초록 ▼

A fully automated telescope system is able to be fully operable in both Alt-Az and polar configurations. In either configuration, the telescope aligns itself to the celestial coordinate system following a simplified initialization procedure during which the telescope tube is first pointed north and

A fully automated telescope system is able to be fully operable in both Alt-Az and polar configurations. In either configuration, the telescope aligns itself to the celestial coordinate system following a simplified initialization procedure during which the telescope tube is first pointed north and then pointed towards a user's horizon. A command processor, under application software program control orients the telescope system with respect to the celestial coordinate system given the initial directional inputs. The initial telescope orientation may be further refined by initially inputting a geographical location indicia, or by shooting one or two additional celestial objects. Once the telescope's orientation with respect to the celestial coordinate system is established, the telescope system will automatically move to and track any desired celestial object without further alignment invention by a user.

대표청구항 ▼

1. In a computerized telescope system of the type including a telescope coupled for rotation about two orthogonal axes, together with first and second axial positional reference indicators, one coupled to each axis, a method for orienting the telescope system with respect to a spherical coordinate s

1. In a computerized telescope system of the type including a telescope coupled for rotation about two orthogonal axes, together with first and second axial positional reference indicators, one coupled to each axis, a method for orienting the telescope system with respect to a spherical coordinate system, the method comprising:activating a central control processor, the central processor connected to receive positional reference information from each positional reference indicator; using the central control processor to retrieve a rotation metric, the rotation metric rotating a virtual telescope position in the spherical coordinate system in accord with a major axis of the spherical coordinate system; using the central control processor to retrieve a geographic input; moving the telescope about a first one of the axes to a first terrestrial reference position; obtaining positional reference data from the first axial positional reference indicator as a first telescope position index; moving the telescope about the second one of the axes to a second terrestrial reference position; obtaining positional reference data from the second axial positional reference indicator as a second telescope position index; and processing the first and second telescope position indices and the rotation metric so as to define a virtual coordinate location of the telescope system with respect to the spherical coordinate system.