What is the ASCOM Platform? The name itself is an acronym for Astronomy Common Object Model. It was developed in the late 1990s in an effort to create a standard interface between a wide range of astronomy equipment and the Microsoft Windows Operating System. It can be thought of as a framework that defines the communications that take place between the computer operating system and the individual hardware devices.

The platform has undergone a number of revisions and updates since first appearing, and is still being actively developed. The most recent update was the release of version 6.6 Service Pack 1, in August 2022.

One of the best features of the platform is that is enables multiple simultaneous connections to hardware devices. What this means is that you may have a planeterium application that tells the telescope mount to point at a specific target, and at the same time another application may be sending adjustment commands to the mount in response to stars drifting on a guide camera sensor.

To learn more, please visit the ASCOM website.