Hi Bill, IMO don't rush to ASCOM. It sure has problems in Starry
Night Pro 4.x and as you point out little DSC support. You mentioned
about well-behaved programs releasing the telescope control RS-232
port. IMO if telescope control is being provided the port should be
dedicated to the telescope and never be released unless directed by
the user. The user selecting telescope control takes control of the
required port and disconnecting telescope control releases it. How
can you do what I feel is the most important enhancement to telescope
control by releasing the port? If you forgot, I need an active
telescope cursor on the Guide 8 screen to make Guide truly useful for
telescope positioning and control. Gotoing just the chart center is
too limiting. It's also too easy to slew Guide instead of the scope.
IMO Earth Centered Universe (ECU) currently better serves my need for
integrated telescope control than Guide. However I would prefer the
information richness in Guide to ECU if only I had similar telescope
control capability. You may want to use ECU control features as
model? Robotic telescopes will be the future for amateur systems. A
highly integrated telescope control capability with good planetarium
software will be the hot setup.

Regards,
Richard

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