Astronomical Computing

Astronomical  Computing

 Xecon's efforts in the area of Astronomical Computing focuses on work that was performed at the Hobbs Observatory (750) located in Fall Creek, Wisconsin.  Primary efforts were concentrated on the 61 cm Alti-Azimuth Newtonian Telescope.  An image of this device is shown below.


Star Trac

  The first project taken up at the Hobbs Observatory was the development of a steering and tracking control program StarTrac for the 24 inch (61 cm) alti-azimuth Newtonian refelecting telescope.  The objective of this effort was to develop a computer controlled drive program that could be used for general telescope operations as well as special projects envisioned for the future.


The StarTrac program is implemented to run on a standard personal computer (PC) that is forced to operate in a real-time mode. The StarTrac PC ties in with three separate microprocessor controllers located at the telescope proper that drive the azimuth, elevation, and field rotation axis respectively. The azimuth and elevation motor controllers were built by the CompuMotor Corporation and the field de-rotation controller was build by Xecon. The StarTrac control computer is also connected to a second PC that contains an astronomical data base (GUIDE), and to a third PC that operates a CCD Camera System.  StarTrac accepts positional  informtion in the form of an objects right ascension and declination from either the PC keyboard, or the GUIDE data base.  It then performs the the required equatorial-to-horizon coordinate conversion and slews the telescope to the selected object.  The object is then continually tracked by recomputing its new position every two seconds and sending the appropriate motor velocity update commands to each of the respective motor controllers. An image of the PC screen as seen on the StarTrac control computer is pesented below.

 

For any one interested, the basic equatorial-to-horizon, horizon-to-equatorial, or field de-rotation equations used by this progran may be obtained by e-mailing me at the following address:
xecon.engineers@gmail.com


Astro-Imaging Analyst

This program is designed to accept raw electronic CCD  images as its input and subsequently perform various analysis and signal processing functions on them.

 
               Set-up controls allow the program to accept CCD input images with several different data formats (including FITS). It will currently process CCD input images sized at 576 x 384 pixels - 12 bit digital output (Thomson chip), or 1024 x 1024 - 16 bit digital output (SITe TK1024 or SI-003A chips).

The program first computes a histogram of each image and presents the user with a summary of critical parameters.  The image may then displayed in a number of optional formats using either automatic or user defined slice and range levels. Magnifying (or Zooming) of selected areas is also permitted. A number of signal processing algorithms are provide to either enhance, smooth, or otherwise manipulate various aspects of the image under investigation.

The program is also designed to assist the user in the alignment of sequential images taken at different points in time.  After the alignment process is completed, the operator is then allowed to blink these images so as to detect  moving objects. If the images are properly encoded and labelled, such as from the SkySearch program, the entire review process will be semi-automatically handled thereby simplifying the entire process.

                 

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