Celestial Telescope

Abstract

To assist a user in making various decisions and performing operations for highly accurate introduction and tracking of a celestial body, in an astronomical telescope having a rotation drive mechanism for a telescope barrel for automatically capturing a target celestial body within the field of view of the telescope and a control device for controlling the drive mechanism, without connecting a special device to the telescope control device. [Solution] A digital camera 1 that moves in unison with the movement of the telescope T is attached to the telescope, and the telescope is driven by instructions to steer its field of view towards the target coordinates. The camera also captures an image in the direction the telescope is pointed and the image is analysed to identify the pointing coordinates that will actually be introduced into the field of view of the telescope. The error between the target coordinates and the pointing coordinates is calculated, and if the desired pointing accuracy is not achieved, a re-introduction operation to the target coordinates is performed, and the telescope is pointed precisely towards the target coordinates.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a celestial telescope, and more particularly to a celestial telescope having a rotation drive mechanism for a telescope tube to automatically capture a target celestial body into the field of view of the celestial telescope and a control device for controlling the drive mechanism.

Background Art

[0002] Hitherto, when the target coordinates are specified, the control device of the celestial telescope has basically calculated the driving amount based on mechanical accuracy and directed the telescope in that direction. Further, after the celestial body is introduced, in order to accurately track along the diurnal motion of the celestial body, the mechanical accuracy has been improved so that precise driving can be performed.

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Disclosure of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] However, with the above method, sufficient required accuracy has not been obtained.

[0005] The reasons include unacceptable deviations caused not only by mechanical accuracy but also by the density of the atmosphere and the non-constant motion of the earth itself with respect to pointing accuracy.

[0006] Also, in tracking celestial bodies, performance that is difficult to achieve only by improving mechanical accuracy is required, and errors resulting from the motion of the atmosphere and the earth itself, like pointing accuracy, affect it, so tracking with sufficient accuracy has not been possible.

[0007] Of course, in order to solve these problems in celestial body photography, after pointing the telescope at the target coordinates, the user has taken an image using the camera attached to the telescope, and identified the coordinates of the center of the field of view taken by comparing the obtained image with the celestial body database. Then, using those coordinates as the current pointing coordinates of the telescope, a procedure of driving it again towards the target coordinates has been followed. For this purpose, separately from the telescope driving device, a computer, a camera, and dedicated camera control software and software for coordinate calculation have been prepared, necessary parameters have been set, and in many cases, it has been necessary to connect to the telescope control device etc. every time an observation is made.

[0008] Also, in celestial body tracking, a small camera with a dedicated photographic lens has been mounted on the telescope, a computer incorporating dedicated software for achieving precise tracking with that camera has been connected, and further connected to the telescope control device. The change in the position of the stars in the image taken by this camera has been detected, and based on that, an instruction for performing drive control has been sent to the telescope control device to improve the tracking accuracy. Also in this case, necessary parameters have been set, and in many cases, it has been necessary to connect to the telescope control device etc. every time an observation is made. Also, a series of operations such as starting a separate system and selecting the stars to be detected have had to be performed by the user at least every time the celestial body to be observed changes. Especially when performing high-precision tracking, the appropriate ON / OFF of that function has to be carried out. For example, when pointing the telescope at the target coordinates, this operation has to be turned off, etc., and appropriate judgment and operation by the user have been required.

[0009] On the other hand, in celestial body observation, operations in severe environments such as working in the dark, late at night, time operations, or operations in extremely cold conditions are required, so there has been a situation with a very high possibility of misjudgment, misoperation, etc.

[0010] Therefore, if misjudgment or misoperation occurred, it would lead to redoing the operation or failure to obtain celestial observation data. In particular, since the target is a natural phenomenon, there are cases where the data acquisition cannot be redone, which becomes a major problem.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0011] The invention of the present application was created in view of the above problems of the prior art. By attaching a digital camera that moves integrally with the movement of the astronomical telescope to the telescope and incorporating it as part of the telescope control device, without connecting special equipment to the telescope control device, the telescope control device replaces various judgments and operations that the user has been performing for high-precision celestial body introduction and tracking, thereby assisting the user's judgment so that misjudgment or misoperation does not occur.

