[Laser] Telescope & GPS interface

[Angel Vilaseca]

Hi Phil

Do you know of a description of an interface designed to drive a 
telescope from a PC?

I am trying to find a means to take photos of satellites or planes using 
a webcam mounted on a telescope. Of course, the tracking is critical so 
one way to do it would be I think by means of a joystick connected to 
the PC.

Do you know if such an interface and software exists?

There is a british amateur called John Locker who manages to take photos 
of the ISS with his telescope
http://www.satcom.freeserve.co.uk/geos.htm 
<http://www.satcom.freeserve.co.uk/geos.htm>

I would like to try to do this too

Truly yours

Angel Vilaseca


Phil Lefever a écrit :
> Hi Terry,
>
> I seriously doubt that you will be able to easily
> connect a typical GPS to the stock Celestron computer.
> The entire electronics package they use tends to be
> pretty proprietary. I'm sure it could be done by an
> electronics wiz thats up for a challenge though.
>
> Now that said, why do you "need" a GPS connected to
> the telescope? The whole GPS enabled scope thing is
> really only a marketing ploy dreamed up by Meade and
> Celestron. I used to manage a retail astronomy store
> so I can tell you how their marketing works! I remember
> when the first Meade LX200GPS scopes came out. The
> old non GPS ones worked as well as the ones with the
> "gimmick".
>
> Of course a GPS aided scope is a convenience, mostly
> for setting the time, but if you are using the scope
> for astronomy the need to know exact time/location is
> almost nil. The pointing accuracy depends solely on an
> accurate star alignment. If you were attempting to
> track satellites then this is a different issue! Of
> course then you  will find driving the scope from a
> laptop is better as the stock computer isn't really
> up to this task.
>
> If you have further telescope/astronomy questions I
> will gladly take them up with you via private email
> to avoid the offtopic traffic on the group.
>
> 73 & Clear Skies
>
> Phil
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Phil Lefever - Burnsville, MN
> Amateur Radio Callsign - KB0NES EN34jt
> C8-SP XT-10 C102 80WV
>
>         
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