Using Cartes Du Ciel / ascom - can you RA/DEC 'nudge' a scope?

[g__day (Matthew)]

I'm wondering if their is a way from within CDC to command a scope to nudge +/- in RA and DEC at a defined slew rate?

If my gotos are a tad off, and I'm remotely controlling the scope from inside, at present I guess I have to share Comm port which has the physical connect from the PC to the hand controller - either physically or virtually.

A Physical sharing might go...

Under CDC grab control of teh aligned scope, then execute a goto from its skycharts. With a PHD window open get a realtime view if it hit its target well. If it is off, relinguish CDC control of the scope (disconnect telescope control) start Nexstar, skip alignment, set slew rate to say 4 or 5 then press the RA or DEC I want until the object is centred in PHD window. Then you have to switch this off and re-grap control of the scope with CDC for teh next goto and so on.

Under Windows each software utility wants exclusive access to the handcontroller via Comm Port 1.

A Virtual port sharing might go...

Map two logical ports say 8 and 9 to Comm port 1 and allow two applications to both exclusivel grap 8 and 9 respectively, which are all being merged into port 1. I think this would be trouble bound as I'd expect the information flow is two way all the time.

* * * * * * * *

Can anyone suggest the best way forward for me? If there was a simple way in CDC to say nudge that scope in a set direction - that would be incredibly useful!

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

How about changing the time in CDC in the if the scope is out in RA. Use the 'Animation' function. Then it will move to the desired spot back or forward, even by one second if you want.

As for Dec, I dunno.

[glasseyes (John)]

An interesting question. It appears that the ASCOM drivers should provide the flexibility to do what you are suggesting. Here is a link that might help you, with relevant text pasted below.
"(Note that I have three programs that want to communicate with the telescope mount: Cartes du Ciel, AstroArt and GuideDog. But only one program can control the computer’s serial port at a time. So how can this work? Via ASCOM. ASCOM is a free software suite that makes it easier for programmers to write programs to control telescopes – that’s its primary purpose. But it also provides a software “hub” that allows many programs to talk to the hub while the hub has exclusive control over the telescope’s serial port communication. My three programs connect to the ASCOM hub and the hub connects to the telescope mount.)"
http://www.bpccs.com/lcas/Articles/i...my_part_II.htm

[g__day (Matthew)]

Oh silly me, thank you for that link - it twigged the memory I needed!

This functionality is already in CDC - to expose it you simply have to go to Telescope -> Configuration Panel -> Configure and tick Show hand controller

Viola - all the functionality I want is now there!

Totally fantastic program - thanks guys!

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by g__day

I'm wondering if their is a way from within CDC to command a scope to nudge +/- in RA and DEC at a defined slew rate?

If my gotos are a tad off, and I'm remotely controlling the scope from inside, at present I guess I have to share Comm port which has the physical connect from the PC to the hand controller - either physically or virtually.

A Physical sharing might go...

Under CDC grab control of teh aligned scope, then execute a goto from its skycharts. With a PHD window open get a realtime view if it hit its target well. If it is off, relinguish CDC control of the scope (disconnect telescope control) start Nexstar, skip alignment, set slew rate to say 4 or 5 then press the RA or DEC I want until the object is centred in PHD window. Then you have to switch this off and re-grap control of the scope with CDC for teh next goto and so on.

Under Windows each software utility wants exclusive access to the handcontroller via Comm Port 1.

A Virtual port sharing might go...

Map two logical ports say 8 and 9 to Comm port 1 and allow two applications to both exclusivel grap 8 and 9 respectively, which are all being merged into port 1. I think this would be trouble bound as I'd expect the information flow is two way all the time.

* * * * * * * *

Can anyone suggest the best way forward for me? If there was a simple way in CDC to say nudge that scope in a set direction - that would be incredibly useful!

How do you do that please....

Shawn

[g__day (Matthew)]

With a virtual port and a virtual hub that almagates info into one port. But with CDC as above you don't need to.