I use TheSky with ASCOM on my Losmandy G11 all the time. As for why use
TheSky, the only reason is the automated plate-solving.

To connect multiple programs to a single mount you need an ASCOM Hub. For
the Losmandy ASCOM driver, it acts as a hub. I don't think the Meade does,
so you need to add one such as ASCOM's POTH (Plain Old Telescope Handset).

So: Download ASCOM, install Meade ASCOM driver, download ASCOM plugin for
TheSky.

Then:

Connect POTH to the Scope
Connect TheSky to POTH
Connect Guide to POTH

Done!

Steve

From: grantcblair <g.blair@...>
Reply-To: <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:29:19 -0000
To: <guide-user@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [guide-user] Re: Does not play well with others...
(Guide/TheSky/scope xtrol)






Unless I'm misreading the ASCOM website, it looks like you can make TheSky
use ASCOM via an intermediate layer...

http://ascom-standards.org/FAQs/TheSky.htm

Grant

--- In guide-user@yahoogroups.com <mailto:guide-user%40yahoogroups.com> ,
Bill J Gray <pluto@...> wrote:

>
> Hi Pete,
>
> That sounds basically like what I'd expect to happen, unfortunately.
>
> WARNING: I dunno much about how TheSky handles telescope control. I'm
> a little surprised that ASCOM isn't an option. You might ask Software
> Bisque about that (or maybe someone here who knows more about TheSky can
> reply?); maybe the option is just "hidden" somewhere.
>
> However, it sounds as if when run TheSky directly controls the telescope,
> it grabs the COM (serial) port. And as you say, this means it "does not play
> well with others". Inexplicably (to me), ASCOM suffers the same fault. I've
> asked about this issue, but have never gotten an answer that I understood.
> The impression I gather is that it's just not a priority for ASCOM folk.
>
> Were ASCOM's shortcoming in this area to be fixed, it would help a lot of
> people... but you would not be among them, because you can't get ASCOM to

work

> within TheSky anyway. The only fixes I can see would be:
>
> -- Persuade Software Bisque to support ASCOM (in which case you can set
> up Guide to use ASCOM as well; ASCOM will continue to hog the COM port, but
> that won't be a problem anymore, because both Guide and TheSky will be able
> to access the scope through ASCOM.)
>
> -- Persuade Software Bisque to release the COM port when not in use.

After

> which, Guide and TheSky will play well with one another. You might run into
> some issues if you had Guide's 'telescope indicator' function running -- the

one

> that shows a little symbol on the chart indicating the current telescope
> location. I think there would be some chance that Guide would attempt to
> access the COM port at just the same moment that TheSky did, and it's
> conceivable that some sort of uncensored heck would break loose. But maybe

not.

>
> -- Bill
>

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