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  • Author Author: pettitda
  • Date Created: 21 Jun 2015 10:12 PM Date Created
  • Views 839 views
  • Likes 2 likes
  • Comments 5 comments
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The Robot Astronomer

pettitda
pettitda
21 Jun 2015

I’ve always had an interest in astronomy at least ever since Haley’s comet came close to earth in 1986. My brother bought me a small telescope and I tried to find that comet, unsuccessfully.  Since then, I’ve never really liked going outside and searching for stars. Recently however the thought occurred to me that I could build a robot which would search for the stars for me. When the Infineon / Arduino IoT Bundle road test was announced, I thought it was the perfect time to put my idea into motion.

 

My idea is to build a robot which will maneuver its way around my yard and find a good spot to take a picture.  It would avoid tree limbs and other terrestrial objects and work to get a good view of the sky.  It will be connected to the internet and have a web interface for use in requesting a picture of a certain constellation, star, comet, or other celestial object. It will upload the pictures it takes to a server for safe keeping.  Finally, it will notify me by text message when it has taken a picture for me to view.

 

The heart of the project is the Infineon / Arduino IoT Bundle, of course.  The Arduino Yun supplies the brains.  The Infineon motor control board and a pair of motors supply the motion.  The Infineon lighting control board is the wild card.  I’m wondering if I can use the lighting control board to detect clouds. It may not work, but I’m going to give it a try.  Outside of the road test bundle, I will need a servo for steering.  I will need azimuth and elevation rotators to aim the telescope and a linear actuator to focus the telescope.  I will also need a camera with adjustable slow shutter speeds to take pictures of the stars.  Finally, I will need a telescope to bring the stars up close. 

 

The timeline for the project is two months long, so there’s not much time to bring everything together. Here’s the list of basic tasks which need to be accomplished:

 

  1. Build a base with wheels, motors, and servo for providing motion for the robot.  The telescope, camera, and electronics will attach to this base
  2. Attach the electronics to the base and test out the motion aspect
  3. Attach a linear actuator to the telescope to allow focusing the image
  4. Mount the telescope to the base with azimuth and elevation motors for aiming the telescope. Test out the aiming feature.
  5. Attach the camera to the telescope and test out the picture taking, focus, and exposure settings
  6. Write the web interface for the robot
  7. Write the software to download the stars location from the internet
  8. Write the software to aim the telescope
  9. Test out the ability to detect clouds with the lighting controller
  10. Write the software to text my phone, upload the pictures, and do anything else that needs to be done

 

I think this will be a fun project and it will be a good test of the Infineon / Arduino IoT Bundle. I hope everyone reading this will enjoy my posts and be encouraged to do their own unique projects. 

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Top Comments

  • waelect
    waelect over 10 years ago +3
    Hi David, I already do astro-photography and the current system you are trying to make will not be able to take Deep Sky photos, maybe planetary. The main thing is Alt/Az mounting arrangement is mainly…
  • DAB
    DAB over 10 years ago +2
    I used to do a fair bit of astronomy before I got disabled. I spent many a clear night just scanning the cosmos and enjoying the show. I got to see Halley's comment back in 1986. I had a bunch of people…
  • m.ratcliffe
    m.ratcliffe over 9 years ago +1
    Sounds like a great project.
  • m.ratcliffe
    m.ratcliffe over 9 years ago

    Sounds like a great project.

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  • DAB
    DAB over 10 years ago

    I used to do a fair bit of astronomy before I got disabled.

     

    I spent many a clear night just scanning the cosmos and enjoying the show.

     

    I got to see Halley's comment back in 1986.  I had a bunch of people over at 3:00 AM so I could show them where to find it.

     

    There were better comets since, but given that I will never see it again, Halley's remains special.

     

    DAB

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  • pettitda
    pettitda over 10 years ago in reply to waelect

    Malcolm,

     

    Thanks for your feedback.  I appreciate it.  As a first step, I think I'll be happy if I can take pictures of the moon.  That would be enough to prove out the concept, I believe, and it's going to take a considerable amount of effort just to get to that point anyway.  

     

    David

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  • waelect
    waelect over 10 years ago

    Hi David,

     

    I already do astro-photography and the current system you are trying to make will not be able to take Deep Sky photos, maybe planetary. The main thing is Alt/Az mounting arrangement is mainly used for visual observing.

     

    To consider taking photographs, you will need to use the EQ mount design methodology. This requires taking your current GPS reference to get the rotation angle correct. There are already 3 current design methods

    1 - EQ mounts many of them manufactured and used quite a lot by most people. I use and EQ5 with software that is freely available.

    2 - EQ Platform, Used for larger scopes mostly dobsonians and very much used for the really large scopes. I also have a DOB as well and built a simple EQ Platform a couple of years ago with great success.

    3 - Horseshoe mounts - This design I will be using to replace my EQ Platform more for better accuracy. They are though very large and cumbersome mounts.

     

    As an example this galaxy shot cannot be done at all on a ALT/AZ mount - https://goo.gl/photos/BqbcDgbmLaUg46D76

    This photo was taken on my EQ platform a few years ago. - https://goo.gl/photos/sLwNbVbQXHoXTPp46 I pulled it apart as I have moved house and it was crushed during the move.

    The EQ mount worked well for my planetary images but was limited in some aspects - https://goo.gl/photos/J6aW1rEbiN1gxcm68 , and https://goo.gl/photos/Z7MjXLxm27eC7Xfn9

     

    For the exercise though it is a great project though, I hope to have fun with the horseshoe mount, but I have to put my observatory together after moving recently.

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  • dougw
    dougw over 10 years ago

    cool project - very ambitious - I expect you will learn a lot - good luck

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