I go wifi most of the time. Sometimes I hook an older computer (through the serial port, remember those) to my 10-inch scope because that older computer is much faster with a direct connection. However, I have found that if you are running Windoze 8 or 10 you may have problems connecting to your wifi setup as these operating systems do not allow ad hoc wifi connections without tweeking the operating system. It’s a real pain to jump into the command line (now, Windoze Powershell) and change operating system parameters just so your telescope wifi connection can link to your computer. I guess I should write a Powershell script to automate this process, but it has not been high on my list of priorities. Of course, if you are running Windoze 7 or XP Pro ad hoc wifi connections will not be a problem. I’ve never had a problem on the Mac with ad hoc wifi connectivity. The iOS and android systems seem to run fine, also. Wifi connectivity is really nice at star parties. One less cord for someone to trip over. I have three scopes that I use on a regular basis. Each has a wifi module connected to them. Obviously, I think they are worth the money. Another thing to keep in mind is that some telescopes (especially those older scopes that may use ASCOM drivers when connected to a computer) require you to run a serial port emulator with the wifi setup. Some programs, “RTGUI“ and “Align Master“ come to mind, need a serial port emulator along with the wifi setup. A very good one (it’s free) can be found here: http://www.hw-group.com/products/hw_vsp/index_en.html <http://www.hw-group.com/products/hw_vsp/index_en.html> HW VSP is very easy to set up (if it wasn’t, I couldn’t do it) and enable one to use programs that only ask which serial port you’d like to connect to when connecting to a telescope. In fact, “TheSky“ (computer version) is such a program. Of course, the iOS version of “TheSky“ does not require serial port emulation. Why “TheSky“ for Mac OS or Windoze does not have direct wifi connection as a selection within its menu has baffled me. Dave
On Oct 16, 2015, at 16:42, Joel Stucki <joel.stucki@gmail.com> wrote:
If you use iPhone, or iPad the best astronomy app out there is Sky Safari. It also has an Android version. It's "plus" version which is very good is on sale this weekend for 50% off ($6.99). It's a great deal as it makes a nice mobile planetarium with a red light setting and lots of info on popular celestial objects that does not require wifi or Internet to access. I strongly recommend it if you don't yet have a computer solution for in field. It also has the ability to connect wirelessly to pushto or goto scopes although I use an Orion and the connecting part costs $150 which seems too steep to me. Although I would love to hear if anyone has tried this connection and found it worth the money. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
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