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Old 15-08-2017, 08:25 AM
WaTcHuLoOkNaTm9 (Harry)
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Software output distance between current coordinates of telescope and desired object

Hi there,

I have Stellarium and am using it a push-to controller for my telescope using the Nexus II from Astrodevices. On the Stellarium display, it reads what the current azimuth and altitude coordinates are of the telescope, and it also reads the current azimuth and altitude coordinates of a selected object be it Saturn, Mars etc. I am hoping to be able to write a short program for an Arduino that essentially calculates the difference in distance of the target's coordinates and the current coordinates of the telescope, to use with stepper motors down the track but that’s irrelevant. In order to do so, I require two pieces of information, the current coordinates of the target, from which I will subtract the current coordinates of the telescope. I was wondering if there is any possible way I can have Stellarium actually output those coordinates to another program? Or, if there is any program I can write that actually retrieves those coordinates from Stellarium in real-time? Or is there a way I can calculate the distance between the current scope’s position and the object within Stellarium, whilst outputting it in such a way that it can be read by an external program?

I am also keen to hear about any other software that may be able to accomplish this.

I greatly appreciate your time and hope this makes some sense.

Kind Regards, Harry
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Old 21-09-2017, 04:49 AM
fsr
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Hi,

Most planetarium software have some kind of telescope control, but your controller has to make the "heavy lifting". What you want to do requires a goto controller. The software would only tell you what coordinates to go to, and will actually ask your controller where the scope is actually pointing (the software has no way to know that). You could take a look at some projects like onstep, astroeq, and picgoto. Some of them probably support alt-az mounts, but i don't think they would use the encoders for anything. You would replace your push-to controller with some of those projects.

Why do you want to do this? If you already have a functional push-to telescope, what's the benefit?

Regards
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Old 21-09-2017, 09:50 PM
Wavytone
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You need to speak to Serge at Astrodevices. What you are dreaming of is not trivial. But not impossible.
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Old 26-09-2017, 06:23 AM
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bojan
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Also, try Bartels system...
http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/StepperSystem.html
This software supports encoders.

And of course, Ek's circles (encoders only):
http://eksfiles.net/digital-setting-circles/
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