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Connecting to Celestron NexStar+

Tom Myers

July 18, 2017 00:02

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I have a new Celestron NexStar 8SE and downloaded Starry Nights with hopes to control the telescope from my Mac.

I have installed the Starry Nights 7 Celestron Edition software, but cannot connect to the telescope.

I have connected a USB cable to the HC, and have installed the Prolific USB Serial driver.

When I try to connect from the telescope control panel, I have set

• Connection: usberial
• Scope Type: Celestron NexStar GPS/SLT/SE
• Mount Type: Alt/Az Go-To

When I try to connect I get the dialog "Communication Error"

I logged the communication which is this:

Sent ASCII at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
V#
Received ASCII at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
#
Sent Binary at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
116 
Received Binary at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
0 35 
Received ASCII:
retryCount: 0, timeout: 0
Sent ASCII at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
e
Received ASCII at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
FFFFFF00#
Sent ASCII at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
e
Received ASCII at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
FFFFFF00#
Sent ASCII at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
e
Received ASCII at 2017/07/17 18:57:11 with error 0:
FFFFFF00#

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3 comments

• 
  Keiron Smith July 18, 2017 17:06 Official comment

  Yes, star-align first.  That is a showstopper.  You can do a fake align for testing.  Let me know how it goes.

   

  Thanks!

• 0
  
  Keiron Smith July 18, 2017 16:55

  Hi Tom,

  Did you star-align your Celestron 8SE before trying to connect?

  Thanks!

• 0
  
  Tom Myers July 18, 2017 17:04

  I did not. I was trying to establish the connectivity prior to taking it all outside.

  Is that the issue then? Once I go through the alignment process, I can expect to be able to connect my laptop and all will be well?

  It does seem like the comm. log shows that some data is going back and forth.

  I'll try that tonight (sky willing).