Skywatcher GOTO & Stellarium on laptop

[Dante]

Finally got to the Isle of Man was hoping for some clear skies - they are worse than the mainland. First night clear the rest so far have been shrouded in dense sea mist and fog. Frustration doesn't describe it.

I hope somebody can help me with this one.

I had set up my scope which I believe I had aligned properly.

The location date, time etc was set up in Stellarium.

When a star was selected in the same patch of sky and the scope slewed to it via the screen it was well off when viewed thro the EP Manual movement to the star showed the just how far off the exercise was. Still in the same patch of sky but nowhere near the original setup.

Should I be doing something else/more with Stellarium and the scope.

[Mikea]

Hi Dante, are you using Stellarium and Stellariumscope? Does Stellarium read the mount RA/DEC correctly? My own experience - if I remember correctly - is that it was a bit off too. I haven't had a clear sky since to check it out. I'm using Skywatcher 130P + GOTO.

[Dante]

Hi Mikea, Yes I am using Stellarium and StellariumScope and feeding thro ASCOM.

I am using a Skywatcher Z70 (refractor). I wondered if the 'tilt' on screen would have anything to do with it. The flatness of the screen image might not be match the actual sky - maybe?

[Dante]

Back from the Isle of Man - skies are worse there than on the mainland. 10 days and nothing to show for it.

Still having problems matching stellarium to the heavens above.

At home had some success. Cloudy night but managed to find the moon. It was great to look at something finally -

it was a real gas:D

I also managed to get my webcam going and did take some footage - what is the max size for an AVI on the forum and should I if allowed post in the Imaging section or Observation.

It's not great but I am cuffed to bits with it:hello2:

[Hangar34]

Hi Mikea,

Hi Dante, are you using Stellarium and Stellariumscope? Does Stellarium read the mount RA/DEC correctly? My own experience - if I remember correctly - is that it was a bit off too. I haven't had a clear sky since to check it out. I'm using Skywatcher 130P + GOTO.

Having got all excited about using my father's Sky-Watcher Explorer 130P last night for the first time, and being already a user of Stellarium, I am keen to investigate the possibility of controlling the scope from Stellarium.

Can you advise which ASCOM driver(s) you use to drive your 130P and anything other than installing software that has to be done to connect and drive the scope from Stellarium/Stellariumscope.

Thanks,

Steve

[BrownClaw]

I'd second the above posters request for information also, please. I've got a SW 130P with Stellarium, Red Shift 7 and Starry Night CSAP, Windows XP Laptop with serial port, and the serial cable that came with the scope.

I've tried many times to get some response from the scope; I know the cable works because I updated the Synscan Firmware via it....for some reason though I can't figure out which drivers/software I need to get the ALT AZ GOTO and Stellarium to talk

Thanks

[Cornelius Varley]

As previously mentioned by Dante, Stellarium and the Stellarimscope plug-in. You will also need the Ascom platform and the Ascom Celestron drivers. The Skywatcher mount uses the Celestron driver (Nexstar 5i I think) and then select alt-az mode when configuring stellariumscope.

Peter

[BrownClaw]

Thanks Cornelius,

Hmm...Yeah, I have all those installed but don't get an option to choose ALT AZ in Stellariumscope - There are half a dozen different ones in the list (EQ5/6 etc) but no ALT AZ. Back to the drawing board.

[Cornelius Varley]

Start by launching Stellariumscope. Select ASCOM scope driver menu and a new pop-up will appear. From that select Celestron telescopes and then properties (another pop-up appears) Select nexstar 5i as the mount. In this pop-up there are pull down menus to select track mode, com port number and also latitude and longitude.

Peter

[BrownClaw]

Start by launching Stellariumscope. Select ASCOM scope driver menu and a new pop-up will appear. From that select Celestron telescopes and then properties (another pop-up appears) Select nexstar 5i as the mount. In this pop-up there are pull down menus to select track mode, com port number and also latitude and longitude.

Peter

I think i found part of the problem. I'm getting an error about Helper.dll and Helper2.dll when trying to install the Celestron Driver. I've tried to manually register the dll's but that's not working either. Until those DLL's are in the registry, it doesn't offer the Celestron option in the drop-down. I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled, and did get the Celestron window up, and did what you said. The laptop reported the scope wasn't connected however, so I thought I maybe needed the updated driver. This took the Celestron option away again, so I'm reinstalling and trying other things - quite what yet though I don't know...

Thanks for the advice, Cornelius, much appreciated.

[BrownClaw]

Got a bit further....now I'm getting the message 'There doesn't seem to be a Celestron scope attached to the COM port' lol.

Well, there shouldn't be

[Hangar34]

Thanks for the additional assistance and confirmation Peter.

Since posting, I did some additional research and reading and came to the conclusion that the Celestron unified drivers was probably the set to opt for. However, as I don't have the scope with me I'm just itching to try the whole thing out. I'll attempt to visit my father again this week and hook the laptop up and have a go.

Much appreciated and good luck with your efforts BrownClaw,

Steve

[Hangar34]

Just a quick update to say that I borrowed my father's mount this evening and although I am unable to test it for real (i.e. there is cloud cover this evening ), I have successfully managed to setup the mount so that it is directly controlled by Stellarium.

Interestingly, I am also able to connect to the hand controller via the firmware update software and read back the current firmware/database versions but am unable to update the hand controller with the latest version.

Still, it's a definite success otherwise. How did you get on in the end Jason?

Steve