From: "alien2108" <alien@alienworld.org>

Date: April 8, 2008 3:35:55 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Guiding Celestron mount?

Hello Milton!

I think you are not correct about Celestron protocol. First of all

resolution is 0.08 arc seconds.

Also moving the scope is very easy in steps. You get the current

position add/substract the amount you want to move (with 0.08 arc

seconds resolution) and issue GOTO to calculated coordinates.

Of course mount should be polar aligned for RA/DEC goto. Alt/Az works

without alignment. But isn't that so with any kind of GEM mount?

Well I am happy to offer my assistance in supporting Celestron mounts,

since I have quite a lot of programming experience.

Astro IIDC is great program and why not support something as common as

Celestron mount? Equinox, MaxDSLR... all support it.

BR,

Alen

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@...> wrote:

Dear Alen;

No it is not possible to guide using a celestron mount via a serial  

port with Astro IIDC. The Celestron protocol for controlling the  

mount does not have any means of saying "move 1 second west and 0.2  

seconds north" and you have to tell it move it as an absolute  

location (Ra Hour Minutes, Dec Minutes seconds). So you'd have to  

have the scope calibrated with 3 stars before it would work, and even  

then it doesn't work very accurately (+/- 1.0 arc seconds).

However we can guide with a Celestron type mount (i.e. CGE /  HEQ5 /  

HEQ6 / Orion Atlas / Orion Sirius) using the ST4 Auto guider port and  

a GPUSB box from ShoeString Astronomy :

http://www.store.shoestringastronomy.com/products_gp.htm

and Astro IIDC.

HTH..

Milton Aupperle

On 7-Apr-08, at 6:57 AM, alien2108 wrote:

Hey!

Am I wrong or is it really not possible to autoguide Celestron mounts

(CG-5)? It does connect, but immediately after connection my mount

starts to move. After I stop it with HC, controls in Astro IIDC

doesn't work?

BR,

Alen