Re: So how much will it cost to "bribe" someone to write software for my mount

From: Greg Roberts (grr@telkomsa.net)
Date: Fri Oct 21 2011 - 13:26:05 UTC

  • Next message: Marco Langbroek: "SATOBS ML (remote), 21 Oct 2011: Prowler"

    Hi Kevin
    
    I have an SLT mount like yours and have been meaning to try out plane scans 
    on it, but because my homemade system is much more user friendly I just 
    havent got around to it so maybe you could check the following out:
    
    I have a piece of software that computes a plane scan written for me by 
    Thierry Marais and at the time he asked me not to distribute it as it was 
    still a beta version. I have used it many times over the past 7-8 years and 
    its works. Thierry has disappeared and I dont have his current email address 
    so Im not sure whether I am still confined to the "not distributing clause".
    
    Thierry last lived in Paris - does anyone perhaps know his current email 
    address ?
    
    Anyway this program generates a text table of azimuth and elevation at 
    specified times . My homemade mount then reads the az/el and at the 
    specified time sets the camera at this position and then "tracks" the orbit 
    plane at an interval step that I define - usually every 60 seconds or so. 
    The duration of the orbit scan can be anything - from a few minutes to hours 
    if necessary. So this program is available- subject to Thierry's permission. 
    It runs under Dos  and uses the standard TLE format. Forget the size offhand 
    but probably around 100K. I dont have the source code.
    
    So the next step is to get the SLT mount to read an ascii table and track on 
    this. I think the solution for this already exists. Have a look at the 
    latest version of RTGUI V9.2 -- its freeware and easily found using Google. 
    In the latest version the author - Robert Sheaff - has added the facility of 
    driving an SLT scope in alt/az at specific intervals - not for satellite 
    tracking - but astronomical use. I have not yet gotten around to trying this 
    facility out so dont know how compatible it is with plane scan requirements 
    but dont think there should be any problems.
    
    A typical ascii table looks like
    
    02:00:00   345.678  34.567
    02:01:00   346.452  33.453
    02:02:00   347.345  32.678
    02:03:00   347.945  31.456
    ...........................................
    04:00:00   023,234  15.234
    
    first column is time, second column azimuth and third column elevation.
    
    (I "sucked" the above figures out of my thumb )
    
    If you have a chance check out RTGUI and see if it will work with something 
    like this - of course any ascii table can be "massaged" to fit the format 
    required by RTGUI.
    
    Hope this helps
    Cheers
    Greg
    
    
    
    
     
    
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