What is ASCOM anyway?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Happy 20th birthday ASCOM! A brief history of the standard and why it’s such an amazing thing. Creator Bob Denny made such a big contribution to astronomy, he has an asteroid named after him.
Download ASCOM from : ascom-standard...
Learn how to code with ASCOM : • ASCOM client astronomy...
Dylan’s gear in this video
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Canon 6D mkII DSLR
www.amazon.com...
Tokina 16-28mm Lens
www.amazon.com...
Dylan’s links
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PATREON : / dylanodonnell
WEB : deography.com
FACEBOOK : / dylanodonnell
TWITTER : / erfmufn
INSTAGRAM : / dylan_odonnell_
Thank you Dylan. Very well explained and I do appreciate the kind words!! There were others involved, and particularly Peter Simpson in the UK has been the keeper of the Platform and contributor of many of the now-essential tools and libraries.
Another good one. Why can't other presenters do it like you do, straight to the point, a bit of humour, no constant repetition and no bubble wrap, and under five minutes too.
Jeff Slade hey thanks man that’s exactly what I’m going for.
@@DylanODonnell - A little confused here - ASCOM offers "ASCOM Platform v6.4SP1" but ZWO is managing to provide v6.5
Any idea what is going on there? ZWO's instal reports version as latest v6.5. Recently installed for new camera toy.
Now that ASCOM has your video on their website, I can easily watch your video while ASCOM is being downloaded and installed in the background, learning a bit more about what I'm going to use. Thanks for breaking it down, and huge thanks to the team at ASCOM.
Wow, you have great presentation style for youtube... to the point, no nonsense, interesting and no useless chatter.
Dylan, wonderful video. I went there to download new version of ASCOM and saw your awesome work!. Great video!
Hehe I’m so glad they liked it too :)
Just beyond wonderful. Thank you, Dylan.
Thanks Geoff! Got to meet Bob Denny last weekend at NEAF, what a pleasure!
Good to know, and another good reason I don't have a mac.
Lol
nice ASCOM info at 2:30 thanks.
Great video Dylan :) Informative and entertaining. Cheer mate.
Thanks for the kind words Gollond!
Hey, Dr.D, thanks again for an entertaining yet informative video. How long have you been playing guitar? sounds great. Can you move to the US and live next door to me so you can come over and help me with my setup before I burn it all to the ground?
Excellent video. I would love to see more details about the hardware you use to connect between the observatory and your house. I believe I have seen all of your videos but I have never seen this addressed. I'm just assuming it's done via WiFi.
"That's good." What a perfect ending.
I wish PHD2 had made it more clear to me (idiot) that ASCOM is in many cases must-have. I finally installed it tonight and like magic PHD2 can now send movement commands to the mount which were impossible before (and I really thought it was my cables or the guidescope or the mount and not simply software).
Hey Dylan, so original, thumbs up!
Hey thanks man!
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Dear ASCOM
Happy Birthday to You.
From good friends and true,
From old friends and new,
May good luck go with you,
And happiness too.
#SAVETHENATURE #SPACEISOURFUTURE!! #UNIVERSEISOURASTRONOMERSLIFE!!
Great Video mate ! I Glad you made me to laugh!!
Sorry for Late wishes ASCOM Software 😞
NASA JET PROPULSION LABORATORY LOVER heheh excellent !
WOW @Dylan O'Donnell I didn't expect this Rapid response Reply !! Great mate!!
Hehe an effort like that deserves it buddy. Thanks for the encouragement! New video dropping in the next hour or so. 👍🏼
@Dylan O'Donnel Okay buddy 😂😂 Wishing to watch that new video too!! Upload it soon ^^
I was raised by my Portuguese grandmother...
Hi Dylan, Love your Vids, thanks. I am looking at getting the CGX mount and I'm very encouraged by what I see on your channel. Does ASCOM stil only work through the HC's USB port or has that been changed so that the mount USB can be used? If not, how does this work for you?
It's only ever worked for me via the Hand Controller. Not sure if the driver has been updated since then, would make sense to use the PC port, but I align with the HC anyway so I can't get rid of it completely yet like I could with the EQ6 + EqMod.
