How to Hook Up Your Own Telescope to WorldWide Telescope

Everyone who has tried the WorldWide Telescope so far has marveled at the images and the way it lets you explore the universe. WWT offers the most extensive collection of images ever combined via one singular application portal. However, there's much more you can do than just explore images, though. For stargazers, there is a way to hook up your own telescope to WWT. Assuming you have a telescope that connects to a computer via USB, you can take WWT with you on your laptop when you go stargazing to track your observing list.

Here's how to do this:

1. Install the ASCOM Platform software.
2. In WWT, click the top of the Telescope tab.
3. In the right corner, click the ASCOM logo to open a browser with the ASCOM Web site.
4. On the ASCOM page, click the text link to the downloads page.
5. On the ASCOM Download Library page, click the text link for the latest ASCOM Platform software, and then click Run when the File Download and WorldWide Telescope Explorer dialog boxes display. After you click the ASCOM Platform software download link, you may need to close the browser with the ASCOM Web site and click the WWT button on the taskbar to see the File Download dialog box.
6. In the ASCOM Platform Setup dialog box, click OK to confirm that you have installed the latest Critical Update or Service Pack.
7. In the ASCOM Platform Setup dialog box, follow the steps to finish installing the ASCOM Platform software.

Then, configure the ASCOM software to match your telescope:

1. Connect your telescope to your computer with a USB cable.
2. In WWT, click the top of the Telescope tab.
3. In the right corner, click Choose, click the down arrow, and then select the type of telescope that you have.
4. In the ASCOM Telescope Chooser dialog box, click Properties, and then configure the ASCOM software to match your telescope configuration.
5. When you close WWT, a message box asking if you want to save your settings changes will display, click Yes.