Customer Reviews

Telescope Control

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A nice try but it does seem to elaborate more on professional installations. It would be more benefical to explain more about half stepping and micro-stepping since most amateur's probably are doing there own automation with a somewhat limited budget. Servo's are nice but they should be for a several thousand dollars. Bottom line is if you envision this book to show you how to make your telescope automatic forget it. Look on the web there's plenty of cutting edge technology to engulf on.

I found this book to be insightful, detailed and very helpful. It is the only book I've found that completely and competently addresses the subject of telescope control by computer. Its figures, tables and mathematical formulae are useful, as are the instructions for system configurations.

I highly recommend this book.

I have recently purchased this book. I found it more geared towards the professional telescope design. It should have been written with the amatuer astronomer/telescope builder in mind. I did find some of the information useful, especially the software hardcopies. The book was somewhat lacking in showing how to remote operate telescopes via phone line, internet, or packet radio such as that found at the Bradford telescope, Apache Point Observatory, and various other systems. I thought the original edition that came out quite a few years ago was better. I highly recommend that the original edition be acquired via library loan to get the most out of this book. The book can further be improved by including more automation systems and circuit designs such as an automatic dome rotation to track your telescope and reviews of the modern automated telescopes for the amatuer such as the LX-200. I think that I will have to write my own book showing the things that I have planned for my small observatory.