Can someone confirm ASCOM isn't installable on Linux ? I've seen in another Dylan's video that there'll be a system allowing to connect any OS to a computer running ASCOM via a TCP/IP network but that's all I've understood so far.
For an open source software, one might expect something that runs also on Linux, don't you think ?
You still can't install it on your Mac - yet. But, have a look at that interesting new section that's appeared on the ASCOM web site :)
Had to include your comment in today’s vid .. thanks !
Great Video, thanks for sharing.
Cheers Luke!
Dylan, I enjoy your informative videos very much. They are very helpful in my Late-in-Life attempt to embrace Astronomy!!! You mentioned on an earlier video that the guide camera should only be connected to the PC/PHD2 and that the mount should be ASCOM connected to the PC. However, you didn't go into detail as to how to accomplish this connection. So how do I do this???
Common question! Just connect your mount via USB to the computer and use it's ASCOM driver. Same for Camera.
@@DylanODonnell Hi Dylan, I have a USB hub that has 7 USB ports. The wire from that goes under the floor of my observatory to my laptop. The mount's handheld is connected to the hub via the RS-232 jack. How does the autoguider hook up to the computer? I have Lodestar which has a micro-USB cord that goes to the USB hub and then it has an RS-232 type cord that plugs into the autoguider port on the mount. How are people connecting the autoguider camera to their computer for PHD to have direct control of it? Does the USB that powers the autoguide camera have everything it needs in just the one cord? I appreciate any help.
Hi Alan, were you able to figure out how to complete all these connections?
Great video Dylan!
Thanks Rachel!
Do you use ASCOM? If not, how do you get around this same problems on macOS? I'm more in the Unix/Linux/macOS ecosystem and I wonder if I'll have to build a little Windows machine to get things talking and automated.
Yeh I have a video on this (macs and astronomy) ... however in the next few years macs will support ascom just fine as the Vendors transition to ascom alpaca (see NEAF 2019 video for info on that)
Once came across this definition for really great software: "truly incredible software is hard to discern from prestidigitation". I recently had to buy a Windows 10 laptop because BackyardEOS doesn't run on Mac's, having kissed off Microsoft when Windows 8 came out. And yes, one can actually run Windows on Mac under a VMWare or other suitable framework, but that requires the purchase of Windows software and a rather beefy amount of Mac memory. It is great that packages such as ASCOM have been created to further the compatibility of heterogenous astronomical equipment. Nice guitar playing BTW; read in the paper this morning that Gibson filed for bankruptcy; sad day indeed.
I'm right there with you John, I hate windows. The only reason I own a copy is to run a VM to drive all my acquisition .. and a small amount of planetary and asteroid processing, otherwise everything else happens on the macs. And I'm a big Gibson fan too (there's a real Les Paul next to me in the videos most of the time!) so the recent news is disappointing. I hope the brand can survive in a new incarnation somehow :/
I think the main reason is that windows has amazing backwards compatibility where as Mac does not. You can run dos programs on Windows 10 because Microsoft puts such emphasis on backwards compatibility. As a Linux user it is quite infuriating
Hi Dylan! I'm curious about ASCOM settings VS SGP settings. Maybe you can help me out.
ASCOM settings as you know, include a section where you need to set your focal length, just like SGP, but in my case, I use two profiles on SGP (one profile with a focal reducer at 1260 mm, and another one without it at 2032 mm). ASCOM in the other hand, does not include profiles (or does it?), and I normally set ASCOM to 2032 mm. So, everytime I use my focal reducer profile on SGP (1260 mm), ASCOM numbers stay at 2032 mm, so they don't match. I haven't noticed any difference in performance by setting different numbers in both programs, or should I change ASCOM settings every time I change my profile on sgp? Thanks!
astrofotoperu I’m not 100% sure where ascom is getting for FL from or why .. is it stored in one of the drivers/devices that use ascom?
Dylan O'Donnell Yes, you can access those options from SGP Telescope Tab Section > Settings. It will open up an ASCOM window, where you can establish your coordenates, telescope obstruction, eq n or s, etc. and the telescopes focal length. Maybe those numbers are only references?
