Glossary

Ascom Standard + ASCOM Alpaca

updated: 2025-12-06

ASCOM (an abbreviation for AStronomy Common Object Model) is an open initiative to provide a standard interface to a range of astronomy equipment including mounts, focusers and imaging devices in a Microsoft Windows environment.


What is ASCOM Alpaca and Classic ASCOM?

  • Primarily a set of simple elegant API specifications for astronomical devices and applications
  • Eliminates barriers to both device and app developers who would otherwise need to provide special logic for every combination of device and app.
  • Eases the pain of troubleshooting by clearly dividing application and device with a universal interface.
  • ASCOM COM and Alpaca are both language independent.
  • Alpaca is OS independent, no need for Windows anywhere.
  • Alpaca and ASCOM COM are 100% interoperable now easing migration from old to new
  • A new Alpaca device is immediately usable from unmodified Windows apps that currently use ASCOM COM.
  • Under the hood, Alpaca uses the modern and open network protocols of HTTP and JSON for data transfer at the low-level.
  • Please note that Windows is not required for Alpaca!


References:

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