Using Deep-Sky Planner 8 with Stellarium

These instructions were made using Stellarium version 0.20.3

Install Stellarium
Make sure Stellarium is allowed to communicate through your Firewall* (see more below)
Open Stellarium
Open the Configuration Window [F2]
Click the Plugins tab, then Remote Control in the list of Plug-ins
Check Load at startup and the configure button.
On the Remote Control Plug-in Configuration window, check Server enabled and Enable automatically on startup. Then click Save settings.

* If the configure button does not work, then a firewall on your computer is preventing Stellarium from communicating with Deep-Sky Planner. Stellarium Remote Control uses http://127.0.0.1, port 8090 by default. If you use Windows Firewall, open that utility and add a rule for Stellarium that permits it to communicate on your Private Network.

Manual Plug-in Installation

A plug-in ships with Deep-Sky Planner (Dsp8Stel.ssc) that resolves a minor issue that may occur when you use Stellarium. When an object is selected in Stellarium, the object information is shown on the planetarium display. When you do a subsequent Show Chart in Deep-Sky Planner, the info may remain on screen even though the display position moves. This may be confusing. The plug-in is used to clear the object selection in Stellarium when a Show Chart command is processed so that the object information is removed from the planetarium display.

The plug-in file needs to be copied to your Stellarium\scripts folder when Deep-Sky Planner 8 is installed, or later as described below.

The default location for Stellarium scripts is one of the following.
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Stellarium\scripts\ (32-bit Stellarium program)
- C:\Program Files\Stellarium\scripts\ (64-bit Stellarium program)
Locate the Dsp8Stel.ssc file in your Deep-Sky Planner 8 installation. If you installed Deep-Sky Planner with the recommended settings, this should be C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Knightware\Deep-Sky Planner 8\Dsp8Stel.ssc where <username> is your Windows user account name. Copy Dsp8Stel.ssc to your Stellarium scripts folder as described above.
Start Stellarium. Configure its 'Remote Control' settings as described above.
Start Deep-Sky Planner 8. Configure its Star Chart Programs settings for Stellarium.

Autostarting Stellarium

Beginning with Deep-Sky Planner version 8.1.0.0, DSP will attempt to start Stellarium if it is not running when you select Show Chart in DSP. DSP can start Stellarium if the program is installed in one of the default locations:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Stellarium\stellarium.exe (32-bit Stellarium program)
C:\Program Files\Stellarium\stellarium (64-bit Stellarium program)

If Stellarium is started by Deep-Sky Planner but it does not center on the first target, the startup sequence has taken a little long. Try Show Chart once more in Deep-Sky Planner after Stellarium has started and the sky view should center on the target.