Good question .. had me scratching my head for a while heh. I looked up the ASCOM spec which says "This property may be used by clients to calculate telescope field of view and plate scale when combined with detector pixel size and geometry." .. so this value is stored in your mount (I assume) because the OTA obviously can't talk to the computer. Then SGP can query the mount for it's focal length value for its calculations. But obviously you don't want to reprogram your mount every time you swap tubes, so SGP lets you override this :)
Dylan O'Donnell Thanks Dylan! I guess SGP uses its own values and as you say, it overrides the mounts ascom info. All clear pal, clear skies!! 😁👍🏻
SGP has their own (e.g.) FL because FL and aperture are optional properties of "Telescope" as originally envisioned, so the programs like SGP could simply read the FL and Aperture instead of each program like SGP having to provide their own (possibly conflicting) settings. But like so many things, it evolved and is really "mount" (with the optics not part of it). So mount manufacturers don't implement the *optional* FL and Aperture properties. So SGP has to provide their settings, and they just ignore any info coming from the ASCOM driver. It makes sense.
What software do you use, to label the star in live preview?
It’s not the star name it’s the focus measurement.
Dylan, I just want to know where you learned film making? I'm just starting to learn and I'd really like to emulate your style. feel free to PM!
Hey thanks :) I don’t know what I’m doing. I use iMovie and just replicate the things I see from other TH-camrs.
@@DylanODonnell I figured you were going to say that lol. I've been watching more Star Stuff and I'm seeing it's your sincerity mixed with the 10/10 self-aware humor that I like. I suppose like speed, it just can't be coached. I guess I have to just dive in. On that note, what camera would you recommend in $1000 range? I'd like for it to be able to do limited AP through my 6" EQ GOTO Maksutov f/12 (I know, I know)
David Spahn zwo1600mm is the “budget” best of class right now
@@DylanODonnell Completely unrelated to this conversation but I just wanted to say I think it's incredibly 'cool' of you to respond to comments made on quite old videos. I've been going through quite a lot of AP related videos recently as I am soon about to start out myself and I have therefore been by quite a lot of different channels, some more popular than others and some not as popular and a majority of them haven't bothered or don't respond to questions. Huge amount of respect.
Funny and factual. Like your videos Dylan, keep up the good work promoting astrophotography and science. Maybe we won't get so many blank looks when we mention our hobby in the future.
Hehe thanks Phill! New video dropping in the next couple hours hopefully :)
I did all ways,👌👌
Hey Dylan! Have you checked out Kstars/INDI? It is multi platform and is similar to ascom and SGP!
Yes I know of them .. but support seems fledgling at best. Especially when it comes to vendor support which at the end of the day, is what matters. :(
Stay tuned for a big announcement from the ASCOM Initiative in a few weeks!
ASCOM is MIDI for telescopes.
..... just like ASIO for MIDI applications, no?
Great video , Dylan...you do two things I cannot do...play guitar and take great astro pics...god damn you 👍
I have to make a few comments because this is a bit of a hot-button issue with me. (full disclosure: I am also a mac user)
ASCOM would have been quite an achievement and a real asset in 1998. In 2018... there are better solutions. For those interested, there is a similar standard to ASCOM that runs on Windows, Mac & Linux called INDI. There's really nothing special about Windows that ASCOM should be pinned to it and not portable (unless the model wasn't properly abstracted to make it portable). I discovered INDI at cloudmakers.eu (which has lots of software that runs cross platform to help me fill in the gaps from programs that are only on Windows and this way I don't have to run Windows in a virtual machine.)
Anyway, this could easily become a long post. So to jump to the punchline... in 2018 most device in the non-astronomy world use network connections and a lightweight protocol called REST (Representational State Transfer) which looks and works a lot like web-URLs (except without a web browser. I call a service by using something that looks like a URL but I pass some parameters along... and that service replies with my answer. It's easy. It's language independent. It doesn't require a software development kit (so it isn't brittle and it doesn't break when you upgrade something).
This is how your doorbell, your sprinklers, your lights, your door locks, your garage door opener, your phone, and loads of other devices "talk" to each other. It's why you can pull into your driveway at night, push the button to open your garage door, and the lights in your house turn on... and you don't even need a computer (and it doesn't rely on your phone).
