Wifi Connections Between Scope and Laptop
So, this installment of the series didn’t work out quite like I expected. While, in theory, everything I describe below ought to work, I found problems maintaining the wifi connectivity between the NexStar mount and my laptop. Thus, all I can say is give it a whirl if you want, but I make no guarantees. I’m leaving the instructions up here in case you feel the need to give it a try. If you really want to use your laptop to control your NexStar scope, wired is probably best (although I’ve had some success with bluetooth, too, which I’ll cover in another installment).
In Part 2 of this series we went over the basic setup for connecting your NexStar to a laptop using a wired connection. It works great, but cables between your telescope and laptop can be a real nuisance, because you have to start worrying about the cables wrapping around the telescope as it slews in azimuth (although turning “Cord Wrap” on in the hand controller can mitigate that). In general, cables in the dark seem to me like a recipe for disaster. So in this installment, we’re going to cover connections between telescope and laptop using Wifi. (The next installment of this series will cover using a smartphone or tablet instead of a laptop to connect with the NexStar via wifi.)
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