Computerised Telescope V Software

[Dormouse]

Hi. I'm DM and extremely new. I hope not to ask any unnecessary questions before I have done the necessary reading but here goes the first .......

I was inspired to see on Stargazing live you can now get computerised telescopes which will point at what you want (given the obvious limitations). Great I thought, I can finally get into star gazing and have some hope of knowing what I'm looking at!

But .... I discovered this site tognight and one of the first posts I was reading was about StellaeriumScope and that could be used for directing a telescope and thus I don't need to pay extra for getting a computerised telescope.

Not asking about StellariumScope or other such software but would just like to confirm my thoughts are right (I can get some free software to direct the scope) so I stop spending time looking at computerised scopes?

Many thanks

DM

NB: I am aware I'd need another gizmo to attach to the telescope to make it move as well but I'll research that later.

[skywatcher58gb]

Hi DM and welcome to SGL

I may be wrong but I dont think so, Stellarium basically can take over the tracking from the integral hand set/controller of a computerised scope, you will still need a GOTO scope with drive motors and and hand set/controller to enable you to plug in your computer to use stellarium

Dave

[Dormouse]

Thank you Dave that's very helpful - I shall continue looking at computerised ones.

Just want to add (following further reading of articles on this site) that I am 40 years old and have Stellarium already, I have looked for numerous hours at the beautiful stars/sky above the houses in my life and am only looking for a short cut to identification now!

[Dormouse]

Hi Dave/others

Unsure whether to start a new post but it is connected so I'll risk it here ....

Let's say I buy a computerised telescope with a databse of 4000 objects, could I then use software to identify more objects?

The reason I ask is the first comp tele I saw for sale was in Oz and it had a much larger database than the ones I find available online (in my price range) in the UK.

DM

NB: Or is they see moe objects up above in Oz?!

[John]

What matters is how much aperture the scope has, that is how big its main lens or mirror is. A mount might point the scope at 4,000 objects but if your budget has mostly gone on the mount and the scope is small, you won't see many of them !.

[brucen]

The database on the SynScan says it has 42,900+ objects. With my 5" I don't think I see more than a few hundred. Still it's fun trying and you still get to see where they are even if you don't actually see them (if that makes sense!).

[Dormouse]

Thank you both, more food for thought!

[Capricorn]

You still need a computerised scope in order to use software on a PC, so you would still have to buy one.

What it does is that the PC replaces the handset and you will have a screen to aid you.

The electronics and encoders in the motors in the scope are needed to supply feedback to the PC software.

P.S. Computerised scopes have been around for about the last 12 years.

[Bizibilder]

You have to be a little careful here as not all mounts are the same and only some of them can be computer controlled rather than controlled from their designed goto handsets. Skywatcher Syntrek and Synscan mounts (EQ5, HEQ5 and EQ6 types) can be controlled from a seperate computer. Typically via EQMOD/ASCOM interface and then either Stellaruim or Cartes du Ceil (generally the preferred sky atlas for this work). All the software for this is freeware (and very good!).

There are quite a few other systems that use commercial (ie expensive!) software. However you will need a computer (most folk use a laptop or netbook) to make this all work along with a connection box of tricks (EQDIR). In my own case the lappy/connector cost less than an upgrade of my HEQ5 fron syntrek to synscan.

For the EQMOD system you can goto any object that you have in your atlas - CdC, with all the added star catalogues you can download, runs into at least hundreds of thousands of individual objects. You can also get data to download positions of comets and asteroids etc.