Portable robotic telescope for the teaching of solar astronomy
This work describes a prototype of a miniature robotic telescope, with the didactic purpose of the teaching of solar astronomy, Arduino programming and basic control theory. The telescope is made from low cost components: a 3D printed base that supports a commercial lens (typically used for bird wat...
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Published in | Journal of physics. Conference series Vol. 1514; no. 1; pp. 12005 - 12011 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Bristol
IOP Publishing
01.03.2020
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | This work describes a prototype of a miniature robotic telescope, with the didactic purpose of the teaching of solar astronomy, Arduino programming and basic control theory. The telescope is made from low cost components: a 3D printed base that supports a commercial lens (typically used for bird watching and covered with a white-light solar filter). The system is guided by a program that uses the amount of light collected by a set of four light detecting resistors as an input signal to rotate a pair of small stepper motors, pointing the lens towards the Sun. A simple control scheme is implemented for ensuring that the image of the Sun is centered within the frame. The images and video captures of the Sun is collected by a small photographic camera and uploaded to a website. |
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ISSN: | 1742-6588 1742-6596 |
DOI: | 10.1088/1742-6596/1514/1/012005 |