Astro-Physics GTO German Equatorial Mount

TheSky6 can control Astro-Physics GTO German equatorial mounts.

Minimum System Requirements

Hardware Setup

Telescope Initialization

Pocket PC Setup

Using an Astro-Physics GTO mount with TPoint

Minimum System Requirements

Software

• TheSky6 Serious Astronomer or Professional Edition.

Hardware

• Astro-Physics GTO telescope.

• Standard Serial Cable

• One free serial port on your computer. If your computer only has USB ports, you'll need a USB to serial adaptor.

Hardware Setup

Astro-Physics Cable Connection Notes:

• The AP control system requires a standard M/F DB9 RS232 serial cable (not the standard telescope interface cable sold by Software Bisque). Serial cables can be purchased from most any electronics stores.

• Make sure to plug the Male DB9 end connector to the port labeled COM1 on the GTO Control Panel.

• A Null Modem adaptor and gender changer adaptor are required when connecting your AP telescope to a mobile device (Pocket PC or Handheld PC).

Astro-Physics GTO Control System Notes

• TheSky for Windows always places the Astro-Physics control system into the "long format" mode upon establishing a link.

• Click Telescope | Options | Initialize to initialize the control system (to set the date, time, time zone, latitude and longitude).

• Click Telescope | Options | Park to park the telescope.

• Click Telescope | Options | Set Park Position to specify the "park position." TheSky returns the telescope to this position before parking the mount.

• TheSky queries the user if s/he wishes to park the telescope before terminating the link or exiting the software while a link is established.

• The Motion control window (click Telescope | Motion Control) allows four speed motion control (1x, 12x, 64x, and 900x) by pressing and holding buttons down to adjust the telescope's position.

• The Motion control window (Telescope | Motion Control) allows telescope to be "jogged" (a small telescope movement) a specified amount in any direction.

• Click Telescope | Options | Set Track Rates to specify a Sidereal, Solar, Lunar or Zero tracking rate.

• Click Telescope | Options | Focus Control to adjust a pulse focuser from TheSky.

• Click Telescope | Options | Reticle Brightness to adjust a reticle brightness from TheSky.

The Astro-Physics GTO mount can be controlled by TheSky6 and later.

Step-by-step Setup Procedure (Windows or Macintosh)

1. Using a standard DB9 M/F RS232 serial cable, connect the male end of the cable to the port labeled COM1 on the GTO Control Panel and the female end to a COM port on the computer.

2. From TheSky, click Telescope | Setup and then select the Astro-Physics GTO German Equatorial Mount as the control system.

3. On the Telescope Setup dialgo box, click Settings and select the correct COM port. The Baud Rate should be 9600. TheSky automatically specifies all other serial port options; these options do not need to be set manually using the Windows Control Panel. After specifying the COM port settings, click OK.

4. On the Telescope Setup dialog box, specify the desired options and then click Close.

5. Click Telescope | Link | Establish. A cross hair displays the current coordinates of the telescope. If the mount has not been parked, or has not been initialized with the location, date and time from another application, the coordinates of the telescope will be RA: 0º0'0" Dec: 90º0'0". Each time this command is issued, the mount is initialized using TheSky's time, date, location and Daylight Saving Time adjusted time zone, the mount's tracking is started, and the telescope is put into the long format mode.

6. Once the device has been initialized, TheSky and the device must be “synchronized” or “synced.” To sync the telescope, center a known, bright star in the eyepiece.  Locate this star on the Virtual Sky, using the Edit | Find command or by clicking on it, and then press Sync on Telescope tab of the large Object Information dialog box.

Telescope cross hairs on the Virtual Sky

TheSky's Large Object Information dialog box (note the Sync button)

Helpful Hints

Here are some miscellaneous notes related to controlling the Astro-Physics GTO mounts with TheSky.

• TheSky always places the Astro-Physics control system into the "long format" upon establishing a link.

• From TheSky, click Telescope | Options | Initialize to initialize the control system’s date, time, time zone, latitude and longitude.

• Note: Early versions of the Astro-Physics firmware require that the telescope be initialized before TheSky can synchronize or slew the mount.  If you get the error message “No response from the device. Error code = 203 (0xcb),” when attempting to synchronize or slew the telescope (but can see the cross hairs on the screen), try initializing the mount using the Telescope |Options | Initialize command before continuing.

• From TheSky, click Telescope | Options | Park to park the telescope.

• From TheSky, click Telescope | Options | Set Park Position to specify the "park position." TheSky will slew the telescope to this position before parking the mount.

• TheSky queries the user if s/he wishes to park the telescope before terminating the link or exiting the software while a link is established.

• The Motion control window (click Telescope | Motion Control) allows four speed motion control (1x, 12x, 64x and 900x) by pressing and holding buttons down to adjust the telescope's position.

• Motion control window (click Telescope | Motion Control) allows telescope to be "jogged" (a small telescope movement) a specified amount in any direction.

• From TheSky, click Telescope | Options | Set Track Rates to specify a Sidereal, Solar, Lunar or Zero tracking rates.

• From TheSky, click Telescope | Options | Reticle to adjust the brightness of the illuminated reticle from TheSky.

• TheSky can control all current versions of the Astro-Physics ROM. At the time of this software release, there were at minimum three different versions of the Astro-Physics control system ROM (released Jan 01, 1999, Feb 01, 2001 and May 09, 2001). Contact the telescope’s manufacturer for details about upgrading your control system to the latest release.

Using an Astro-Physics GTO mount with TPoint

After you've established a TPoint model, make sure to perform the following procedure when reinitializing the mount.

1. Accurate time is essential for accurate pointing. Make sure the time of the computer's clock is accurate.  

2. Unplug the AP hand paddle. Otherwise, the AP control system uses the hand paddle's clock to initialize the mount.

3. Unpark and initialize the mount.

4. Plug in the hand paddle if desired.

This procedure will ensure that the TPoint model is maintained from session to session.

Step-by-step Setup Procedure (Pocket PCs and Handheld PCs)

The interface must be configured so your computer can communicate with the AP GTO.

1. Turn off the AP GTO control system. This is always a good idea when connecting cables to any electronic device.

2. Connect the gender changer adaptor and null modem adaptors, then connect the female DB9 ActiveSync cable to the male DB9 gender changer.

3. Using a standard serial cable, connect the male DB9 end to the serial port (labeled COM 1) on the AP GTO control panel and the female DB9 end to the null modem/gender changer/ActiveSync cable combination.

4. Turn on the Astro-Physics GTO control system.

5. From TheSky Pocket Edition, tap Telescope | Setup.

6. In the Control System list box, select Astro-Physics GTO and then tap OK.  If you wish to use your mobile device’s Cursor Buttons to move the telescope, tap the Use Cursor Buttons to Move Telescope option.

Note: When the AP control system is plugged into the mobile device, the ActiveSync "Connect To" window may appear. Tap Cancel to continue.