The difference between day and night. 2) On cold nights it's great to be able to stand inside and level up and look for the sky. 3) The ability to update software and hardware over Wi-Fi is critical. It's really difficult without wifi. What I didn't like: 1) The documentation is terrible. If the instructions are followed they don't really work and you will have to contact Celstron customer service (they are very helpful). but that means you're wasting the night considering they're only open during the day. It's so bad and disappointing that I gave it two stars for it. It's a constant struggle to get it to connect. It's easier to do this right on your phone - it's almost impossible to connect it to your home Wi-Fi network.

Pros
  • WIRELESS TELESCOPE CONTROL: Level and control your telescope with your smartphone or tablet with the free Celestron SkyPortal app for iOS and Android.
Cons
  • Requires Socket