I know, I know.... it's been a while, sorry. Of course I did not intend to be away for quite this long, but heh, I'm back now....
I am slowly upgrading my kit. I guess you can never truly "stop". I have acquired a ZWO ASI camera and I have decided to tip my toe into the murky waters of auto guiding with this caveat - it will be Apple Mac based.I have found that this topic also gets forums alight from time to time and I hope to simplify the process and may be help to relieve people's pain.
This is not an "Apple Fan Boy" post by any means, it is just that the Mac has been my machine of choice for a while and see no reason why I can't use this for my astro stuff.I have already got my eye on other software for image acquisition and processing too which I will hopefully follow up in later posts.
So ...... onwards ........
My goal was to get PHD2 auto guiding working using an Apple Mac with a SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro mount and a ZWO ASI120MC-S camera.
Now I know I could just connect an ST4 cable from the guide camera to the mount, but I wondered if I could make use of more ASCOM like features by connecting the Mac directly (well via the SynScan handset) to the mount. The ST4 solution is by far the easiest in Mac land in terms of software - simply specifying the “On camera” setting in PHD2 for the mount control.I must point out here that I do not know if either solution (ST4 or ASCOM like) is better than the other. I have had feedback that in terms of pure guiding there is no difference - thank you @astrostace (https://www.instagram.com/astrostace/)
Outlined below are the software components I have successfully used to make this happen.
NOTES
(i) I had real trouble trying to get INDIGO server to connect to the mount, which seems to be the preferred solution - so I used EQMac instead. I have used the older version here as the v2.x series has been called unusable at this time by it’s developer.
(ii) I also made sure that my hand and mount controller firmware were up to date. Access to a Windows PC is required here to run the updater software.
SynScan Driver Versions
Hand Controller - 4.39.05
Mount Controllers - 2.04
http://skywatcher.com/download/software/
Software to installProlific 2303 USB Driver
Enables serial communication via USB (USB B - NOT with serial adapter like older SynScan handsets) to the SynScan v5 hand controller.
http://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=229&pcid=41
EQMac (Mount v1.3.2 beta1)
Talks to the HEQ5 Pro mount hardware (via the SynScan hand controller in PC Direct Mode). Needs USB driver.
http://eqmac.hulse.id.au/downloads
PHD2 Guiding
-- Uses (built-in) ZWO ASI driver for guide camera.
-- Uses EQMac as driver to command the mount.
https://openphdguiding.org/
Clear skies.
MJ
I am slowly upgrading my kit. I guess you can never truly "stop". I have acquired a ZWO ASI camera and I have decided to tip my toe into the murky waters of auto guiding with this caveat - it will be Apple Mac based.I have found that this topic also gets forums alight from time to time and I hope to simplify the process and may be help to relieve people's pain.
This is not an "Apple Fan Boy" post by any means, it is just that the Mac has been my machine of choice for a while and see no reason why I can't use this for my astro stuff.I have already got my eye on other software for image acquisition and processing too which I will hopefully follow up in later posts.
So ...... onwards ........
My goal was to get PHD2 auto guiding working using an Apple Mac with a SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro mount and a ZWO ASI120MC-S camera.
Now I know I could just connect an ST4 cable from the guide camera to the mount, but I wondered if I could make use of more ASCOM like features by connecting the Mac directly (well via the SynScan handset) to the mount. The ST4 solution is by far the easiest in Mac land in terms of software - simply specifying the “On camera” setting in PHD2 for the mount control.I must point out here that I do not know if either solution (ST4 or ASCOM like) is better than the other. I have had feedback that in terms of pure guiding there is no difference - thank you @astrostace (https://www.instagram.com/astrostace/)
Outlined below are the software components I have successfully used to make this happen.
NOTES
(i) I had real trouble trying to get INDIGO server to connect to the mount, which seems to be the preferred solution - so I used EQMac instead. I have used the older version here as the v2.x series has been called unusable at this time by it’s developer.
(ii) I also made sure that my hand and mount controller firmware were up to date. Access to a Windows PC is required here to run the updater software.
SynScan Driver Versions
Hand Controller - 4.39.05
Mount Controllers - 2.04
http://skywatcher.com/download/software/
Software to installProlific 2303 USB Driver
Enables serial communication via USB (USB B - NOT with serial adapter like older SynScan handsets) to the SynScan v5 hand controller.
http://www.prolific.com.tw/US/ShowProduct.aspx?p_id=229&pcid=41
EQMac (Mount v1.3.2 beta1)
Talks to the HEQ5 Pro mount hardware (via the SynScan hand controller in PC Direct Mode). Needs USB driver.
http://eqmac.hulse.id.au/downloads
PHD2 Guiding
-- Uses (built-in) ZWO ASI driver for guide camera.
-- Uses EQMac as driver to command the mount.
https://openphdguiding.org/
Clear skies.
MJ
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