Hardware compatibility

[Miha Cernetic]

Hi!

Our astronomy club is preparing it's remote observatory and we have stumbled upon your software which we find is perfect for us! As far as we know, all our equipment is ASCOM compatible but just to be sure, I'm writing to if you can please confirm you software's compatibility with our equipment:

• dome: a custom dome with ASCOM driver and has been confirmed to work with TheSkyX software
• mount: Gemini MoFoD II with Pulsar2 controller (ASCOM)
• Apogee Alta F16m
• Apogee FW50 filter wheel
• An active optics unit with OAG http://www.sxccd.com/sxv-ao-lf

[Bob Denny]

Hello --

Thank you for posting here. On the surface, your systems are compatible, including the SX adaptive optics which MaxIm DL controls nicely.

My concern is with your dome controller. Although it works with TheSky X via ASCOM, this is not a guarantee that it is truly ASCOM conforming. If it will pass the ASCOM conformance tester! then it will probably be OK.

Also, the Gemini control system has been problematic in automated operation unless it is configured very precisely as to its many options for manual operations. The Gemini Driver group on Yahoo is a good source of info for this.

-- Bob

[Miha Cernetic]

Thank you for the answers!

I talked to a guy from Gemini and he said that it should work but could be moody from time to time. =) Can you please tell me which dome controllers are supported by your software? For example, would this one work? http://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?country=ot&lang=en&id=351346

[Bob Denny]

The key to the dome control is whether the controller has an ASCOM driver. I am not familiar with the one you mentioned. MaxDome by Diffraction Limited is one OK one.