I've been trying to connect my Orion XT12g Newtonian Dobsonian telescope mounted on a Synscan Goto mount to Starry Night. I've already managed to upgrade my controller to the latest firmware (ver. 3.08) so I know that my serial to USB 2.0 adapter is working correctly. Its even recognized in the device manger also. And so far I'm currently running Starry Night ver. 6.4.3 Orion special edition software. I also downloaded ASCOM platform 6 SP1. When I'm trying to configure then connect I make sure my hand controller is set to Utilities > Direct to PC. When I'm trying to configure I cannot seem to find my scope listed anywhere. After hearing a few comments online regarding drivers I went back to ASCOM where I was able to download and install both Orion and Celestron drivers. The problem now is neither work for my particular telescope. The Orion driver is for the Intelliscope and not the Goto series. And the Celestron driver seems to only support equatorial mounts from what I see. I've contacted Orion technical support but all they could do for me was submit my claim for further review. All I think I need at this point is a proper driver that supports my particular Goto scope so I can access it during the configuring stage and then connect. All data in the hand controller is correct based on my current viewing location followed by a thorough 2 star alignment procedure. I'm running all this on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit OS. All hardware is up to date.
12 comments
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Keiron Smith Hi Erik,
I have posted on our Facebook page a request for assistance locating your Ascom driver.
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Keiron Smith You said "And the Celestron driver seems to only support equatorial mounts from what I see." How do you draw this conclusion?
I found this documentation that suggests the AZ mount is compatible with the Celestron drivers:
Another feature of SynScan AZ is the ability to connect to a computer via a serial communication cable. Many commercially available planetarium softwares can be used to control SynScan. AZ Version 3.00 and later is compatible with Celestron 5i/8i and NexStar GPS command protocol.
1. Make sure that the telescope has been aligned.
2. Connect the RS-232 cable to the RJ-12 connector on the hand control and to the COM-port of your computer (Fig.o).
3. In the planetarium software of your choice, choose "Sky-Watcher Mount, Celestron NexStar 5i/8i" or "Celestron NexStar 8/9/11" in the driver setup menu and follow the instructions provided by your program to establish the connection to the telescope. The SynScan AZ should be under the full control of your computer once the connection is successfully established.
4. When you are finished, follow the instructions provided by your software to close the connection to the telescope
See the official documentation here:
http://www.skywatcher.com/swtsupport/Instruction_Manuals/Dob%20SynScan%20240412V1.pdf
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Erik Bee At the time I wrote that I wasn't sure yet if Celestron even had drivers for AZ mounts since the majority of the photos online showed them mounted on tripods. While Sky-watcher seemed to be the closest model that looked identical to mine so I tried working with that. But after further research I figured out that AZ mounts are used on both tripods and Dobsonian style telescopes. So yes I'm still learning all this as I'm fairly new to this hobby. lol Somebody on another forum suggested using Celestron 5i/8i and NexStar 8/9/11 as you did so I went ahead and tried that but still no luck even after proper alignment. Sometimes I would get an error message telling me the scope connected is not a Celestron so I was lead to believe that I had to use a driver specifically associated with the brand Orion. I'm not quite sure why Orion is only mentioned once though in the drop down list. I'm still getting used to the fact that different brands are using the same manufactures to produce their products. I guess its just me but if they offered a list with different Orion Synscan models the selection process maybe a bit easier to figure out vs guessing what Celestron model works best with my Orion scope. I still haven't given up though. I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out. Thanks for your reply though.
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Jim Cristofono Has anyone figured out the solution for this. I purchased Orion 16g which has a synch scan controller. I don't see it listed as an option. What should I choose.
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Tncarter having the same problem
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Phil Colvin Same, lame.....
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John Black you need to make sure that you have the latest ascom version, the current one is 6.1 sp1. you can get that from the ascom site. then make sure that you have the celestron scope driver installed. Make sure that you run starry night as administrator by right clicking and selecting "run as administrator" from the drop down menu.
I am using the Celestron 5i option from the list of scopes. I have an orion XT10g
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Keiron Smith Thanks so much, John, for your feedback. Your advice here is invaluable!!
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John Black I need to make a correction to my above post, I used the Celestron 5i option not the 8i. Sorry for the confusion.
Keiron, can you link my answer regarding the exact steps I took to get my scope connected?
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John Black -
Okay, here is the method that I have used with success in connecting Starry Night Orion edition with my Orion XT10g telescope:
1. Be sure to have the latest version of Ascom (current is 6.1 SP1), you can get it from ascom-standards.org.
2. Run Celestron(6.0.5412).exe. You have to have the ascom upgraded BEFORE trying to install the celestron driver.
3. Connect the RS-232 cable to your computer and handset, I am using a USB to RS-232 adapter with FTDI chipset.
4 Initialize and align your telescope as you normally would. (I used the 2-star alignment)
5. Once the alignment is finished start up Starry Night by RIGHT CLICK AND SELECTING "RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR".
6. Under the configure tab, select "Celestron scope driver" NOT "celestron telescope driver". Not sure why this is but it did not work for me.
7. Under the "Properties" tab, select "celestron 5i", then input your GPS coordinates. Be sure to use the correct COM port. If you are unsure of which COM port you are using, open up your device manager and look for the "Ports (COM & LPT), click the arrow on the left of that and it will tell you what port you are using. The easiest way to get to device manager is holding down the windows icon key and pressing the letter X. A sub-menu should pop up and device manager will be listed. You can also get there through control panel.
8.Once the info (gps and com) is entered, then you should be able to just click on "Connect" and your scope will be under the control of Starry Night. I found that there was no need to go to the Utility menu on my hand controller and select PC direct mode, it did not make any difference.
One thing is to be patient when setting up the configure information. It takes a couple of minutes for it to actually finish the configuration.
I also did this using Starry Night 7 Pro and it worked the same way.
I hope this helps.
Clear skies
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Keiron Smith Thanks sooooooo much, John! This is an incredibly valuable troubleshooting document. I know there have been quite a few users struggling to make the XTG series work with Ascom & Starry Night. You have made a tremendous contribution to the community!!
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Tom Wise Greetings,
I am trying to use Starry Night Special Edition to control my Orion XX14g. I am using Synscan FW 4.37.3.
The scope driver I select in StarryNight is the Celestron compatible driver.
I can connect to the scope with no problem. I then click on an object inStarryNight, say Arcturus. I then use the "Slew To" command to move the scope to the selected object. The scope moves to the object. But then all on its own it will slew off the target by about 2 degrees. I re-select the target and use the "Slew To" command and the scope slews back to the target but then again slews off the target by the same 2 degrees. I then select another object, say Altair and the scope slews to the target but then again slews off the target by the same 2 degrees.
It is as if the scope knows where to go and goes there but then decides to go off the target by 2 degrees.
Interestingly, using Stellarium produces the same result.
And yes, the scope works perfectly both for goto and tracking when I use the hand controller. Two star alignment always works great and using PAE on the alignment stars also improves the goto accuracy.
Any assistance is appreciated.
Tom