[0012] That is, the astronomical telescope of the invention of the present application is an astronomical telescope having a rotation drive mechanism of the telescope barrel for automatically capturing a target celestial body into the field of view of the telescope and a control device for controlling the drive mechanism. A digital camera that moves integrally with the movement of the telescope is attached to the telescope. When the telescope is driven by an instruction to introduce the field of view to the target coordinates, the camera takes an image of the direction in which the telescope is pointed and analyzes the image to identify the pointing coordinates actually introduced into the field of view of the astronomical telescope, calculates the error between the target coordinates and the pointing coordinates, and performs a re-introduction operation to the target coordinates when the required pointing accuracy is not reached, and is characterized by accurately pointing the telescope at the target coordinates.

[0013] Further, the invention described in claim 2 is characterized in that, in the above astronomical telescope, the digital camera is attached to the declination axis end of the telescope.

[0014] Further, in the astronomical telescope according to claim 3, when there is a deviation between the pointing direction of the camera and the pointing direction of the telescope, a reference celestial body is introduced into the telescope in advance, and alignment of the camera and the telescope is performed by comparing with the captured image by the camera at that time, so that even if there is a deviation in the pointing direction between the telescope and the camera, the telescope can be accurately pointed at the target coordinates.

[0015] Further, in the astronomical telescope according to claim 4, after pointing the telescope at the target coordinates, photographing by the camera is repeated, and the driving control of the telescope is automatically performed so that the detected star image stays on a certain coordinate of the captured image.

Advantages of the Invention

[0016] According to the device of the present application, without increasing the mechanical processing accuracy, and without the user adding a special device to the astronomical telescope control device and making any judgment for the operation from those operations and the obtained information, the tracking accuracy of the telescope and the introduction accuracy of celestial bodies can be significantly improved. Thereby, the user's incorrect operations and incorrect judgments can be significantly reduced, and the loss of observation data due to them can be prevented. Of course, since it is not necessary to attach or adjust the equipment every time it is used, it becomes possible to start actual observations earlier.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0017]

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0018] Hereinafter, a specific embodiment of the astronomical telescope of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a view omitting the barrel portion of the astronomical telescope T, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the control system. This astronomical telescope T has a rotation drive mechanism for the declination axis 3 and the right ascension axis 4 and a control device for controlling the drive mechanism. The declination axis motor 3A for driving the declination axis 3 and the right ascension axis motor 4A for driving the right ascension axis 4 are controlled by the astronomical telescope control device 2, and the camera 1 is also simultaneously controlled by this astronomical telescope control device 2.

[0019] In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the camera 1 and its related control functions may be integrated into another camera control unit 1B and function as an integrated control device by connecting to the astronomical telescope control device 2 by an electrical signal. Of course, it may be a connection by an electromagnetic signal instead of a connection by an electrical signal.

[0020] The camera 1 is a digital type having an imaging element 1A such as a CCD and is attached to the end of the declination axis 3 so that the pointing direction of the telescope can be known. Its position is preferably on the telescope side at the end of the declination axis 3 as shown in FIG. 1, but it may be on the opposite side. There are already mounts with small cameras attached at such positions, but they are not integrated like the present invention and need to be connected to an external computer or the like for control, which is completely different from the present invention.

[0021] The basic procedure of the control system of the astronomical telescope of the present invention will be described according to the flowchart of FIG. 4. When the power is turned on, the astronomical telescope control device in the present invention starts driving the telescope and tracks a star like a general astronomical telescope control device (steps S1, S2). Furthermore, imaging is performed by the incorporated camera 1 and the image is analyzed (steps S3, S4). It is determined whether there is a star image in the obtained image, and if not, imaging is repeated until a star image is obtained (step S5). Once a stellar image is obtained, its position is memorized. While continuously repeating the shooting, the deviation of the image position is detected with reference to the position of the first stellar image, and a correction amount is calculated to perform drive correction of the telescope (Steps S3 and S4).

