Well this is one method of Remote Controlling the observatory - but people seemed to have overlooked the other - actual remote operation - ie hands off.
The dangers of remote operation lie in the fact that you are still expected to control the scope - but not being able to see what you are doing. You run the risk of drivign the sope into something - perhaps the base, since you no longer have spatial data on the current orientation of the scope.
What I propose (and use) is ACP4 by DC3 Dreams (
www.dc3.com). It takes care of the housekeeping and prevents you from driving the scope into anything. Now I have the base level license so I still need access to control the Observatory PC to access AC4 (you can buy internet access licenses) and I user VNC for this - but it only to monitor the software - not the hardware.
You get get more details of my setup on my website.
Cheers
David Higgins
http://www.david-higgins.com