The control centre is the brains of the operation. It’s running the operating system and all your astrophotography software. Physically, it’s connected to your main imaging camera via USB, to your guide camera via USB, to your motorized mount via USB, and to your network via Ethernet.

Your control centre is running NINA. This is accessing your main imaging camera either natively or via an Ascom driver. It’s also accessing your motorized mount via an Ascom driver. In my case, that’s GS Server.

The control centre is also running PHD2 guiding software. This is connected to the guide camera either natively or via an Ascom driver. The “guider” section of NINA is configured to connect to PHD2. NINA does not talk directly to the guide cam itself.

NINA is configured to use a plate solver which is usually ASTAP. This is invoked in the background as needed.