Autoguiding systems
H.J. van Heerden wrote on Feb 22, 2008
Hi All :D
(To Mike and the gang :wink: I got my masters degree, thanx for all the help on the finer points of photometry with IRAF. U were great :D Thanx. P.S. the new pipeline is up and running on the Boyden telescope system.)
I am throwing this bit on this forum, because I have some difficulty finding the right kind of info and or help from other places. If someone can help please :(
At the telescope we have custom software controlling the ccd-imaging. The telescope is controlled by a TCS by DFM and communicates with the main PC via a series connection (COM1). The custom software then gets the telescope and airmass info from the DFM system to put into the fits headers of the ccd-images.
We want to implement a off-axis auto-guider on a secondary telescope to increase the tracking accuracy for long exposures. We have a SBIG ST-7 that we want to use for that.
The problem is this: Using seperate software for the auto-guiding will result in the software "highjacking" the COM-port for the telescope control, "so we think", which means that we will be unable to get the header info from the DFM system, and to develop custom auto-guiding software will take to long and and and... :?
My Q? If someone has done something similar any help or tips would be appreciated. Or if someone can point me in the right direction please!!
:)
Thanx
Pat
(To Mike and the gang :wink: I got my masters degree, thanx for all the help on the finer points of photometry with IRAF. U were great :D Thanx. P.S. the new pipeline is up and running on the Boyden telescope system.)
I am throwing this bit on this forum, because I have some difficulty finding the right kind of info and or help from other places. If someone can help please :(
At the telescope we have custom software controlling the ccd-imaging. The telescope is controlled by a TCS by DFM and communicates with the main PC via a series connection (COM1). The custom software then gets the telescope and airmass info from the DFM system to put into the fits headers of the ccd-images.
We want to implement a off-axis auto-guider on a secondary telescope to increase the tracking accuracy for long exposures. We have a SBIG ST-7 that we want to use for that.
The problem is this: Using seperate software for the auto-guiding will result in the software "highjacking" the COM-port for the telescope control, "so we think", which means that we will be unable to get the header info from the DFM system, and to develop custom auto-guiding software will take to long and and and... :?
My Q? If someone has done something similar any help or tips would be appreciated. Or if someone can point me in the right direction please!!
:)
Thanx
Pat
Last post on Feb 22, 2008