Astrometric's ASCOM (Astronomy Common Object Model) support

Astrometric Instrument's telescope control system software, Maestro (version 0.11.000 or later) is compliant with the ASCOM (Astronomy Common Object Model) standard. Specifically, Maestro is a fully compliant with the ASCOM Telescope Interface Standard version 2.0. This provides several important benefits:

• "Scripted" control of SkyWalker (through Maestro) is now available. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripts can be used to provide sophisticated scripting of SkyWalker's actions from a variety of sources (e.g. simple text files, Excel). A set of example VBA scripts are provided in this ZIP file. The use of ASCOM for scripting is introduced on the ascom-standards.org web site.
• SkyWalker can be controlled from one of many ASCOM clients (i.e. Windows-based software such as planetarium software or observing planners). Visit the ascom-standards.org page for a complete list.
• Remote access control of SkyWalker-contected telescopes over the internet. A suitable remote-access enabled client application, such as DC-3 Dreams' Astronomer's Control Program (ACP2) detailed at acp2.dc3.com, is necessary.

Complete details on the mapping of the ASCOM Telescope Interface Standard into Astrometric Instruments' telescope control system functionality are available in this PDF file.

Complete details on the ASCOM standard are available at ascom-standards.org.

The latest version of Maestro is available from our software upgrades web page.

Enabling SkyWalker's ASCOM support

• Install the latest ASCOM platform version on your PC. You can acquire the latest ASCOM platform here.
• Install Maestro version 0.11.000 or later on your PC. Note: please install the latest ASCOM platform FIRST.
• If the above two installations were sucessful, you should see "Maestro by Astrometric Inst." as a choice in the ASCOM telescope chooser of your ASCOM-capable client software. In addition you must install the latest ASCOM platform version on your PC.

ASCOM support for previous-generation SkyWalker software (i.e. SkyGuide)

Click here for more details.