The Telescope Net
Setup guide

Get your telescope on your home Wi-Fi

This is the one step that trips people up, so it gets its own page. Do it before installing the node software or asking Claude to connect your telescope — everything else depends on it.

The one thing to understand

Two different kinds of Wi-Fi

Out of the box, most smart telescopes broadcast their own Wi-Fi network so your phone can talk to them directly — this is usually called Access Point mode (or AP mode, or hotspot mode). While it's doing that, your computer can't see it, because it isn't on your home network at all.

What you need instead is Station Mode — the telescope joining your home Wi-Fi, the same network your computer is on. That's what lets the node software (and Claude) find it.

The catch: the telescope's own phone app will say “connected” in either mode. It's telling you your phone is connected to the telescope — not which kind of network the telescope is on. So it won't warn you if you're still in Access Point mode.
Step by step

Switch it to Station Mode

  1. 1Open the telescope's own app (Seestar, Vespera, Dwarf, Unistellar, or whichever came with it) and connect to the telescope as usual — this part still uses its own hotspot the first time.
  2. 2Find the Wi-Fi or network settings inside that app. Look for wording like “Station Mode”, “Join network”, “Connect to router”, or “Home network” — every vendor phrases it slightly differently.
  3. 3Select your home Wi-Fi network from the list and enter its password. The telescope will join it directly — you don't need your phone connected to it after this.
  4. 4Make sure the computer that will run the node software is on the same Wi-Fi network — not a guest network, and not a different band the router splits out as its own name.
  5. 5If the telescope is far from the router and the signal is weak, a Wi-Fi extender or mesh point near the telescope helps — a weak link here is the most common reason a connection drops mid-session.
By telescope

Where to look, per vendor

ZWO SeestarIn the ZWO Seestar app: Settings → Wi-Fi → Station Mode. The Seestar's own control server only runs once it's in Station Mode — this is the single most common setup snag we see.
Vaonis VesperaIn the Vaonis Singularity app, under the telescope's Wi-Fi settings, choose to join your home network instead of using the Vespera's own hotspot.
Dwarf Lab DwarfIn the DwarfLab app: telescope settings → STA (station) mode, then select your home network.
UnistellarIn the Unistellar app's telescope Wi-Fi settings, switch from the telescope's own hotspot to your home network.
Celestron OriginIn the Celestron Origin app: Settings → Network → join your home Wi-Fi, rather than connecting directly to the Origin's hotspot.
ASCOM / ALPACA mountsThese typically connect over your existing network already — make sure the mount, the ALPACA/ASCOM Remote server, and the node computer are all on the same subnet.
Exact menu wording changes with app updates — if you can't find it, search the app for “Wi-Fi” or “network” and look for anything that isn't the telescope's own hotspot name.
Stuck?

Once it's on your Wi-Fi

Install the node software, open Claude Desktop, and say “connect my telescope”. It finds the telescope on the network, links your account, and tells you once it's online — you don't need to do anything else by hand.

If Claude still can't find it after this: quit Claude Desktop completely and reopen it (it only notices new tools on launch), confirm the telescope's app still shows it joined to your home network rather than its own hotspot, and confirm the node computer is on that same network.

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