Computer Controlled Stationary Telescope?

Question

Is there a stationary telescope that I can buy that can be controlled through my PC wirelessly to autofocus on an object while I view it on my monitor? Also is there such a telescope that can filter out background light from street lights and give a fairly clear view of planets and galaxies at night? What's the price range? I want one that I can set up outside anywhere and adjust it from in doors at my PC. Thank you.

Answer 1

All of this can be had at a price, though I don't think any amateur telescope offers all that right out of the box. The Meade RCX400 series probably comes close (starting at $5600 for a 10"); you'll still have to add a camera, computer(s), and wireless network. You could probably put a system together yourself for a lot less, if you're clever and good with technology.

Modern astrophotography techniques can yield very good results even in light-polluted areas. This isn't a live-view process; you'll need to accumulate exposures and do some image processing.

All of this is way more complex than Yahoo Answers can deal with. If you're serious and committed, start exploring amateur astronomy forums; Yahoo tech groups and cloudynights.com are good places to start.

Answer 2

I'm not sure what you mean by a "stationary telescope": all telescopes have to be able to move in two axes in order to track objects in the sky. Computer control of telescope pointing has been well established for over a decade, and the technology is readily available in commercial scopes. Filtering out light pollution works for some objects, but light pollution is mostly a broad spectrum, and so is the light from most astronomical objects. What many people are doing nowadays is establishing computer controlled observatories in remote dark-sky locations, which they can access over the internet. Most of these are home-brewed at present, but very effective. Also very expensive!

Answer 3

Several different commercial telescopes can be remotely controlled using a computer. This can be either a hard-wired or wireless connection. Check out JAT Observatory at :
http://www.jatobservatory.org/

Marcus- has setup a complete REMOTE observatory dome control and telescope control. He also explains how to do this on the web site.

Certain filters can be used to "darken" a light polluted sky and increase the CONTRAST between the sky and the dim stellar object. ...... BUT nothing beats a true dark sky site. Planets, star clusters, globulars, double stars are very visible from most urban sites. Galaxies (except for a select few like M31) require a dark sky to be visible; however by using a CCD camera, and taking long exposure pictures, very dim objects can be seen on a computer screen even though they are not visible by looking through the eyepiece on the telescope.

BUT - NOTHING beats a dark observing site!

Answer 4

Many telescopes can be controlled remotely from your computer. Most of the Meade or Celestron Schmidt Cassegrain telescopes can be rigged up to do this with the proper know how.

As far as filtering out background light, no, not really. There are filters you can buy to help bring out some objects but the problem is this. Light pollution filters filter out certain wavelengths of light. If your town uses nothing but low pressure sodium lamps, which is predominantly one wavelength, you're in luck because there are filters that will filter out this one wavelength of light. However most cities use high pressure sodium lamps which have many wavelengths of light. On top of that, most other sources of artificial light at night are composed of many wavelengths. So it's impossible to filter the light out without filter out the light you want to keep.

Nothing beats a dark sky.

Answer 5

You can buy a telescope that moves using a PC program to compensate for Earth's rotation thus pointing at a fixed point in the celestial sphere.
I'm sure you can buy or build an ambient light shield.
Check Edmund's Scientific.

Phil

Answer 6

Check out http://www.telescope.com/control/main/
You'll find every thing you need there although not in a kit.

Answer 7

i dont think so, but maybe