EQMOD is not a stand-alone program. It is software that acts as a driver between other applications (such as your planetarium program). For this reason you should start the planetarium program and then connect to the mount from within the planetarium program. This will start up the EQMOD driver.

(Note: Other add-on modules such as EQTour and EQMosaic will also start up EQMOD even without a planetarium program. Information about these add-on modules can be found in a later section in this documentation).

Because there are many different combinations of software (and hardware) you will have to use the following examples to guide your own startup steps.

Caution: It's very important that EQMOD and your planetarium program agree upon your Latitude/Longitude. A common problem is forgetting to set these values in both the planetarium program and EQMOD. Setting an accurate time is also very important. GPS or Internet time is a good idea.

Information: If the “EQMOD ASCOM Scope Driver” does not appear in the ASCOM chooser window in the instructions below, you have an EQMOD installation issue. Check the installation instructions earlier in this manual.

Examples of planetarium usage follows:

1. Start the planetarium program
2. Select “Telescope | Select Scope Interface” and click ASCOM
3. In the ASCOM Telescope interface window that appears click [Select]. If the window does not appear select “Telescope | Configuration Panel” first.
4. In the ASCOM “chooser” window that appears, select “EQMOD ASCOM Scope Driver”
5. In the ASCOM Telescope interface window that appears click [Select]. If the window does not appear select “Telescope | Configuration Panel” first.
6. When connected the EQMOD ASCOM driver window will appear.
7. Verify that CdC and EQMOD agree upon settings for time/date/Latitude/Longitude.

1. Start the planetarium program
2. Select “Screen | ASCOM Telescope driver”
3. In the ASCOM “chooser” window that appears, select “EQMOD ASCOM Scope Driver”
4. EQMOD will connect
5. You will want to move the EQMOD window aside to reveal the message window underneath.
6. Click the [OK] button to dismiss the message window (otherwise you may have trouble accessing some of the HNSKY features).
7. When connected the EQMOD ASCOM driver window will appear.
8. Verify that HNSKY and EQMOD agree upon settings for time/date/Latitude/Longitude.

Hint: If you select HNSKY's “File | Save status” before exiting the program, HNSKY will remember that you use EQMOD the next time it is started.

1. Start the planetarium program
2. Click the “Telescope” tab
3. If necessary, expand the setup form
4. Click the [Configure] button
5. In the ASCOM “chooser” window that appears, select “EQMOD ASCOM Scope Driver”
6. Click the [Connect] button
7. When connected the EQMOD ASCOM driver window will appear.
8. Verify that Starry Night and EQMOD agree upon settings for time/date/Latitude/Longitude.

You should be aware that programs such as Starry Night that have the more realistic view of the sky use a greater amount of CPU processing on the computer.

1. Start the planetarium program
2. Select Telescope | Choose menu item
3. In the ASCOM “chooser” window that appears, select “EQMOD ASCOM Scope Driver”
4. Select Telescope | Driver setup menu item. Complete appropriate details.
5. Select Telescope | Connect EQMOD ASCOM driver menu item
6. Select Telescope | Options menu item .
7. Verify that StarCalc and EQMOD agree upon settings for time/date/Latitude/Longitude.

In order to integrate Stellarium with EQMOD, you will need to install both Stellarium and StellariumScope.

StellariumScope provides the necessary interface between Stellarium and the EQMOD. It is available at

http://www.welshdragoncomputing.ca/ (under the “Astronomy” menu item)

1. Full documentation is included within the StellariumScope program.
2. Start StellariumScope. It can start Stellarium or you can start Stellarium yourself.
3. Select the Scope Drive (typically EQMOD Scope Driver or EQMOD ASCOM Simulator).
4. Click on “Connect” in StellariumScope.
5. Select Configuration | Location menu item in Stellarium.
6. Verify that Stellarium and EQMOD agree upon settings with respect to time/date/Latitude/Longitude.

You should be aware that programs such as Stellarium that have the more realistic view of the sky use a greater amount of CPU processing on the computer. This may pose a problem if you have a slower computer or are running remote control operations that also need significant CPU processing.

You can reduce the impact upon CPU usage by minimizing the program when you don't need to see the display.