Skip to content

Stellarium setup

Jump to bottom
Dilshan R Jayakody edited this page Jun 18, 2022 · 14 revisions

StarPointer sensor kit is specifically developed to work with the desktop versions of the Stellarium astronomy software. To work with the StarPointer sensor kit, this unit needs to be configured as a telescope in the Stellarium software. The configuration steps are listed below:

  1. On the main screen, press the Configuration Window button (or F2).
  2. Select the Plugins tab.
  3. Find the Telescope Control plugin and tick the Load at startup checkbox.
  4. Restart the Stellarium.

Telescope control plugin

  1. Click the telescope icon at the bottom of the Stellarium screen. (or press Ctrl + 0)
  2. On the "Slew telescope to" window, press the Configure telescopes... button.
  3. Click Add a new telescope button.

Add new telescope window

  1. Enter the following values to the "Add new telescope" window:

    • Telescope controlled by: Stellarium, directly through a serial port
    • Telescope name: StarPointer
    • Coordinate system: Equinox of the day (JNow)
    • Serial port: select the serial port which connects the StarPointer sensor kit
    • Device model: Meade LX200 (compatible)

  2. Press the OK button to add a new telescope to the "Telescopes" window.

The above configuration should be done only once. After setting up the StarPointer as a telescope, the user can start the sensor kit as follows:

  1. Click the telescope icon at the bottom of the Stellarium screen. (or press Ctrl + 0)
  2. On the "Slew telescope to" window, press the Configure telescopes... button.
  3. On the "Telescopes" window, select StarPointer and press the Start button.

Telescopes window

StarPointer and Stellarium must have the same date/time and location to get accurate results. If the date/time and the location coordinates do not match, the Stellarium will show erroneous results, and the telescope movements will begin to appear with glitches.

All the above-mentioned Stellarium configuration steps are shown in the video available here.

If StarPointer is not properly aligning, reconfigure the sensor kit using the StarPointer sync tool. Also, a weak backup battery or a strong magnetic field can produce erroneous results with the StarPointer sensor kit.

Clone this wiki locally