CCD Commander assistance

[Octane]

Hi team,

A general call for help from those who use CCD Commander.

Specifically, those who use: a G-11 with Gemini, MaxIm DL, FocusMax, PinPoint, and TheSky6.

I prefer Starry Night Pro Plus 6, due to its proper representation of the night sky using actual photographs (makes it very easy to see what objects will look like and how they will frame), however, TheSky6 has a wonderful mosaic tool that is indispensable for my setup.

I'm wondering about how to get it all going.

In MaxIm DL, I was connecting to the Gemini Telescope.NET ASCOM driver for the telescope. I do this because I love the Zoom tool in MaxIm DL's observatory tab for a quick glance at where my scope is pointing, without having to switch to a planetarium application. Furthermore, for the last 4 years, I have been imaging just the one target, so, I like being able to call up the same star as my starting position in the catalog section and pressing GoTo. I would also have Starry Night Pro Plus 6 connected, so, if I needed to refine my framing, I could quickly frame how I wanted and select the Slew to screen centre function.

FocusMax is also set up to use the Gemini Telescope.NET ASCOM driver for its AquireStar functionality.

I grabbed the TeleAPI for TheSky6 last night so it can use the Gemini Telescope.NET ASCOM driver rather than connect to the inbuilt Gemini driver.

I know I'm going to run in to issues with this setup when I try to get CCD Commander to control everything.

My question: do I set MaxIm DL and FocusMax to use the POTH Hub and then define the Gemini Telescope.NET and RoboFocus driver inside the POTH Hub?

Before I got the TeleAPI plugin for TheSky6, I was unable to connect TheSky6 to the mount (using the built-in Gemini driver) while both MaxIm DL and FocusMax were connected to the Gemini Telescope.NET ASCOM driver. I didn't get a chance to test it with the TeleAPI last night. Will give it a go tonight.

So, in a nutshell, should my settings be:

POTH Hub telescope: Gemini Telescope.NET
POTH Hub focuser: RoboFocus Control Program

FocusMax telescope: POTH Hub
FocusMax focuser: POTH Hub

MaxIm DL telescope: POTH Hub

TheSky6: TeleAPI (POTH Hub)

CCD Commander should then also be pointed to the hubs?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Cheers, and, extra Internets to anyone who can help.

H

[loc46south]

Hi Octane -

I've been using CCD Commander and G-11 for a number of years now without any problem - it is a bit quirky but it will work you just need to experiment. One problem is I dumped Maxim years ago in favour of CCD Soft - I found that it handled guide stars better, but in saying that Maxim must work as other use it.

Setup Camera Control - Maxim or CCDSoft
Mount Control - Ascom - get latest Gemini.net.driver
Planetarium - The Sky - with the Latest Tele Api
Focus Control - Focus Max
Platesolve - Pinpoint Full

Forget about your Poth Hub - not needed - CCD Commander will control the scope through Ascom Gemini.net. With Focus Max I don't use Acquire Star but instead nominate a star from "The Sky" for focusing. Usually off Target. By doing it yourself you can ensure it is not a double star or that it is not in a crowded field.

Method - Goto Ra/Dec or SAO Number - Platesolve and centre - Focus - Return to target - Platesolve and centre - Take light frames.

Apart from that it should be plain sailing - you will need to experiment a bit with your instructions to get exactly what you want but I have found it reliable.

Cheers
Geof Wingham

[Octane]

Cheers, Geoff. :)

I'm a champion; I got everything working via the POTH Hub. :)

It's cooling to -20 now and doing biases and darks. It's one of those nights!

H