Automated altazimuth mount for a 6-inch Newtonian telescope

Date

3-2006

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics

College

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Jeremy Delfin B. Paycana

Abstract

An automated altazimuth mount was constructed for a 6-inchi77 Newtonian telescope in order to provide automatic tracking and finding capabilities. The actuation system for this telescope mount consists of a wormwheel and worm configuration on the altitude and azimuth axes where the worm on each axis was driven by a VEXTA 5-Phase Stepping Motor Model PK543BU-TG7.2. These motors require the Super VEXTA 5-Phase Driver Model UDK5114N to operate. A Zilog Encore! Z8F6401 DIP (dual in-line package) microcontroller (MCU) was used to output active-low pulses to the CW (clockwise) and CCW (counterclockwise) pulse signal input terminal of the 5-phase driver to control the rotation of the motors. Using RS232 communication the MCU was interfaced serially to a personal computer and via UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) the MCU reads and decodes the 56-bit instruction sent serially by the tracking software developed by Alexander Benjamin G. Flor Jr (2006). The automated altazimuth mount together with the control module was integrated with Flor's tracking software during the testing and evaluation phase. The results of the tests showed that the three fabrication errors A, A', and A" of the telescope mount were calculated to be -1.1440°, -2.1045°, and -0.4807°, respectively, and the average pointing error of the automated telescope was 11.1 arcmin. Results also showed that the automated telescope was not suitable for exposure astrophotography. However, the automated telescope can precisely find and track stellar objects under low magnifications; hence this can be used for visual observation of bright stellar objects.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

Thesis

Document Type

Thesis

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