Telescope control system STAR Atlas:PRO
 telescope control system

STAR Atlas:PRO™ Level II and STAR Atlas:PRO™ Level III both support most popular makes and models of telescopes, easily pointing your telescope to dozens of deep sky objects in no time at all.

Slewing your telescope to the Great Nebula in Orion is as easy as choosing Locate, then select the Great Nebula in Orion from the list of deep sky objects, click Goto and your telescope slews straight to it. Or on horizon chart or deep sky chart, right click on any celestial object and choose Goto, telescope control couldn't be simpler!

In fact controlling your robotic Telescope can be achieved using numerous methods with STAR Atlas:PRO™ depending on your personal choices. The Astronomical Database Manager may be used to locate any celestial object of choice from STAR Atlas:PRO's databases, then choose the [Goto] command to slew your telescope to that object. There are other sophisticated features available too, when celestial objects are clustered together on the screen, such as stars in a star cluster, STAR Atlas:PRO™ lists all the objects located in the proximity. You may then slew your telescope to each object individually or to any object of choice.

Telescopes equipped with Digital Setting Circles (DSC), or similar equipment like the Argo Navis™ Digital Telescope Computer, can use STAR Atlas:PRO™ to find deep sky objects quickly and easily.

STAR Atlas:PRO™ displays a cursor at the pointing location of your telescope, when you move your telescope, the cursor floats across the STAR Atlas:PRO™ chart to follow your telescope. In no time at all you’ll be locating dozens of deep sky objects just by watching the computer monitor and moving your telescope to centre on deep sky objects.

Of course STAR Atlas:PRO™ can also project eyepiece and CCD camera reticles onto a chart to match the field of view of your telescope, and eyepieces or cameras.

TELESCOPE SUPPORT
STAR Atlas:PRO™ supports dozens of different makes and models of telescopes including Meade, Celestron, Vixen, Astro-Physics, and the freely available ASCOM telescope driver plug-in.

user comments

"using the telescope with
STAR Atlas:PRO™
makes the whole set up
seem more like a
remote control robot"

"star atlas pro's Telescope Control System makes controlling your telescope a breeze..."

"never before have I located so many deep sky objects, so quickly, in one night"

Supported Telescopes
In addition to the many telescope drivers provided by the optional ASCOM telescope driver plug-in, STAR Atlas:PRO™ also includes it's own native drivers for the following telescopes, digital setting circles (DSC) and digital telescope computers (DTC).

STAR Atlas:PRO™ supports all popular robotic and computerised telescopes including: Argo Navis™ (NGC-superMax™), Celestron NexStar™ 5i/8i , Celestron NexStar 8/9.25/11 GPS. Celestron CGE Series, Celestron Advanced Series, Celestron NexStar 5/8,  Celestron GT Models older and current series, FS2, Meade LX200, Meade LX200 GPS, Meade Autostar™ and Autostar II, Astro-Physics GTO Mounts, Bartel's, Vixen Sky Sensor 2000, Losmandy Digital Setting Circles (DSC), FS2 telescope drive unit and dozens of additional telescope drivers are included when you use the freely available ASCOM plug-in.

STAR Atlas:PRO™ driver Compatible Telescopes / DSC
Argo Navis™ Argo Navis™.
NGC-superMax™.
Celestron NexStar 8 / 11 GPS Celestron NexStar™ 5i / 8i ( with iComp hand control ).
Celestron NexStar 8 / 9.25 / 11 GPS ( firmware V2.2 or later).
Celestron CGE Series.
Celestron AS Advanced Series.
Celestron NexStar 5 / 8 Celestron NexStar 5 / 8.
SkyWatcher EQ5, EQ6 with Synscan.
Celestron GT (original series) Celestron GT Models  60/80/114/4 (manufactured prior to Dec-2001).
Celestron GT (current series) Celestron GT Models 60/80/114/4/130  (new/current series).
FS2 FS2 telescope drive unit.
Meade LX200

(Meade features supported
including GPS controls)		 Supports all Meade Telescopes with Autostar™ I and/or Autostar™ II.
Meade LX200.
Meade GPS.
Meade LX90.
Meade LXD Series.
 Meade ETX Series.
 Astro-Physics GTO mount.
 Vixen Sky Sensor 2000.
 Generic LX200 Scopes.
Meade LX200 16-inch LX200 16-inch.
LX200 GPS 16-inch.
Sky Commander Sky Commander Digital Setting Circles.
 Losmandy Digital Setting Circles.
All telescope drivers provided by the optional ASCOM telescope driver plug-in. For more information and the most recent list of supported Telescopes visit http://www.ascom-standards.org

Advanced Support for Meade Telescopes

The STAR Atlas:PRO™ inbuilt Meade telescope driver supports high & low precision telescope pointing and includes the powerful Control Panel for Meade Telescopes (pictured) that permits you to remotely control the settings of your Meade telescope with ease. 

many commands supported including...
► Movement Rate
► Slew Rate
► Precision Focus Control
► Reticle Flash Rate & Brightness Level
► Smart Drive mode
► Tracking Rate
► GPS Controls
► PEC Controls
► Pointing Precision
► Fan Control
► Field de-rotator
► Sleep Mode
► Telescope Parking
► and much more

 
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[GOTO] dozens of objects in no time at all

Each of STAR Atlas:PRO's Astronomical Catalogues available in the Astronomical Database Manager include the Telescope commands [GOTO] and [SYNC].

The [GOTO] command Slews your telescope to any celestial object you care to select from STAR Atlas:PRO's mammoth astronomical catalogue database.

[SYNC] is used to re-calibrate the pointing accuracy of your Meade compatible telescope during an observing session by calibrating the telescope position with the same co-ordinates of the celestial object you have centred your telescope on.

ASCOM Compliant Telescope Control

STAR Atlas:PRO™ also supports telescope drivers available in the ASCOM Telescope Driver software package. The ASCOM software package may be freely downloaded from the ASCOM Web Site and integrated with STAR Atlas:PRO™ to provide additional telescope drivers.  For more information and the most recent list of supported Telescopes visit http://www.ascom-standards.org.

The ASCOM add-on provides drivers for the following telescopes (check the ASCOM web site for a complete list).

ACL Based Telescopes (Comsoft PC-TCS, Optical Guidance, DFM, other research grade instruments)
ACP Astronomer's Control Panel telescope hub
AstroOptik Research Telescopes
Astro-Physics GTO Mounts
Celestron NexStar 4 GT, 80 GT, 114GT, 5, 5i, 8, 8i, GPS and Ultima 2000
Generic LX200 Scopes (many emulations including Bartels, FS2)
Losmandy Gemini Controller (levels 1-3)
Meade LX200, LX200GPS, and Autostar (Meade specific features supported)
Meade Telescope and Focuser
Vixen SkySensor 2000 PC

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Argo Navis is a trademark of Wildcard Innovations. NGC-superMAX is a trademark of JIMS Mobile Inc. Meade and Autostar are trademarks of Meade Corporation. NexStar is a trademark of Celestron.