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  • Auto tracking telescope

    m_rahuul

    Member

    Updated: Oct 26, 2024
    Views: 1.2K
    i m a 3rd year electronic engg student...
    as my 'mini-project', i plan to make sum telescope which is capable of positioning itself given the co-ordinates/location of a star/planet, w.r.t some datum position on earth....and also track it(star/planet) as it moves with time w.r.t earth.... this is only the idea to be conveyed
    to make it a small scale thing and considering the budget.....i plan to exhibit this using a spotlight/torchlight instead of telescopic lens....and my sky wud be the ceiling of the room, wid sum stars in it....
    can anyone plz suggest how i start wid it....in the sense the logic to be used for programming the microcontroller .....and the use of co-ordinate system..
    😕😕😒😕😕
    also suggest if any more intelligence be added..
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Replies

  • shalini_goel14

    Member • Jan 21, 2009

    m_rahuul
    i m a 3rd year electronic engg student...
    as my 'mini-project', i plan to make sum telescope which is capable of positioning itself given the co-ordinates/location of a star/planet, w.r.t some datum position on earth....and also track it(star/planet) as it moves with time w.r.t earth.... this is only the idea to be conveyed
    to make it a small scale thing and considering the budget.....i plan to exhibit this using a spotlight/torchlight instead of telescopic lens....and my sky wud be the ceiling of the room, wid sum stars in it....
    can anyone plz suggest how i start wid it....in the sense the logic to be used for programming the microcontroller .....and the use of co-ordinate system..
    😕😕😒😕😕
    also suggest if any more intelligence be added..
    Hi m_rahuul,

    1. Avoid sms text in your posts.ok. Be careful next time.
    2. Don't start a new thread with same content everytime. There is already
    following thread started by you only.
    #-Link-Snipped-#
    3. I guess CEans like ash, raj87verma88 , gohm, frodo.rok will help you out. I cannot be of any help here. Sorry 😔
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  • m_rahuul

    Member • Jan 22, 2009

    I am sorry for that...
    being a newbie, was innocent about the rules.
    thanks for the reply though!
    but still think on it...try replying again if you come up with some idea!
    😒
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  • Ashraf HZ

    Member • Jan 22, 2009

    Sorry rahuul, I thought I had replied to your query. It must have only been in a dream 😉

    I'm a little confused. Will you use the torchlight to shine the sky? Or are you just using the casing to represent the telescope?

    Secondly, what kind of sensor do you plan to use to detect the light coming from the "stars"? These kind of projects would be better done using image processing, because you are trying to track small multiple targets.

    If you were trying to track the sun, for example, that can easily be done using LDRs as it is the main "entity" of the sky.
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  • m_rahuul

    Member • Jan 23, 2009

    yeah ash....thanks for your reply...

    actually for exhibiting simplicity and budget considerations.....the ceiling/roof of a room/hall would be the sky for me..
    the ceiling would have some stars embedded in it....also the trajectory/path of some stars would be marked on it.....here laser/torch will be used to point in the particular direction of a star.
    each star would have some fix co-ordinates w.r.t. a datum position on ground inside that room itself.
    there are no sensors!.....the co-ordinates of the stars would be stored.....and when the co-ordinates/name/some other number, denoting a particular star are entered....a)telescope should position itself...and b) track it through its trajectory...which again is fixed....

    in reality also....a star rises in the sky at at almost the same position(with a daily shift in it)....and sets in a fixed position...

    now one more consideration has to be taken here......say a star has its co-ordinates(phi, theta) on January 1....then it will have similar on January 2 (phi', theta')...with a little shift....and its trajectory will be as it is...parallel to previous one...
    the daily shift remains constant....
    so the information about jan 1 is to be stored....and if any random date/time after that is entered ...the shift should be so calculated....
    😒
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  • Sukesh

    Member • Jan 23, 2009

    You can use two stepper motors one to turn your telescope in x direction and the other in Y direction.Convert the co ordinates into degrees by which the motor should turn.Now if you know the position in angles you can program a controller to do the rest.Even the shifts you mentoned can be taken care of.
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  • aosmap

    Member • Jan 30, 2009

    I have been planing to do the same project just for fun. You can use what is called a "equatorial mount" for a telescope, with the first axis of rotation you tilt the telescope at the same angle as the Earth's axis of rotation then the second axis just follow the star, the advantage is that you set the first angle once and lock the angle for the rest of the time. You will not have to correct the axis of rotation because the star will follow the same plane and also you do not have to change speed of rotation since the angular speed will be constant. No sensors are needed unleast you need feedback for the positioning of the axis, then you can use a encoder for each motor. It seams like you need to create a small database for demonstration purposes, are you interfacing the project with a computer for that database, if yes you can control the motors with the computer too.

    If not you will need some kind of keypad to enter the information and along with the microcontroller a small memory to save a database of stars. then the programing should not be complicated since you just compare the info entered by the keypad and the one in your database to set the first axis (it will depend of your location), then keep the same angular speed on the other axis to track the star. You might want to check websites that teach about astrophotography in order to have more ideas.

    I hope this helps, I will write later if I think about something else.
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  • m_rahuul

    Member • Feb 1, 2009

    thanx aosmap for your reply!
    Can we interface 2 stepper motors, 1 keypad,1 lcd with a 8052 Microcontroller?
    Will the ROM be sufficient for the long program?
    please reply......
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  • vkas29

    Member • Aug 16, 2009

    helo ash ,this is vikas..i need some helpp regarding a stepper motor driven by a labview code ..i ve the code but a m not able to get the exact configuration for the set up ..pls guide me through
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  • vkas29

    Member • Aug 16, 2009

    also there is uln2003 driver .what else i would require for controlling the motor apart from the labview and the driver
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  • bushidodadon475

    Member • Aug 2, 2011

    That is good man! I hope I can #-Link-Snipped-# soon and I can have my own exhibit!
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