I'm going to be doing an internship/mentorship at the Adler Planetarium here in Chicago over the summer and am thinking about ways of connecting Max with my telescope. I have a Celestron NexStar 114GT with a motorized mount and NexStar hand controller.

I would like to develop a couple of patches to actualize a decent "AstroMax" system. Firstly, I need to figure out how to access the information stored on the hand controller, which connects to the mount via phone cord (powered through it, too...). Is there a way to access that information if I were to splice a phone line into an ethernet cable?

Another issue is imaging. I'd like to hook up a CCD or webcam and be able to A) track the slow movements of the stars and B) collect imagery/data in Max. This isn't as big of a challenge and is priority because the control and imaging systems can remain exclusive for the time being. But do any of you have any suggestions as to where I could begin with the controller?