First steps with guiding: should ASCOM be installed in its own right?

[choochoo_baloo]

I'm sure this topic regularly surfaces on this forum, but after some searching I couldn't find the exact answers I'm after, so here is some background:

Last night I happily had Stellarium controlling the slewing of my Advanced VX. Thus the PC-mount connection is fine.

Having done well with unguided light frames, I now want to incorporate PHD2 autoguiding. I have learnt that nowadays PHD2 communication should be done via guider-PC/ASCOM-mount and not via the direct ST4 guider-mount connection.

Therefore should "ASCOM" be installed as a stand alone package, or is it included with full programs e.g Stellarium? I would be very grateful to have a thorough explanation.

[Davey-T]

Yes you need to download from here

Dave

https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/Index.htm