What does the Celestron Wedge Do?

What does the Celestron Wedge Do?

Adding a wedge allows the mount to track equatorially, thereby eliminating field rotation. This Wedge was reengineered from the ground-up, specifically tailored to the NexStar Evolution and SE’s size and styling.

What is an astrophotography wedge?

This limits the potential exposure time when using the telescope for astrophotography. The Wedge tilts the telescope’s azimuth axis so that it tracks stars as they move in an arc around the celestial pole. This keeps objects centered without rotation, allowing you to take longer exposure astrophotos.

Does StarSense work with Wedge?

I have tried several nights with the wedge and star sense on Celestron Evo 6. I tried to auto align the telescope with the Skysafari Pro on an iPad. It ends up with an error message: not enough stars, but in fact there are many stars in the sky. StarSense works fine without the wedge.

How do you use the Celestron Wedge?

Once you have a wedge on your scope, there are 2 steps to aligning your scope.

  1. Steps: Rough Align.
  2. Rough Align. Attach the wedge to the tripod and secure the mount and optical tube to the wedge.
  3. EQ North Align. Align your mount using EQ North (or South) align and follow the onscreen instructions on the hand control.

How do you align a Celestron Wedge?

On your hand control, click Align and follow the instructions provided.

  1. Once you click the align button, select Polar Align.
  2. Under the Polar align, select Align mount.
  3. Your mount will slew to a star and it will ask you to center the star in your eyepiece.

How does Equatorial wedge work?

When an equatorial wedge is inserted underneath the base of such a mount, it allows the altaz head to be tilted and aligned towards the North Celestial Pole, which effectively turns the azimuth axis into a polar axis and the altitude axis into a declination axis.

Can you use an alt-az mount for astrophotography?

You can take great astrophotos using your Alt-Az mount – learn how here. If you own an Alt-Az mount, you most likely think “It cannot be used for deep sky astrophotography”. It is possible to take wonderful deep sky images with an Alt-Az mount if you know how to do it and pick the right objects.

How does an equatorial wedge work?

Do you need a wedge for an alt-az telescope?

However, if you intend to do long exposure astroimaging, you will need to convert your alt-azimuth telescope to an equatorial mount by adding a wedge between the base of the mount and the tripod. This eliminates the field rotation that would otherwise wreck your astroimages.

Can a tripod be used as an alt azimuth mount?

An alt-azimuth (altitude-azimuth) mount can be as simple as a camera tripod or as sophisticated as the fully computerized Celestron NexStar SE, but what all alt-az mounts have in common is their simplicity of movement.

Is there an app for the altaz Mount?

Computerisation has revolutionised altaz mounts: some can now be controlled wirelessly, using an app on a tablet or smartphone. Whether you want a straightforward push-pull system, one with Go-To, or one with dual arms, there is an altaz option out there for you.

What does Alt stand for in altaz Mount?

‘Alt’ derives from altitude and ‘Az’ from azimuth, the latter being the position measured from north, usually through east along the horizon. In another article we’ve provided a beginner’s guide to equatorial mounts, which are technically altaz mounts tilted so that one axis is aligned with Earth’s polar axis.