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Starry Night 7 + Ascom + Windows Virtual Machine On MacOS Freezes When Controlling Meade LX850 (Answer: Virtual Machines Are Not An Officially Supported SN Configuration)

Hello all,

I am having problems and would appreciate your input.

When using telescope control in Starry Night 7 via ASCOM, the scope moves once when a move is requested, then it no longer responds to requests. It continues tracking, but I can't make any other moves. It is essentially frozen. I have Starry Night wired via usb to rs232 cable to the mount. I am using the Universal Ascom driver for Meade. I am running Starry Night Pro in Windows on a Mac. Not sure how to solve the problem. Thanks for your ideas.

Arthur

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    Keiron Smith

    Hi Arthur, 

    On Windows, as you know, Starry Night provides scope control via Ascom. Please see Meade driver notes from the following link:

    https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/ScopeDrivers.htm

    Meade Universal Driver Project (June 2014)

    Link to a driver that recognizes new Meade telescopes (LX850 and LX600), some earlier LX200GPS telescopes, and telescopes that recognize basic Meade Commands (e.g., LX200 Classic, Centurion). Provides position readout, slews, side of pier (where appropriate), and pulse guiding among its basic capabilities. It has passed Conformance Checking for the LX850 and the LX600 and has been run with a number of other Meade telescopes. While not complete functionality (e.g., missing tracking control, focus control, slew rate selection), this is the first iteration of a driver that is intended provide replacement capabilities for all existing Meade drivers. Please Note: This driver reports that it cannot control tracking (on/off) so it may not be suitable for automation applications.

    So, it appears Ascom support for the Meade LX850 may be limited.

    You could reply to the following post asking Michael what kind of experience he is getting using the Starry Night Pro 7 on Windows with the Meade LX850 Ascom driver, as discussed here:

    Starry Night Pro 7 | ASCOM Driver Error With Meade LX-850 (Solved: UAC Settings Must Be “Never Notify”)

    Also, consider a Google search for "Meade LX850 Ascom driver" - there are previous discussions in CloudyNights.

    If you can provide further feedback regarding this issue I'm sure everyone using Ascom with an LX850 would be grateful.

    We need to help one another in the community forums.

    Thanks for your patience waiting for a reply.

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    Keiron Smith

    Hi Arthur, 

    In addition to the above, unfortunately, we can not support Starry Night run in virtual machines.  Virtual machines have their own issues.  It is possible that the the troubles you are encountering result from the VM, and not SN, nor Ascom.  You should be trying to achieve success with a standard Windows computer/laptop - see first whether the same issues still appear.  And, then, from that base point, try to get everything running in VM on Mac.

    Thanks!

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