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Topic starter
2022-03-27 2:09 pm
After I get accustomed to all of the new to me terminology my long term goal for now is to build a device for tracking aircraft with a telescope.
I have a high quality pan/tilt mount for starters but I have no idea what circuitry or programing I would need.. My intent is to find an aircraft I want to track, somehow have the telescope lock on to it a follow it along the flight path,
Maybe impossible at my skill level but would be neat to try.
2022-03-27 3:20 pm
Well, the challenges include a) getting a flight path live data feed into the MCU, b) computing a rough 3D bearing to point in the approximate direction, c) feeding the telescope into a trainable image recognition system like the husky lens, d) creation of a more fine grained "sky search" algorithm to search that part of the sky and e) switching over to a tracking algorithm that starts recording and keeps the plane in frame.
Sounds like a worthy project. 🙂
I edit my posts to fix typos, correct grammar, or improve clarity. On-screen keyboards are evil.
2022-03-27 3:33 pm
@binaryrhyme And hope the FBI don't show up at the door
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
Sure you can learn to be a programmer, it will take the same amount of time for me to learn to be a Doctor.
2022-03-27 3:38 pm
Not to mention differentiating the image of a plane from a nearby bird for an even nearer by insect 🙂
Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're talking about.
Biny reacted
2022-03-27 3:53 pm
I used to have a telescope with the standard german motorized mount. Unless there have been big changes made in those things, they don't move anywhere fast enough to keep up with a plane. Even if you can get the motors tracking fast enough, the image quality will be -10 on a scale of 1 to 10 due to the shaking of the mount. I also still have a video fluid head. It is smooth as glass, but not motorized. I think you first sub-project should be finding a high speed video head, then the tracking software.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
Sure you can learn to be a programmer, it will take the same amount of time for me to learn to be a Doctor.
2022-03-27 3:59 pm
@will Not so difficult. Ever try shooting through glass? By limiting the focal point to say 5,000 ft or probably more (closer to 30,000 if only commercial flights) the bird or insect image will have far too few pixels at sufficient voltage to trigger a 'hit'. The problem will be making the mount move fast enough while keeping any image stable. I have seen a lot of scopes on mounts of all kinds and they are mutually exclusive in my experience with the exception of high end liquid video mounts.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
Sure you can learn to be a programmer, it will take the same amount of time for me to learn to be a Doctor.
Topic starter
2022-03-27 5:18 pm
Thanks for the inputs..
I am talking about planes at or about 15K-20K with a 10+ mile slant range, As far as speed of the mount goes, I have a Meade ETX that will track a satellite passing overhead at a much faster pace the the planes of interest, also I have taken photos at 50x with it with no mount induced blurring. I have actually been able to track using the remote control to move the mount manually for a short period. so I think I can handle the mount part.
Problem I see is the software and getting the image to a board for processing.
A long ways to go,,just something I want to do in the future
2022-03-27 5:27 pm
@sky-king Ok, good to hear, I guess the mounts have improved a lot. Also you are some form of Cass I am guessing so less rotaional mass than my old 3ft long newt.
As far as capturing an image, there are lots of off the shelf solutions but I assume you want to make your own either with an ESP32 or Pi. Either is very capable. If you check out MotionEye OS look at the image recognition feature, you may be able to guide the scope based on that. Good luck.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
Sure you can learn to be a programmer, it will take the same amount of time for me to learn to be a Doctor.
2022-03-27 11:32 pm
Not to mention differentiating the image of a plane from a nearby bird for an even nearer by insect 🙂
Yeh, that's why the trainable image recognition is in the mix.
I edit my posts to fix typos, correct grammar, or improve clarity. On-screen keyboards are evil.
2022-03-28 12:10 am
@binaryrhyme Also if the focal point is preset to start at say 10k ft no insect will be seen and probably no birds either. If you have not looked through an astronomical telescope this may not make sense to you.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
Sure you can learn to be a programmer, it will take the same amount of time for me to learn to be a Doctor.
Biny reacted
2022-03-28 9:46 am
Thanks for the inputs..
I am talking about planes at or about 15K-20K with a 10+ mile slant range, As far as speed of the mount goes, I have a Meade ETX that will track a satellite passing overhead at a much faster pace the the planes of interest, also I have taken photos at 50x with it with no mount induced blurring. I have actually been able to track using the remote control to move the mount manually for a short period. so I think I can handle the mount part.
Problem I see is the software and getting the image to a board for processing.
A long ways to go,,just something I want to do in the future
This is a cool project!
Have you considered getting data via RSS feeds from major airline companies etc...?
They may well be able to provide GPS coordinates, etc... where you may well be able to with some creative math, triangulate their position and thus track them in real time?
Cheers
2022-03-28 12:12 pm
@frogandtoad I think you may be onto something there as there has been a jkid in the news doinng something similar to track Elon Musk, and then the oligarchs.
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
Sure you can learn to be a programmer, it will take the same amount of time for me to learn to be a Doctor.
2022-03-28 1:34 pm
@frogandtoad I think you may be onto something there as there has been a jkid in the news doinng something similar to track Elon Musk, and then the oligarchs.
Screw Elon musk!
2022-03-28 1:39 pm
@frogandtoad I think you may be onto something there as there has been a jkid in the news doinng something similar to track Elon Musk, and then the oligarchs.
Screw Elon musk!
@frogandtoad That's telling
First computer 1959. Retired from my own computer company 2004.
Hardware - Expert in 1401, and 360, fairly knowledge in PC plus numerous MPU's and MCU's
Major Languages - Machine language, 360 Macro Assembler, Intel Assembler, PL/I and PL1, Pascal, Basic, C plus numerous job control and scripting languages.
Sure you can learn to be a programmer, it will take the same amount of time for me to learn to be a Doctor.
2022-03-28 1:50 pm
@frogandtoad I think you may be onto something there as there has been a jkid in the news doinng something similar to track Elon Musk, and then the oligarchs.
Screw Elon musk!
@frogandtoad That's telling
Indeed... he sucks big time... totally against human rights!
That's my opinion!
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