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Old 30-05-2013, 12:30 PM
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naskies (Dave)
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Brisbane
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnyt123 View Post
What i want to ask is if anyone knows what programs i need:
- a planetarium that can control the scope
- software to control the focuser, filter wheel, focusing software
Planetarium software - Cartes du Ciel and Stellarium are both free and you can use them to control your mount. Stellarium feels like it's more targeted towards visual observers who want an electronic sky atlas though - it can be a bit frustrating for imaging use.

David pointed me to Maxim DL a while back - I really like it. There's a free 30 day trial that you can download from their website.

If you're going to be indoors imaging, you may want to also consider:

* an electronic finder or all sky camera (i.e. a small camera with a very wide angle lens mounted on your scope or pointing up) so that you can see what's going on - incoming clouds, neighbours switched on the flood lights, target obscured by trees, etc.

* automation software such as CCDAutoPilot (many others available too) so that you can pre-program the whole night's imaging, including taking sky flats at twilight and parking the scope.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cfranks View Post
Have a look at TheSkyX Pro. Adding Tpoint and the Camera Add-On gives you the total package you want. Price is high @ about $850 but there is nothing further to pay.
The SB website seems to say that there's a $75/year subscription cost after the first year

http://www.bisque.com/sc/shops/store...nDownload.aspx
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