ASCOM Hall of Fame

Many people have participated significantly by writing drivers and tools, providing useful information, and helping with interface agreements, etc. The following people have made particularly significant contributions to the ASCOM Initiative. They are listed in no particular order:

• Tom Andersen and Ted Leckie - For seeing the logic in ASCOM and the driver/client architecture back in 1998, and providing a grant to develop the first set of drivers and simulators.
• Doug George - For "getting it" right back in 1999 and adding a non-trivial scripting interface to MaxIm DL immediately thereafter. He also authored the Camera. Focuser, and FilterWheel interfaces, basing them on real-world experience with MaxIm.
• Tim Long - For all of his work setting up and hosting the open-source environment, pushing forward with .NET, chairing our weekly platform meetings, writing drivers and tools, helping with .NET issues, and being a moderator for the ASCOM Talk group.
• Peter Simpson - For an enormous amount of work creating the new HelperNET components, much of Platform 5.5, weighing in on strategic Platform issues, the absolutely vital driver conformance checker, and lots of professional-class testing, particularly of Platform 5.
• Larry Weber and Steve Brady - for their fabulous FocusMax autofocus software, evangelizing ASCOM as being absolutely necessary for FocusMax's success, and for driving the Focuser standard.
• Chris Peterson - For being a very knowledgeable curmudgeon, keeping us honest, and helping people with concise and correct information. Chris' participation in (and inputs to) our weekly meetings have been invaluable.
• Jonathan Fay - For the Worldwide Telescope which puts Microsoft behind ASCOM and for the .NET Client Toolkit that provides .NET client software with automatic easy access to both early- and late-bound drivers.
• Jeff Dickerman, president of Optec, Inc. - For having the vision and commitment to provide factory-developed drivers for all of their equipment.
• Mark Crossley - For the FilterWheel Simulator and his helpful inputs during shakeout of the FilterWheel spec.
• David Challis - For believing in ASCOM strongly and making Quantum Scientific cameras ship with factory-supplied drivers.
• Jon Brewster - For developing several drivers and simulators, the current Meade drivers, POTH, Pipe/Hub, and generally being a guiding light. He even went to Meade one time to get the "low down" for the Meade drivers. His crystal-clear headed approach to engineering was a great help on many occasions.
• John Oliver - For his work on the dome geometry code used in POTH and by several other programs, and for his role in the Dome interface agreement.
• Dan Azari - For authoring the Rotator interface, and for RCOS shipping factory-supplied drivers for their Focuser and Rotator.
• Joe Shuster - For quietly doing the lion's share of moderating the ASCOM-Talk forum, and being a clear-headed engineer with a great head for interface negotiation and design.
• Jim Moronski - For having Finger Lakes Instruments cameras ship with factory-supplied drivers
• Ray Gralak - For constantly grinding on us to address the Macintosh OS and Linux, and providing useful suggestions in that vein.
• Chris Houghton - For shipping the Maestro telescope control system with factory-supplied drivers
• Chris Rowland - For developing the incredibly complex Celestron unified driver, tools for extending interfaces in VB6, rigorous testing, and always providing clear and unwavering advice and counsel.
• Ajai Sehgal - For putting a ton of work into the high-profile Astro-Physics and Gemini drivers, and supporting them in the face of firmware changes beyond his control.
• Stef Cancelli - For the graphical and logic design of this new ASCOM web site. It might not seem that way, but it took a lot of his time to do it.
• Peter Eschman - For the original Driver Checker tool.
• Bob Denny - For many things...