My hope has been that SkySafari 8 would take a photo with my ZWO camera and guide scope using the so-called direct camera connection, then it would plate solve and show where the scope is aimed for visual observing with a manual dobsonian mount. After hearing about the new features in SS 8, I figured it would be possible, if not easy to set up.
I recently installed SS8 on my Galaxy S23FE. At NEAF, the marketing said that SS8 would support direct connection of ZWO cameras. I found that to be a bit misleading after trying for a while to get the app to recognize my ZWO camera over USB. I have another app called AstroCapture that does capture images over USB with my ZWO camera ASI462MC.
So I connected the camera to my ASI Air and tried to use the ASCOM ALPACA connection, but SS said it could not find an ALPACA server. At this point, I have "Device-1" showing when I select Camera Control, but it just says "Not Connected" and there seems to be no way to restart the connection process from scratch. It seems that a more realistic scenario is that my ASI Air would take the photos and plate solve them, then send the coordinates to SkySafari.
Which leads me to the next problem. I think I have been following the instructions properly, but I cannot get SkySafari to recognize the scope position indicated in ASI Air. My phone is connected to the ASI Air hot spot. I am using the manual configuration to try to connect SS to ASI Air. The address on both devices is set to IP 10.0.0.1 and Port 4030. The mount in SS is set to Meade LX200 Classic. The web suggests using "EQMOD with SkySafari" as the mount in ASIAir, but ASI Air will not connect to a mount that is not really there. I also tried Meade LX200, but ASI Air won't connect. So I am using "Demo Interface" in ASI Air. When I test the connection during configuration, it says "connected." But when I go to the sky view in SS and try to connect, I always get an error that says Sky Safari can connect to the scope but the scope is not responding" or something like that.