Design of a Low Cost Control System for an Astronomical Observatory

Cuartas-Restrepo, P.; Gaviria, Natalia; Galvez-Serna, Julian

doi:10.17230/ingciencia.16.31.5

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The earlier developers have utilized commercial software in remote operation, gathering weather data, and setting up the telescope [16]. In addition, they have not achieved a proper alignment which is essential at startup to gain total control of the telescope, as well as the observatory does not make a decision automatically whether or not to open the dome based on the measurements, which is considered a great risk.…”

Section: A Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, extra sensors, encoders, and devices like a weather station, monitoring system, and remote power unit should be installed in the observatory. Concerning the software interface, small and medium-sized telescopes depend on commercial products protected by a trademark; as a result, their accessories and programs are only compatible with Windows, which is not an open-source operating system [16]. Besides, the wireless operation often utilizes Team Viewer or other visual network computers (VNC) programs that require a highly stable network bandwidth unavailable in high-altitude observatories.…”

Section: A Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CCD camera is widely used in astronomy; it is an integrated circuit consisting of a certain number of coupled capacitors [16]. The utilized CCD camera is SBIG version STX-16803 with 16 megapixels and a resolution of 4096 x 4096 pixels.…”

Section: Imaging Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, it conflicts with remote telescope operations. For instant, the 14-inch MEADE telescope could not receive commands properly except when the telescope is in correct alignment at startup, and it is not possible to be performed except via its HC directly using manual buttons [16]. The alignment step is achieved by pointing the telescope to two bright reference stars; however, the observed stars will be shifted from the center of the image frame.…”

Section: A Telescope Creationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Complete Affordable Control System for Remote Astronomical Observing Accompanied by an Intelligent Controller

et al. 2022

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This paper comprises two studies; the first one provides an advanced and low-cost implementation for a remote astronomical platform applicable for small and medium-sized telescopes. It has been carried out for the 14-inch observatory, which includes a Celestron German Equatorial (CGE) telescope at the Kottamia astronomical observatory (KAO) in Egypt. This integrated control system is based on embedded systems, internet of things (IoT) technology, row packets communication procedure, and the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) based on the Internet Protocol (IP). Using this platform, remote astronomers could control the whole system, observe, receive images and view them efficiently and safely without any human physical intervention. The proposed design has been achieved without dependence on commercial control kits or software. Indeed, many previous studies have focused on this field; however, their area of interest was limited or non-affordable. The excellence in this practical research is revealed and compared with others in terms of cost, inclusiveness, and communication speed. The other contribution of this research is to enhance the performance of the telescope pointing and tracking to be adapted with remote action. It has been achieved based on the mathematical model of the telescope where two fractional controllers have been applied, tilt integral-derivative (TID) and integral derivative-tilted (ID-T) controllers. After that, they have been optimized using a recent optimization algorithm called peafowl optimization algorithm (POA) and compared with one of the well-known algorithms; particle swarm optimization (PSO). Simulation results under the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment reveal that modified ID-T-based POA has minimized the pointing error sharply. Moreover, compared with previous studies, it has significantly improved the telescope system characteristics represented in the times of overshoot, settling, and rising.INDEX TERMS Remote telescope, integral derivative-tilted controller, peafowl optimization algorithm.

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Section: A Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Imaging Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Telescope Creationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Complete Affordable Control System for Remote Astronomical Observing Accompanied by an Intelligent Controller

et al. 2022

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“…These unmanned observatories tend to be not only robotic, but autonomous or also called smart, which means that they are capable of automatically managing themselves according to their equipment status and weather conditions. They are made up of several subsystems, as described by [ 4 ], each with different features, and they require control and synchronization software for all of them to work in a coordinated, autonomous, and reliable way.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open-Design for a Smart Cover of a Night-Time Telescope for Day-Time Use

Cedazo

Brunete

Albarracin

et al. 2021

Sensors

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Robotic observatories are ideal infrastructures that can be remotely accessed by scientists, amateurs, and general public for research and education in Astronomy. Its robotization is a complex process for ensuring autonomy, safety, and coordination among all subsystems. Some observatories, such as Francisco Sanchez’s, are equipped with two types of telescopes: one for the night and one for the day. The night-time telescope must be protected from exposure to sunlight in order to use them in an automated way. For this purpose, this article proposes the design and construction of a smart cover that opens and closes according to the time of day. The mechatronic design covers the electronic, mechanical, and software programming, and it has been devised taking while taking the principles of open design, ease of reproduction, low-cost, and smart behaviour into account. The design has been parameterized, so that it can be adapted to telescopes of any size. The final prototype is lightweight, cost-effective, and can be built while using common 3D printing and PCB milling machines. The complete design is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 and all the documentation, schematics, and software are available in public repositories, like Zenodo, GitHub, and Instructables.

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Design of a Low Cost Control System for an Astronomical Observatory

Cited by 2 publications

References 30 publications

A Complete Affordable Control System for Remote Astronomical Observing Accompanied by an Intelligent Controller

A Complete Affordable Control System for Remote Astronomical Observing Accompanied by an Intelligent Controller

Open-Design for a Smart Cover of a Night-Time Telescope for Day-Time Use

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