Can I guide my HEQ5 Pro without spending any more money?

[adamh]

Hello All,

I'd like to experiment (this isn't going to be a long term setup just a test) with guiding with my HEQ5 Pro. I've got a webcam, and think I can easily convert my finder for temporary use as a guidescope. I've got a usb-serial connection going to the handset, and stellarium can successfully talk to the mount and control it.

So with all of this can I guide?

PHD seems to want to talk ASCOM or GPUSB, I don't have a GPUSB and I can't work out if there's a way of talking ASCOM to the mount without EQMOD (which involves spending money...)

Any ideas, am I missing something?

Thanks,

Adam

[Ben Ritchie]

I think ASCOM will talk to the mount via the RS232 cable that came with the HEQ5

[adamh]

Do I have to install something else to support that?

I've installed the ASCOM platform, but my mount isn't listed. I'm guessing I need to install some mount specific ASCOM driver, but don't know where from.

[Ben Ritchie]

Install the ASCOM package

ASCOM - Standards for Astronomy

think the HEQ5 is treated as a Celestron mount, got it all setup in the observatory so will check shortly. I have just a SPC900, USB-Serial converter, the standard RS232 cable you get with the mount, PHD guiding and ASCOM and can connect to the mount fine with that.

[adamh]

I'll grab the Celestron Unified driver from here: Telescope/Mount Drivers

And report back!

[Glider]

I do what you are planning and it works fine.

Use the Celestron driver with ASCOM, the handset is Nexstar compliant.

[Ben Ritchie]

Use the Celestron driver with ASCOM, the handset is Nexstar compliant.

I have Nexstar 5i selected for my EQ6 and that works, but the ASCOM "Celestron Scope Driver" appears to have gained an explicit "Synta SkyWatcher Mount" option since I last looked - don't know if that actually has any benefits over picking a Nexstar