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Telescope Control & DSC Support

Telescope Control

Overview

Telescope control within Deep-Sky Planner means communicating with your telescope mount or digital setting circles (DSC) using a serial communication cable or Wi-Fi and the ASCOM software platform. The Push To feature is separate from telescope control and does not require ASCOM. To enable the Push To feature, you must configure communications between Deep-Sky Planner and your Digital Setting Circles (DSC).

Once you have completed the steps below, Deep-Sky Planner can:

▪command your telescope to move to the position in the sky of a reported object (Slew To on report context menus)

▪synchronize the telescope or DSC to the position of a reported object (Sync To on report context menus)

▪retrieve the current position of the telescope or DSC and use it in a search for objects near that position

▪display the real-time ¹ status of your equipment on-screen

▪provide some common control functions for your equipment

To use telescope control, you must:

1.Install ASCOM

2.Connect the appropriate cable to your computer and your equipment

3.Select the appropriate ASCOM driver for your equipment and Deep-Sky Planner to use

4.Establish communication between Deep-Sky Planner and your equipment

5.To move your telescope, right-click on an object in a deep-sky, star, planet ephemeris, comet ephemeris, comet search, asteroid ephemeris, asteroid search or observing plan report and choose Slew To from the context menu

SUN WARNING:

Deep-Sky Planner can move a telescope using the ASCOM software platform. Pointing a telescope at the sun without a proper filter can damage your equipment. Viewing through a telescope pointed at the sun without a proper filter will cause immediate, irreversible damage to your eye. Do not point the telescope near the sun. Do not use the Slew To feature during daytime.

Disclaimer

ASCOM is a third-party open source initiative. The ASCOM software is not distributed by or supported by Knightware.

Setup Details

Step 1: Download and install the ASCOM software platform.

ASCOM is a separate software package that is freely available for download from http://ascom-standards.org/downloads.html. Directions for installing the ASCOM platform are provided on the ASCOM web site. This software package contains communication drivers for many popular telescopes and DSCs. You should check the site to be sure that your telescope/DSC is supported.

Step 2: Attach the appropriate serial communication cable to your telescope or DSC, and the serial port of your computer. The appropriate serial communication cable should be provided by the manufacturer of your telescope or DSC. You must attach the cable to the same serial port on your computer that you will specify in step 3.

Step 3. Select the proper ASCOM driver for Deep-Sky Planner to use to communicate with your telescope or DSC. ASCOM must be installed to perform this step, and Deep-Sky Planner must be running with elevated privileges. Visit Telescope Control | Setup to display the ASCOM Telescope Chooser dialog box. This dialog allows you to choose the correct driver for your equipment and specify additional configuration settings as necessary, such as the serial port to which the communication cable is attached.

Step 4: Telescope Control | Connect establishes communication between Deep-Sky Planner and your telescope or DSC. The term 'connect' used here should not be confused with the physical connection of a cable described in step 2.

If communication connection is established successfully, the Telescope Control Panel is displayed. If the communication connection fails, an error message is displayed (please see troubleshooting below.)

