I, Howard Dutton, established this group to share information about OnStep Telescope Controller and its use. This keeps me motivated and helps cover expenses associated with my projects. If you find OnStep useful and would like to show your appreciation and support please consider making a small monetary donation. You can see most of the control possibilities in the diagram below:Īlso, please visit my site for updates, links to OnStep resources, my other astronomy software, or to see some Images taken with the assistance of my OnStep operated mounts. These options allow you to setup and control OnStep using a wide range of software including my Sky Planetarium, Cartes du Ciel, Stellarium, SkySafari, KStars, PHD2, etc. There's a telescope hand controller App for Android (free in the Google Play Store,) an option to control through a website (Smart Web Server,) and a dedicated physical hand controller (Smart Hand Controller.) Or, on a PC there's ASCOM and INDI drivers for control. It was designed, from the beginning, as a more or less general purpose system and provisions were made in the firmware to allow for use on a variety of mounts including Equatorial and Alt/Az (GEM, Fork, Dobsonian, etc.) It uses an LX200 like computer command set with a few extensions to suit hand controller-less operation. OnStep is a computerized goto system, usually for stepper motor equipped mounts though any step/dir interface motor driver (including servo) should work. Looking around the 'net I saw other goto systems that seemed capable, but either they had needlessly complex hardware or were commercial systems that cost about twice what they should. I also like to have complete control over the software/firmware so that no "show stopper" issues will ever be a problem for me. I was a bit reluctant to use a Gemini, mainly because of the cost, but also due to the reliability since the servo motors are somewhat prone to failure. Since I aquired an Losmandy G11 mount without any goto provision I decided to create my own solution.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |