. 

Connecting a Telescope
If you have a telescope which can be controlled by a computer you can connect it to Planetarium via the serial Port. 

Installation

In order to use the telescope feature you'll need to install the appropriate Planetarium telescope driver first. Please download it from the download page.

Cable

You will need a special cable. Unfortunately it is not very common to connect the Palm to the telescope so there is no good source for this kind of cable. The easiest solution is to buy a cable which connects the telescope to the PC and connect this cable to the hotsync cradle or a hotsync cable via a null modem. 

The null modem crosses the Rx/Tx lines and allows to plug everything together (m = male, f = female). This is a wiring scheme of the null modem:

There are also serial cables for the Palm that have a male DB9 connector. They are also called "Modem Cable" as they allow to connect the Palm to an ordinary modem. If you have such a cable, you don't need the null modem. Instead you can connect the modem cable directly with the telescope cable.

Usage

If the telescope driver is installed properly, the telescope button  shows up in the sky view tool bar. Tapping this button opens a popup menu with the available functions. 

  • Query Position - Asks the telescope where it is pointing at and displays a symbol.
  • Set position - Only available if you have selected an object. Moves the telescope to that object.
  • Sync - Only available if you have selected an object. If you have manually centered the selected object in your telesccope view this function commands the telescope to resynchrnonize with this object. Useful for star hopping.
Please note that not all of these commands are available for all telescopes. For example if your telescope does not allow to set the position the corresponding command will not be available.

User Manual Contents