Advanced Telescope Supplies
Remote Observing
If you wish to control a Telescope, CCD camera, Filter wheel and Observing dome from a nearby room even another country, then we can supply the hardware and software tools to help you accomplish this task.
Remote observing requires at a bare minimum :
- A telescope with robotic telescope mount
- A CCD Camera
- A computer connection to a network/internet.
- Remote Observing Software
Remote Observing has some critical equipment demands that should be examined, for example:
- Telescope Mount: Fork mounted telescopes can have problems with bulky CCD cameras/filters/spectrographs as they may collide with fork base if used near the celestial pole
- Alt Azimuth Fork Mounts require a field de-rotator or equatorial wedge for astrophotography and CCD imaging.
- Large Array CCD cameras generate a lot of data which can take considerable time to download over a 28.8k modem
If you are an educator with a School or Tertiary Astronomy science program in mind please e-mail us for advice on suitable CCD cameras, telescopes, GoTo mounts to get your project up and running. We can supply complete Observatories, including Dome, Telescope, Mount, CCD camera, Filters, Secondary Systems, Software, PC's installation and support from around $120,000. (Based on a 3.5 metre Sirius Observatory)
A key element is Software Bisque's IAS Windows software that will integrate these elements into a cohesive system that allows a remote observer to select any object that is observable from where the telescope is located, slew to that object, take a CCD image and download that image to their personal computer or another computer on the network. The computer network can be a local area net, or the internet. Settings such as CCD temperature, filter wheel position and dome orientation can also be remotely controlled. Observers can also rapidly execute scripted observation runs, for example:
|
SlewToObject, PGC42975, 12.75247 -0.46056 |
This script slews to Galaxy PGC42975 (RA12.75247,Dec -0.46056) |
| SlewToObject, PGC42797, 12.72228 1.97806 WaitFor , 3 , TakeImage , 30 , |
Similarly with PCG 42797, with a pause of 3 seconds after the slew |
| SlewToObject, PGC41823, 12.57414 2.18861 WaitFor , 3 , TakeImage , 30 , |
A 30second exposure CCD image is taken after each pause. |
The above script calls for the telescope to sequentially point 3 PGC galaxies in Virgo. Each image is either stores on the remote PC or downloaded to the observers local computer.
Generating
scripts is easy and intuitive. By using Software Bisque's The Sky, users can
automatically generate observing scripts that have been tailored by the
observer to a specified object type, position, brightness etc. Specific object
catalogues or even user catalogues can also be searched for suitable
candidates to be later observed or imaged.
Scripted runs can also be executed by non-remote users, making this an ideal tool for automated supernova hunting literally in your back yard!
Other script options include the patrol of an area of sky to search for Minor planets and Comets.
This process can be refined even further by allowing a PC to automatically scan CCD images taken over a period of time to search for uncharted objects, reporting the results back to the Observer.
Institutions running Bisque's IAS server software can allocate users a observation time during they can access a telescope, CCD camera,filter wheel etc. Only users with valid access times, name and password are allowed access the telescope remotely. The user simply runs The Sky and CCDSoft on their local computer, which returns data as if the telescope were in their own backyard. Advanced Telescope supplies can also arrange affordable site licenses for schools wanting to use this software.