Although the CPC 1100 has a very good handset for selecting target objects for Goto, the "holy grail" for amateur observational astronomy is to direct the telescope using a planetarium application. Why? Because planetarium software gives you tremendous flexibility in planning an observing session, understanding the context of what you are observing, and just simply exploring the sky.
Tonight was my first attempt and, thanks to some helpful directions on the cloudynights forum, it look less than 1/2 hr to get everything configured.
I use Stellarium (see below) as my planetarium application, and connected my laptop to the telescope handset through a USB-to-serial converter cable. The next step would be to invest in a bluetooth receiver, which would remove the need for wires (never much fun fiddling with wires in the dark).
Unfortunately the clouds rolled in soon after I had everything working. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun to the see the telescope location pointer slewing across the screen in step with the motion of the scope itself. I am very much looking forward to giving this a good workout on a clear night. I can already see that the laptop-driven approach will substantially enhance my observing experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment