gkec

The ASCOM Initiative is a loosely-knit group of developers and astronomical instrument makers that work together to bring vendor-independent and language-independent plug-and play compatibility between astronomy software and astronomical instruments on Windows computers. ASCOM stands for the Astronomy Common Object Model.

I think the fact that ASCOM is not OS independant or at least able to work over a network "out of the box" a fairly fundamental architectural flaw. 

Cannot set up my AZ Goto Skywatcher 1145P and getting frustrated. Please help

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Explain what you have done and what worked and what didn't.  Don't worry too much about the technical jargon, there is usually someone that can "decipher" (not the word I was looking for but it will have to do ) and explain what you need to do.

ok "old comer" here

Why is it so hard to find the tutorials and other stuff newcomers would find useful so that they do not feel pressured into posting on a subject they feel unsure about and probably feel reluctant to ask.

Earlier today there was a question about Newtonian collimation.  Not a new question but where is the tutorial? There is one, I've read it, but I couldn't find it.

My Nephew was given a nearly new Tasco Galaxie (Yes it is spelt like that I think) by a bloke who bought every gadget imaginable and then got a girlfriend so had to "get rid of the junk". Apparently he paid over £100 for it. It was unusable. Floppy mount and the focusing tube was floppy making it nearly impossible to point at anything. I think I gave up and got my cheap 114" Meade Newtonian out to show my nephew what was supposed to happen.

He wasn't that interested anyway!

I think the old ones are probably better. I have a 1970's Japanese electric guitar that would have been bought from a catalogue at the time. I bought it second hand in the early 80s for £50 'cos it looked liked Jimmy Page's guitar. It still looks gorgeous (not a typical telescope attribute I know) and having had it professionally fixed it is far far better than the cheap stuff around today.