MTSca is a powerful application that allows you to control the MTS-3SDI controller from a PC. The main idea is to provide manual remote control, GOTO, PEC training, autoguiding and solar system tracking.
MTSca communicates with the MTS-3SDI over a serial cable. The PC needs a serial port (or a USB to serial port replicator).
The serial communication employs baudrate 9600, bytesize 8, no parity and one stop bit, i.e. the default MTS-3SDI setting. You should not normally have to adjust anything.
The program automatically reads the MTS-3SDI EEPROM memory containing mount configuration information, and the dipswitches #9 and #10 which control the directions of the RA and DE motors respectively.
Here are some key features of "MTSca Pro":
Manual scope control:
· FAST and SLOW slewing
· Set FAST speed up to 512x
· Sidereal rate tracking
· Mean Solar rate tracking
· Mean Lunar rate tracking
Basic GOTO:
· 3200+ object star catalogue
· Separate Messier catalogue
· User defined catalogue support
· Filter catalogue by magnitudes
· GOTO to any RA, DEC coordinate
· GOTO speeds from 4x to 512x
· Filter by constellation name
· Sort by constellation, name, RA, DEC or magnitude *
· No need for axis encoders
· Optional automatic 'Meridian Flip'
Solar system support:
· Web download of latest orbital elements for comets and asteroids
· Correct for observer location
· ALIGN on planets, comets and asteroids
· GOTO planets, comets and asteroids
· Magnitudes for planets, comets and asteroids
· Track planets, comets and asteroids using orbital elements
· Use ASTORB (Asteroid Orbital Elements Database)
Periodic Error Correction (PEC) & Autoguiding:
· Manual PEC training
· Automatic PEC training using IRIS autoguiding
· Automatic PEC training using K3CCDTools2 autoguiding
· Dead zone control in PEC training and autoguiding
· Enable/disable PEC
· Autoguiding RA
· Optional autoguiding DE
Other:
· DEC drift compensation
· Support for mounts with different RA and DEC motor gearing
· Improved support for mounts with different
· number of teeth on RA and DEC axes
· Additional 24x and 48x slewing speeds
· MTS3 firmware compatibility
Limitations:
· 30-day trial
· Nag Screen