[0022] As described above, based on the image obtained at this time, it may be collated with the stellar database 6 built in the astronomical telescope control device to determine the current pointing direction of the telescope. If the stellar database cannot be built in the astronomical telescope control device, if it is an astronomical telescope control device capable of connecting to the Internet N, it may be collated with a similar database 7 on the Internet (see Fig. 2).

[0023] When an operation is performed by the manual operation panel of the telescope (hereinafter referred to as the handbox 5), the drive correction of the telescope is stopped, and when the operation of the handbox is completed, the detection of the stellar image is performed again and the drive correction is restarted. Since there is a delay of several hundred milliseconds or more in the detection of the stellar image and the restart of the drive correction for identifying the completion of the operation of the handbox 5, it may be considered completed simply when the operation button is released.

[0024] Next, when the user gives an instruction to introduce the target celestial body, after the pointing to the calculated coordinates by the astronomical telescope control device 2 is completed, the stellar image is detected, collated with the built-in stellar database 6, and the current pointing direction of the telescope is determined. The error from the target pointing direction is recalculated, and the astronomical telescope control device drives according to the amount, so that the telescope can be controlled to the more accurate target pointing direction.

[0025] At this time, when shooting is performed again to obtain the pointing direction and calculate the error from the target, if the required pointing accuracy is not obtained, the above process may be repeated until the required pointing accuracy is achieved. On the other hand, if the detection of the stellar image cannot be performed by shooting due to the influence of clouds or the like, it may be determined that it is facing the target pointing direction after a certain period of time, or feedback may be given to the user by means of a display or sound indicating that the pointing direction lacks accuracy. After the above introduction is completed, as described above, shooting may be repeated again to perform drive correction.

Explanation of Symbols

[0026] T Celestial Telescope 1 Camera 1A Image Sensor 1B Camera Control Unit 2 Celestial Telescope Control Device 3 Declination Axis 3A Declination Axis Motor 4 Right Ascension Axis 4A Right Ascension Axis Motor 5 Handbox 6 Star Database 7 Star Database

Claims

1. An astronomical telescope having a telescope rotation drive mechanism for automatically capturing a target celestial body within the telescope's field of view and a control device for controlling the drive mechanism, wherein a digital camera that moves in unison with the movement of the telescope is attached to the telescope, the telescope is driven in response to an instruction to introduce the field of view to the target coordinates, and the camera takes an image in the direction the telescope is pointed and the image is analyzed to identify the pointing coordinates that will actually be introduced into the telescope's field of view, calculate the error between the target coordinates and the pointing coordinates, and if the desired pointing accuracy is not achieved, a re-introduction operation to the target coordinates is performed, thereby pointing the telescope to the target coordinates with high accuracy.

2. 2. The astronomical telescope of claim 1, wherein the digital camera is attached to the declination end of the telescope.

3. An astronomical telescope as claimed in claim 1 or 2, in which, when there is a misalignment between the pointing direction of the camera and the pointing direction of the telescope, a reference celestial object is introduced into the telescope in advance, and the camera and telescope are aligned by comparing the image captured by the camera at that time, making it possible to point the telescope to the target coordinates with high precision even if there is a misalignment between the pointing directions of the telescope and the camera.

4. 3. An astronomical telescope according to claim 1, wherein after the telescope is pointed at the target coordinates, photographing is repeated using the camera, and the telescope is automatically controlled so that the detected star images remain on fixed coordinates in the photographed images.

5. 4. An astronomical telescope according to claim 3, wherein after the telescope is pointed at the target coordinates, photographing with the camera is repeated and the telescope is automatically controlled so that the detected star images remain on fixed coordinates in the photographed images.

Images