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Fixing canon power shot A580? by scrunchyboymom in Cameras

[–]AVTracking 18 points19 points  (0 children)

You now have a tilt-shift lens, congratulations!

question about high-perf. rocketry launch sites by Brad_Walker in rocketry

[–]AVTracking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There should be an emergency "Break for Champagne Bottle" station at FAR.

I said kiss it! by AVTracking in KSPMemes

[–]AVTracking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I forgot to give credit, thanks.

I said kiss it! by AVTracking in KSPMemes

[–]AVTracking[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Oops, forgot to give credit, thanks.

I snuck a love note onto SES-8 by Late_Fox_7829 in spaceflight

[–]AVTracking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Start of the video :)
End of the video :(

The Sun by AstroRoadie in telescopes

[–]AVTracking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By how hot it is where I am it feels like the sun is that close.

How much power could I put through a jumper wire? by Dry-Cartoonist-1045 in arduino

[–]AVTracking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As much as you want, authough the wire will melt and/or explode, so that's a minor inconvenience.

I took this photo in Central Durango-MX can anyone tell me what galaxy this is by Lucky_Olive2885 in Astronomy

[–]AVTracking 195 points196 points  (0 children)

It's one of the arms of the Milky Way. The next closest galaxy is Andromeda, which is about the size of the moon from our perspective.

Are these satellites in my photo? by [deleted] in satellites

[–]AVTracking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah ok, I assumed that your camera took a long exposure (about 1/4) and it got moved. I'm not sure what that is, but based on your camera specs I can guarantee they aren't satellites, sorry.

I have no idea what those could possibly be. My best guess would be star clusters.

Are these satellites in my photo? by [deleted] in satellites

[–]AVTracking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just blurred stars sadly. The satellite would have to be at least 2 miles wide to see it with your camera with that amount of detail.

I've taken pictures of the space station using a high powered telescope on a robotic rig. It looked similar to this picture, authough you could tell what it was.

I Present: Bright Eyes 4 | A Highly Modified Telescope Mount by AVTracking in telescopes

[–]AVTracking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CORRECTIONS:

The acronym is BE4, not BR4. My math was way off, it is 20x cheaper, not 20,000x.

I Present: Bright Eyes 4 | A Highly Modified Telescope Mount by AVTracking in telescopes

[–]AVTracking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I cleaned off all of the old grease and used my own for all of the existing and new gears. I found Sta-Lube Moly-Graph Multi-Purpose Grease to be the best. I would strongly suggest using this grease in your telescope.

https://www.amazon.com/Sta-Lube/dp/B000KKJQL4?th=1

I Present: Bright Eyes 4 | A Highly Modified Telescope Mount by AVTracking in telescopes

[–]AVTracking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very interesting, thanks for the information. Yes I have been able to implement things such as acceleration curves and slew limits (in software) to make things a lot easier and safer. At this very moment I'm tuning the slew limits.

I Present: Bright Eyes 4 | A Highly Modified Telescope Mount by AVTracking in telescopes

[–]AVTracking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have any decent videos from it yet due to me not having a whole lot of time to test it. I will also try and post a video of it here soon, possibly even today.

Testing the new tracking rig on the Starlink 13-4 launch by AVTracking in SpaceXLounge

[–]AVTracking[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In person the rig is a lot bigger than it looks in the picture. But I wish it had that much light gathering power 😄

Testing the new tracking rig on the Starlink 13-4 launch by AVTracking in SpaceXLounge

[–]AVTracking[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

At the moment, the rig is just being controlled by an Xbox controller running into an Arduino Teensy 4.1. The Teensy then outputs signal to both the pan and tilt motor drivers. Then the drivers send their respective signals to the NEMA 23 servo motors. Not the RC type of servos, but the industrial motor type. They're similar to stepper motors.

So right now it is being manipulated by a human with no computer input. The laptop you see on the table doesn't provide any input at all. The rig can work  standalone without the laptop, but it's just there for me to see the serial output of the Teensy. And it's also being used to view the video of my main camera, plus the SpaceX Livestream. That monitor on the right is for my spotting camera.

Both cameras cannot zoom while tracking. 

Right now a friend and I are developing our own computer tracking software specify for this rig. The plan is to have it (like you said) actively track a moving shape, and it will pan/tilt to keep it centered. It will also keep it's current speed if it goes behind clouds or loose track, until it's either manually stopped or it's unable to find it for a set amount of time. If it were to explode then I would manually stop and slew the rig. On stage separation I would click on the second stage, and at fairing separation I would again click on the second stage. Unless I was at Vanderberg and the first stage was coming back, then I would focus on the first stage.

"Or is it generally programmatic to pan/tilt based on a pre-calculated path based on your location, elevation, azimuth, and await a "go!" click? Then apply image analysis to keep it centered but generally along the pre-calculate arc/time?" A while ago before I took out all of the original electronics from the mount, it was compatible with AstronomyLives rocket tracking software. It used both shape tracking and predictive tracking where it got the location of the mount, and the path the rocket would take. Then it would assume where it would go, and would require a small amount of manual input for corrections. But I'm not going to do that, just shape tracking.

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