The astronomy world is still stuck on serial connections (it's a wonder we aren't still using punchcards or 9-track tape drives). For a hobby that is so heavily science-based, it does surprise me that it seems to be the last to catch up with the modern world.
In a serial-connection world, the cable attaches just two devices. If you want your observatory dome to keep the open shutter aligned with the part of the sky where your telescope is pointed... then the 'dome' needs to query the 'mount'. But the mount can only have one serial connection and that goes to the computer so that your software can drive the telescope around the sky. This means the dome has to ask the computer to ask the mount where it's pointed so that the mount can tell the computer to tell the dome where that is. It's a bit of a "there was an old lady who swallowed a fly" way of getting things done. In the modern REST-based Internet-of-Things world, the dome would just ask the mount directly. No computer would be needed.
There is the problem of what to do with components that don't have a network connection. There are API Gateways (even open-source version that are free) that can virtualize an API for devices that don't natively have one. The gateway listens for the API request, but then invokes some back-end code (which might need to use a serial port) and then responds to the client.
Part of the popularity of this solution (for the rest of the non-astronomy-based world) is that these are actually really easy to create and use.
Maybe someday ... we wont need things like ASCOM or INDI.
Tim Campbell What a great post, thanks Tim! There’s a lot of that older tech stuck in stasis in astronomy isn’t there? You raise some excellent points and ASCOMs first statement is to open and not “vendor specific” .. which ultimately it fails because it’s not even platform independent. Where it succeeds (and where other device categories would look on with envy) is simply adoption.
ASCOM has been implemented as REST web services by several people over the last few years, and an effort to bring these implementations together is underway. There is a concept demonstrator available. The design of the ASCOM abstract interfaces has been very successful and stable, and its cross-language aspect is largely successful for its success. These abstract interfaces will appear on other platforms in the future, as the market for applications on these platforms grows. As far as not needing ASCOM or INDI... well, the driver-client architecture has been an essential underpinning of computing for over 40 years.
It's still vendor-independent, and language-independent, not OS independent. Just for clarification.
PS Tim - I knew INDI's originator Elwood Downey back in the day, and we talked over the differences. INDI came from Linux and at the time was strictly language dependent, ASCOM came from Windows and uses its language independent feature. I was unaware that INDI is implemented in REST now. I'm going to look at that and see about a translation facility.
Bob Denny - That’s great to hear some progress is being made to abstract and become cross platform and even more encouraging to hear that there’s some work to support REST interfaces.
Apologies if my wording was misleading... I did not mean to imply that either ASCOM or INDI were REST-based. I really meant to convey that modern apps & devices tend to favor REST since it’s both platform and language independent (and pretty easy to use). The REST gateways (API Gateways that support REST ... some of which are open-source) allow developers to create a REST service where the requests are fulfilled by back-end that need not be REST (it can be proprietary). I can completely understand how it would be possible put a REST front-end on either ASCOM or INDI. Ultimately, however, if all devices support networks (WiFi or wired network) then there would be no need for an ASCOM or INDI layer because REST services naturally allow multiple concurrent clients.
Awesome video Dylan, that gets a subscribe from me :)
can you do video on sampling?
Great suggestion!
Doesn't work on a mac ...bahahahbahahah :) - and thats why I run a PC as well no .....god-damn!! lol - great video about something we never notice normally - happy Birthday Ascom :)
Cheers man.. a bit non technical but good for a beginner to understand I feel :) Glad I made you laugh. I can never be sure if this stuff will land properly heh.
LMFAO!!! Good one
te he he
It's all fun and games until you decide motor focusers are too expensive and how hard can making your own stepper based, PC controlled one be? Next thing you know your balls deep in visual basic rubbing your temples trying to follow TH-cam videos to make your own ASCOM drivers.
What's with the offensive language?
Michael Milligan I wasn’t aiming for the TH-cam kids demographic :)
@@DylanODonnellfirst, it isn't just about kids. And if it was, do you want to have to pause your astronomy video when their kids come around? A lot of sgtuff in your videos is helpful and a lot is cool. That was neither.
Michael Milligan I apologise for offending you and understand if you have to avoid my channel because of my unprofessionalism. I am, and will continue to be, an uncultured and sometimes rough around the edges, but loveable scallywag. 😊