Internet connected scope

[koputai (Jason)]

Hi guys,
I'm looking for info on setting up an internet connected scope. It looks like I'll be spending a fair
bit of time away this year, and I'm interested in being able to use my scope from wherever I am.

What I'm thinking of is a box with motorised lid, mounted on the roof of my back shed, housing:
Meade DS series goto mount.
Little scope, probably an 80mm refractor.
CCD camera.

This set up would not be overly capable, but it would be nice and small.

I've done heaps of googling, but can't really find anything. Has anyone here set up a remote
scope, or have any links to such?

Thanks,
Jason.

[Phil]

Hi Jason i use this http://www.vnc.com/ to connect my scope over a wireless connection i have around my house. Its free and works very good. Not to sure if you can use this but it may help you.
Phil

[acropolite (Phil)]

Most of the meade go-to scopes will perform remotely, but there's a gatcha and that is the imaging interfaces aren't catered for. Probably the easiest way is to use remote desktop (XP pro only unfortunately) for a connection that way you are effectively on the home machine although graphics transfer will make the machine quite sluggish. Then ther'es the problem of focus, although the Meade inteface will allow that as well.

If it were me, I'd be looking for a small grab & go to take on your travels.

[g__day (Matthew)]

There are alot of gotcha's in this, put simply there is alot of complexity to manage:

1) sky environment - is it raining or fine when you are thinking of imaging
2) security for your remote site
3) pointing abaility - if things go screwy - how will you reset and or avoid gear / tripod / pier collisions
4) restarts - if Windows blue screens of death - if a hand controller needs a reset, if a PSU is flakey - how will you detect and correct matters - how much redundancy will you allow for
5) operational matters - focusing, image retention / processing, taking darks, assessing temperatures at which you imaged, how will you power on and sync your scope to the night sky?

The simplest s/w solution seems to be:

1) have a PC near your gear (multi core processor - lotsa of RAM and a good UPS).
2) put the OTA and mount on a pier
3) run VNC server to expose the full PC with a fixed IP address set up over a router and broadband to a VNC client anywhere in the world.

* * *

Alternatively - why not just buy time on a decent set-up that has all the factors set up - APOs or RC on Paramount ME, running Tpoint sky models - in dark sky locations, with $10K cameras doing the piccy taking?

[koputai (Jason)]

Here's my thinking on some of the issues:

1) sky environment - is it raining or fine when you are thinking of imaging

Check the BOM rain radar site for rain, and the current observation pages for local temp, windstrength etc.

2) security for your remote site

It'd be mounted on the roof of the back shed and just look like a box. The wife will still be here too.

3) pointing abaility - if things go screwy - how will you reset and or avoid gear / tripod / pier collisions
4) restarts - if Windows blue screens of death - if a hand controller needs a reset, if a PSU is flakey - how will you detect and correct matters - how much redundancy will you allow for
5) operational matters - focusing, image retention / processing, taking darks, assessing temperatures at which you imaged, how will you power on and sync your scope to the night sky?

Still some things to think about here.

1) have a PC near your gear (multi core processor - lotsa of RAM and a good UPS).
2) put the OTA and mount on a pier
3) run VNC server to expose the full PC with a fixed IP address set up over a router and broadband to a VNC client anywhere in the world.

Yes to all of these.

Alternatively - why not just buy time on a decent set-up that has all the factors set up - APOs or RC on Paramount ME, running Tpoint sky models - in dark sky locations, with $10K cameras doing the piccy taking?

Kind of takes the fun out of it doesn't it? Why does anyone buy their own imaging set up if hiring time on better gear is easier?

Cheers,
Jason.

[citivolus (Ric)]

Originally Posted by koputai

Check the BOM rain radar site for rain, and the current observation pages for local temp, windstrength etc.

I've had localized downpours that didn't show up at all on BOM radar. Make sure your observing site isn't in a radar shadow.

Eric

[Bassnut (Fred)]

Ive experienced this remote imaging caper a fair bit recently ;-).

If someone, anyone, is on site while yr imaging, its easy, they push the roof off and on and watch the weather for you (and reset/unjamb mechanicals as required) all you need is remote control of the rigs PC.

If you want total unattended remote contol?, oh dear, think long and hard about that little adventure ;-).

Get a Boltwood Mk2 rain/weather sensor, period. And have it close yr automated OBs automatically when it needs to.

Fit an IP adressable power outlet box, so you can power cycle stuff when it hangs to reset.

Thats just the beginning. The mount alone needs to be bullit proof and accurate, its real hard fishing around the sky looking for stuff to sync on remotely ;-).

Its a worthy pursuit, but without some on site help, an expensive world of pain. Good luck.

[g__day (Matthew)]

As Fred says,

I think you'd have to allocate alot of dosh for those environmental controls - I always guess around a few thousand dollars - plus you'd really need a top notch mount and probably several OTAs - with video camera on a real widefield OTA to check where you are pointing and syncing on.

Seriously rather than add $5,000 to your cost - try plan B.

Have your wife or a friend set up the scope and open the portal and sync to your first star. Run things remotely. If everything borks up get them at the site on the phone to de-bug things. Get them to power down and put it away.

Really you could do that at much lower cost. Once you want to seriously do what you adovocate I trckon you are on $7K - $14K mounts at a minimum, plus quality dovetails - another $1K - $1.5K, plus several OTAs and CCDs, plus power cycling and UPS's and a closed circuit CCTV to image over the web what is happening with your rig to help debug things etc...

High end - buy time on a rig in Chile. Mid range - get wife or friend to help!

Matthew

[higginsdj]

What is the purpose of your remote telescope? A Meade DS isn't going to be that reliable for imaging purposes....

There are a lot of sites about that have information in one form or another but bascially you need:

1. An observatory with automated roof, auto power on and off of the scope and computer equipment and camera(s) (I assume you intend it to image something)
2. Telescope capable of auto aligning and finding targets (means very good pointing and tracking)
3. Computer
4. Camera
5. Software to run it all - ie Turn on the power, open the observatory, turn on the scope and camera, align the telescope and start pointing it at targets - all via the internet.
6. A connection between the observatory computer and the Internet. Can be wireless but I would NOT recommend it - so a LAN line.

I have a paper on the subject as it relates to my own observatory BUT it is not Internet connected (though an upgrade of the software I use to a higher version - for a couple of $1000 US - would fix this).

http://david-higgins.com/Astronomy/p...0Observing.pdf

Cheers