“Controlling your system”…we’re still talking about telescopes right?

This is a topic that is often overlooked by beginners in the hobby but it’s an important part of the hobby. Depending on the complexity of your equipment, it really can be classed as a system. Your telescope, guide scope, imaging camera, guide camera, tracking mount and auto-guiding system all need to talk to each other. When you start to include things like temperature controlled auto-focus motors and temperature dependant dew heaters, you need a way to control all this equipment. However, there are a few key benefits to highlight. Read on to find out more:

There are two ways to control your telescope mount/system:

1.Using the original hand controller

2. Using your computer via an EQMOD cable

3. Using an all-in-one system

I am a huge advocate of using your computer with a few key advantages, and in this section I’ll explain why.

Plate Solving

If you aren’t familiar with plate solving then click here for more details. Simply put, plate solving tells your mount where it’s pointing by taking a photo of the sky. You slew to a target, and when done, your camera will automatically take a test image. This image is compared to a star database which will then calculate where it’s actually pointing vs where it should be – the mount then makes another smaller corrective slew to correct the pointing error. Plate solving is a great tool because nothing is ever mechanically perfect. The gears in your mount will always have some level of slop/wear, resulting in small pointing errors – plate solving automatically corrects these errors.

Automation

By using your computer to control your system, you can configure it so that all you have to do is pick your targets, set your sequences and press go. The mount will then slew to the first target, plate solve, correct and verify its pointing at the right place. After that, it can automatically start auto-guiding, and then start your imaging sequence. All by pressing one button. 

 You can also tell your imaging software to image multiple targets in one night. For example, you set up a sequence for 3 targets and to spend 2 hours imaging each one. When you start the sequence, it will automatically slew to the first target, plate solve to correct any slewing errors, start auto-guiding, and then start imaging. It will do this for 2 hours, and then automatically stop the imaging, stop the guiding, slew to the next target, plate solve, re-start the auto-guiding on a nearby star, and restart your imaging to whatever sequence you’ve set. All this is possible because the computer has control of your mount. If you were using the hand controller, you’d have to do it all manually!

Pulse Guiding

Pulse guiding is a method of auto-guiding. Simply put, pulse guiding allows the guiding software and mount to communicate directly. Click here to learn more about auto-guiding and pulse guiding vs an ST4 cable.

Hand control 

1. You need to star align to calibrate the mount – can be time consuming when its freezing outside

2. You must make sure it’s set to the right date/time/daylight savings

3. You have to manually slew to targets

4. No plate solving (which means you have to manually verify your framing of the target)

Computer Control

1. Can make use of plate solving – automatic calibration – just press go

2. Can automatically slew to multiple targets in a sequence

2. Can be remote controlled from indoors

4. Allows for pulse auto-guiding – better than using a standard ST4 cable