Troubleshooting
Telescope Control \| Setup is disabled	ASCOM is not installed properly; download and install the latest ASCOM platform software from http://ascom-standards.org/downloads.html
Telescope Control \| Setup fails with an error message	The ASCOM driver Chooser facility requires access to a protected area of the Windows registry. If you are running Vista or later with User Account Control turned on, you will need to run Deep-Sky Planner with elevated privileges to use the Chooser to select a telescope driver. You do not need to run with elevated privileges to connect, disconnect or otherwise control your telescope.
Telescope Control \| Connect is disabled	ASCOM is not installed or no telescope/DSC is selected in Telescope Control \| Setup; be certain ASCOM is installed correctly and that you have selected the correct driver for your equipment using Telescope Control \| Setup
Telescope Control \| Connect fails with an error message	▪the appropriate serial communication cable is not properly connected to both computer and telescope/DSC ▪the wrong equipment driver is selected in Telescope Control \| Setup; select the correct driver using Telescope Control \| Setup and try Telescope Control \| Connect again ▪the wrong serial port is configured for your equipment in Telescope Control \| Setup; correct the port selection using Telescope Control \| Setup and try Telescope Control \| Connect again
Telescope is connected and Deep-Sky Planner 'hangs'	Some telescope drivers do not report a status quickly that indicates that the communication cable has become detached, the device has lost power, or the device has become otherwise inaccessible to Deep-Sky Planner. Deep-Sky Planner may appear to be 'hung' as it awaits a status report from a device. Some drivers may take several seconds to begin reporting information to Deep-Sky Planner after restoring power to the device or reattaching a communication cable. For example, the driver for the Meade LX200 Classic may take 30 seconds to begin reporting data and status information to Deep-Sky Planner after power to it is restored, or a communication cable is reattached.
Telescope was connected and Deep-Sky Planner was shutdown unexpectedly (with Task Manager.) Deep-Sky Planner can no longer connect to the telescope.	When Deep-Sky Planner is shutdown by Task Manager, the ASCOM driver is not closed properly. To clear the status of the ASCOM driver, go to Telescope Control \| Setup and be sure that the correct device is selected, and press OK. Telescope Control \| Connect should work properly again.

Please see Telescope Control - Detailed Notes for device specific troubleshooting.

Telescope Control Panel

The Telescope Control Panel provides some control functions that can be performed with your telescope/DSC, and it provides real-time feedback from the attached device.

Control Function	Description
reconnect	if you lose connection with your telescope (cable comes loose, power failure, etc), try to reconnect using this function
unpark	some telescopes support Parking and require Unpark to begin tracking; disabled if the currently selected driver does not support Parking
track	begin tracking at the selected rate; tracking can be stopped by clicking
stop slewing	abort the slewing operation NOW!; effective only if the telescope is slewing
disconnect	end communication between Deep-Sky Planner and your telescope; closes the control panel. Use Telescope Control \| Connect to re-open the Telescope Control Panel.
stop tracking	stops tracking; tracking can be be resumed by clicking
park	some telescopes support Parking; parking slews the telescope to a defined position and stops tracking; disabled if the currently selected driver does not support Parking
home	some telescopes support Homing; homing slews the telescope to a defined position and stops tracking; disabled if the currently selected driver does not support Homing
set parking position	some telescopes support Setting a Parking position; disabled if the currently selected driver does not support Set Parking
telescope information	get device information: driver, time and location information, and computer time and favorite location information
help	display this help page
Data Display	Description
Telescope	name of the telescope/DSC; taken from the ASCOM driver
Time (UTC)	if the connected device reports time, this shows its universal time; otherwise, blank. See Telescope/DSC Information to synchronize the device's time with the computer's time.
LST	local apparent sidereal time
LHA	local hour angle
Status	status of the device; discreet states are described below
Tracking	tracking motor is engaged at the selected rate
Slewing	telescope is being moved in response to the Slew To command on report context menus, or the Park or Home control functions; an audible alert sounds when slewing is complete
Parked	telescope has reached it's Park position
Home	telescope has reached it's Home position
Disconnected	communication connection to the device has been dropped; an audible alert sounds when this is first detected
Idle	the default state when none of the above applies
Tracking Rate	the current tracking rate of your device; not all devices support all rates; may be Sidereal, Solar, Lunar or King
RA/Decl	equatorial position reported by the device in the format specified in Data Formatting Properties
Alt/Az	horizontal position reported by the device; altitude & azimuth are shown in the format specified in Data Formatting Properties
Airmass	total airmass calculated for the altitude reported by the device

¹ Real-time telescope control is available if your telescope's ASCOM driver supports asynchronous operation. Synchronous operation is used by Deep-Sky Planner only when your telescope's driver does not support asychronous operation. In this case, there may be a delay between the time a signal is sent to the telescope and on-screen updates.