Software That Allows One Product to Talk With Another

Amateur astronomers (and the support community) have fortunately created another class of software that facilitates certain software platforms and products to communicate effectively among themselves. This is useful, for example, to connect one’s planetarium software with the mount for “go to” observing from your laptop or digital device (freeing up the user from having to rely solely on the telescope’s hand controller).  This communication may take place via WiFi or a cable (e.g., connecting your computer to the mount).  Examples of this include mount-specific software such as SkySync, iOptron Commander, and CPWI, as well as the generic ASCOM drivers that come along with them. Learn more about installing ASCOM-compatible products at https://ascom-standards.org/Downloads/Index.htm as well as through an abundance of video tutorials on YouTube. See, for example, https://youtu.be/2HCdHKD3V-k.