GOTO without GOTO

[leenewtoastro]

can someone clear up whats what?

i'm told skywatcher H/Ctrl has no option to connect to pc unlike a goto H/Ctrl?

but apparently syntrek? is a tracking/auto H/Ctrl but will interface to pc?

how is that acheived? it would be great to buy a mount and have no controller between the connection to pc. i.e cable from front straight to serial/usb etc

eqdir module/converter ?

[Merlin66]

The Synscan handcontroller can most certainly be connected to a PC for GOTO and Plaentarium control...I do it all the time....

What appears to be the issue??

( This is for the HEQ5 and NEQ6 type controllers V2 and above...)

[chrisshillito]

Assuming you're talking about HEQ5 / EQ6Pro type mounts ....

Synscan versions of these mounts come with a goto handcontroller which can provide a PC interface to the mount. A syntrek mount is identical to a synscan (goto) mount but comes with a much simpler controller for basic slewing and tracking. However, you can simply remove the syntrek controller and instead connect the mount directly to a PC via an EQDirect cable (usb/RS232 - self build or purchase) provided your PC is running the ASCOM platform (free) and has the EQMOD ASCOM driver (free) installed.

See the EQMOD website for details.

Chris.