A more complete and up-to-date documentation for this plug-in can be found on the Telescope Control page in the Stellarium Wiki.
This plug-in allows Stellarium to send only "slew" ("go to") commands to the device and to receive its current position. It cannot issue any other commands, so users should be aware of the possibility for mount collisions and similar situations. (To abort a slew, you can start another one to a safe position.)
As of the current version, this plug-in doesn't allow satellite tracking, and is not very suitable for lunar or planetary observations.
WARNING: Stellarium CANNOT prevent your telescope from being pointed at the Sun.
As of Stellarium 0.10.5, the original telescope control feature has been removed. There is no longer a way to control a telescope with Stellarium without this plug-in.
here are two general ways to control a device with this plug-in, depending on the situation:
Most older telescopes use cables that connect to a serial port (RS-232), the newer ones use USB (Universal Serial Bus). On Linux and Max OS X both cases are handled identically by the plug-in. On Windows, a USB connection may require a "virtual serial port" software, if it is not supplied with the cable or the telescope. Such a software creates a virtual ("fake") COM port that corresponds to the real USB port so it can be used by the plug-in. On all three platforms, if the computer has no "classic" serial ports and the telescope can connect only to a serial port, a serial-to-USB (RS-232-to-USB) adapter may be necessary.
Telescope set-up (setting geographical coordinates, performing alignment, etc.) should be done before connecting the telescope to Stellarium.
The plug-in's main window can be opened:
The Telescopes tab displays a list of the telescope connections that have been set up:
To set up a new telescope connection, press the Add button. To modify the configuration of an existing connection, select it in the list and press the Configure button. In both cases, a telescope connection configuration window will open.
The topmost field represents the choice between the two types of connections (see above):
Telescope controlled by:Name is the label that will be displayed on the screen next to the telescope reticle.
Connection delay: If the movement of the telescope reticle on the screen is uneven, you can try increasing or decreasing this value.
Start/connect at startup: Check this option if you want Stellarium to attempt to connect to the telescope immediately after it starts. Otherwise, to start the telescope, you need to open the main window, select that telescope and press the "Start/Connect" button.
This section is active only for DIRECT connections (see above).
Serial port sets the serial port used by the telescope.
There is a pop-up box that suggests some default values:
If you are using an USB cable, the default serial port of your telescope most probably is not in the list of suggestions.
To list all valid serial port names in Mac OS X, open a terminal and type:
ls /dev/*
This will list all devices, the full name of your serial port should be somewhere in the list (for example, "/dev/cu.usbserial-FTDFZVMK").
Device model: see Supported devices below.
Both fields here refer to communication over a network (TCP/IP). Doing something with them is necessary only for INDIRECT connections (see above).
Host can be either a host name or an IPv4 address such as "127.0.0.1". The default value of "localhost" means "this computer".
Port refers to the TCP port used for communication. The default value depends on the telescope number and ranges between 10001 and 10009.
Both values are ignored for DIRECT connections.
For INDIRECT connections, modifying the default host name value makes sense only if you are attempting a remote connection over a network. In this case, it should be the name or IP address of the computer that runs a program that runs the telescope.
A series of circles representing different fields of view can be added around the telescope marker. This is a relic from the times before the Oculars plug-in existed.
In the telescope configuration window, click on "User Interface Settings". Mark the "Use field of view indicators" option, then enter a list of values separated with comas in the field below. The values are interpreted as degrees of arc.
This can be used in combination with a virtual telescope to display a moving reticle with the Telrad circles. In this case, the list of FOV values should be "0.5, 2, 4".
The "Slew telescope to" window can be opened by pressing Ctrl+0 or the respective button in the bottom toolbar.
It contains two fields for entering celestial coordinates, selectors for the preferred format (Hours-Minutes-Seconds, Degrees-Minutes-Seconds, or Decimal degrees), a drop-down list and two buttons.
The drop-down list contains the names of the currently connected devices. If no devices are connected, it will remain empty, and the "Slew" button will be disabled.
Pressing the Slew button slews the selected device to the selected set of coordinates. See the section about keyboard commands below for other ways of controlling the device.
Pressing the Configure telescopes... button opens the main window of the plug-in.
TIP: Inside the "Slew" window, underlined letters indicate that pressing "Alt + underlined letter" can be used instead of clicking. For example, pressing Alt+S is equivalent to clicking the "Slew" button, pressing Alt+E switches to decimal degree format, etc.
Once a telescope is successfully started/connected, Stellarium displays a telescope reticle labelled with the telescope's name on its current position in the sky. The reticle is an object like every other in Stellarium - it can be selected with the mouse, it can be tracked and it appears as an object in the "Search" window.
To point a device to an object: Select an object (e.g. a star) and press the number of the device while holding down the Ctrl key. (For example, Ctrl+1 for telescope #1.) This will move the telescope to the selected object.
To point a device to the center of the view: Press the number of the device while holding down the Alt key. (For example, Alt+1 for telescope #1.) This will slew the device to the point in the center of the current view. (If you move the view after issuing the command, the target won't change unless you issue another command.)
To point a device to a given set of coordinates: Use the "Slew to" window (press Ctrl+0).
All devices listed in the "Device model" list are convenience definitions using one of the two built-in interfaces: the Meade LX200 (the Meade Autostar controller) interface and the Celestron NexStar interface.
The device list contains the following:
If you want to test this plug-in without an actual device connected to the computer, choose Nothing, just simulate one (a moving reticle) in the Telescope controlled by: field. It will show a telescope reticle that will react in the same way as the reticle of a real telescope controlled by the plug-in.
See the section above about field of view indicators for a possible practical application (emulating "Telrad" circles).
This feature is equivalent to the "Dummy" type of telescope supported by Stellarium's original telescope control feature.
Plug-in and GUI programming: Bogdan Marinov (bogdan.marinov84 (at) gmail.com)
This plug-in is based on and reuses a lot of code under the GNU General Public License and version Lesser General Public License from:
See also the AUTHORS files of Stellarium and the Stellarium telescope servers.
Telescope Control, a plug-in for Stellarium
Copyright © 2006 Johannes Gajdosik, Michael Heinz
Copyright © 2009-2010 Bogdan Marinov
This plug-in is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to:
Free Software Foundation, Inc.