Add ASCOM Observing Conditions Support

[astroman133]

BYE and BYN have support for several device types (Telescope, Focuser, Filter Wheel), but adding support for ASCOM Observations for reading ambient temperature would be a good feature for many users. You may even find additional ambient values that could be incorporated into the Backyard metadata.

[ilikeit]

Yes, that would be nice to add support for ASCOM Observations (weather, temp, humidity, dew point, cloud cover,,, etc). I recently purchased a power distribution box manufactured by Pegasus Astronomy; the Pegasus Pocket Power Box. It comes with a temperature-humidity-dew point sensor for controlling auto dew heaters. But I have found that I depend on knowing these readings when reviewing astro pics for future photo sequences. The sensor that comes with the PPPB also has a downloadable ASCOM driver (Pegusus UPB Observing Conditions ASCOM driver) It works flawlessly in Sequence Generator Pro software, giving temp, rh and dp readings that update every couple of minutes. 

I prefer BYE as my AP control  over SGP, and wish that it could take advantage of this ascom driver too. It would be a nice addition to the four options for weather conditions in BYE (currently supports Stickstation, TEMPerHUM, M-Box or Text File Delimited). 

I am starting to see a more and more Arduino build weather stations for AP that include sky cams and wind gauges,. These builds could benefit from an ascom client control implementation. 

Home astrology and astrophotography has expanded enormously in the last decade and it seems we all are depending more and more on digital information.

So yes, by all means, please consider adding more support for ASCOM Observation Conditions in future BYE /BYN builds!!

[s3igell]

11 hours ago, ilikeit said:

Home astrology and astrophotography has expanded enormously in the last decade ...

OT:  I hope this was a Spell-Checker Auto-Correct error, as Home ASTROLOGY has surely (hopefully) shrunk in the past few decades of "Enlightenment"...  :^)