At each step of the focuser, the software tells the imager control software (suite 3 of software) to take star images.
#Ascom for mac driver#
This software commands the focus motor driver to step the focuser from out of focus, through focus, to out of focus on the other side. If there is an ASCOM compatible driver for your focuser or camera, you can be virtually certain that all of these programs can control it. For example, you may have several programs that need to control your telescope (autofocus, imaging software, alignment assistance tool). The ASCOM Initiative is a loosely-knit group of developers and astronomical instrument makers that work together to bring vendor-independent and language-independent plug-and play compatibility between astronomy software and astronomical instruments on Windows computers.ĪSCOM plug-and play compatibility enables most programs that need to control focusers, telescopes, etc., to expect a driver to be available for those instruments.
Furthermore, astronomy device manufacturers were faced with having to beg an array of astronomy software vendors to support their device in the future, delaying adoption of their new devices. Every astronomy software developer is faced with (re)writing code for every device he intends to support. Keeping up with new instruments, supporting old ones, and dealing with firmware revisions is a tremendous burden. Until ASCOM, each astronomy program that needed to control a motorized focusers had to include its own code for all the different focus motor types out there. What addressed this problem was development of ASCOM - the AStronomy Common Object Model. Down in the guts of your PC, Windows compatible plug-and-play driver software takes care of all of the details for that particular printer, leaving all of your Windows programs with a common printer-agnostic way to send pages to paper.įor a long time in astronomy each hardware vendor supplied their own propietary driver software and some still do, supporting only proprietary driver standards that limits choices of hardware and software.
#Ascom for mac install#
Likewise, when you install a new program on your computer, you can be virtually certain that it can print to your existing printer, even if it's no longer in production.
When you go out and buy a new printer, you can be virtually certain that it will work with all of the programs on your computer. Autofocusing from your PC or MAC requires 3 suites of software: (1) Plug-and-Software (2) Autofocus Software (3) Imaging Software.
#Ascom for mac drivers#
Both usb-nFOCUS and usb-nSTEP come complete with ASCOM compatible software drivers and a basic software app that lets you manually control the focuser from your PC or MAC.
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