Voyager 4 Telescope Control

The original Voyager software was developed in 1976 to control a telescope. It was written in the Forth programming language, which has its origin in the control of large observatory telescopes.

Telescope control is now included as a standard feature with Voyager 4. You specify the type of telescope you are using, and the necessary parameters to control its position in the sky. The telescope's position appears as a moving cursor on the sky chart, a 'celestial mouse' that records the telescope position as it moves across the sky. With Voyager 4, you will spend your time viewing objects, rather than reading coordinates from a star chart in the dark. Voyager will transform your observing experience.

Voyager 4 can display your telescope's position in multiple windows: you can simultaneously follow the telescope in a wide field as it moves through a constellation, and also see a close up of the eyepiece field as you move from object to object. The telescope cursor can be customized and rotated to match a specific eyepiece or the dimensions of a CCD frame. And the screen display and telescope dialogs can use a "red-screen" mode for night vision. If you have a "Go-To" telescope, you can double-click a galaxy on the screen, and your telescope will slew to the selected object. You can create an observing list of selected objects, direct your telescope to each object in turn, and save the list for future use.

Voyager 4 supports the following computer-controllable telescopes:

Meade LX-200 Classic
Meade LX-200 GPS
Meade RCX-400
Meade ETX-90 and 125 (with Autostar)
Meade LXD 55 and 75
Meade LX-90
Meade LXD-650 and 750
Meade Magellan I and II
Celestron Ultima 2000
Celestron NexStar 5 and 8
Celestron NexStar 5i and 8i
Celestron NexStar GPS
Celestron CGE German Equatorial
Celestron Advanced Series GTO
Celestron AstroMaster
Losmandy Gemini
Losmandy DSC
Astro-Physics GTO
SkySensor 2000
JMI NGC-Max
Lumicon SkyVector
Orion SkyWizard
Super Navigator
Sky Commander
Tangent BBox-compatible encoders

Communication with the telescope is through the serial port of your computer. If you use a computer with only USB ports, you will need a USB-to-serial adapter. We reccommend the KeySpan line of USB-to-serial adapters.

Carina Software also offers interface cables for most popular telescopes. For a product price list, go to our Sales web page.

(Mac OS X)

(Windows XP)