Free software from Trefach Astronomy Centre

Hi Ppl

We have released some software packages that I have been developing here
with help from people here at the Trefach Astronomy Centre. Two of the
programs
are astronomy related, when the third is a GPS mapping program.

***

NTC, Network Telescope Control is a program that allows one to slew a
telescope remotely over a network, either a LAN or the Internet. You can
also
control a scope locally.

Someone in Stratford Ontario using NTC was able to focus the camera and slew
a telescope set up here in the Preseli Hills in West Wales. We had to use
Yahoo
messenger to transmit the video from the camera, but we have plans for video
streaming in NTC.

***

Blink Comparator extends the normal functions of a blink comparator by
allowing
many images to be loaded. You can align each image on a reference point,
like a
star or align with a frame that you can resize on a large object like the
Sun or
Moon.

Once the images are aligned they can be exported to disk so that you can use
them to make an animated GIF. Blink won't create animated GIFs but there are
plenty of freeware packages that will.

***

GPS Mapper reads waypoints from a Garmin GPS handset and then you create
shapes or points that can be plotted on a map. You can export the map to a
bitmap on disk.

***

These packages and other information regarding the Trefach Astronomy Centre
can be found at

http://astronomy.crysania.co.uk

Andrew Sprott

Andrew Sprott wrote:


These packages and other information regarding the Trefach Astronomy Centre
can be found at

http://astronomy.crysania.co.uk
Hi Andrew,
I like the idea of a Star party there ! I was trying to get a Pembs.
SP going last year, without a lot of success - and you have access to
some great facilities !

Any dates ?

Steve

Hi Steve


I like the idea of a Star party there ! I was trying to get a Pembs. SP
going last year, without a lot of success - and you have access to some
great facilities !
Any dates ?

We have to discuss this, probably this weekend. But yes,
we have an ideal location and all the facilities here for a star
party weekend.

Is anybody here interested in the idea of a star party in
Pembrokeshire in November?

http://astronomy.crysania.co.uk

Andrew Sprott

Is anybody here interested in the idea of a star party in
Pembrokeshire in November?

Put my name down and I probably could get at least one other possibly 2 from
the St David's area.

Norman

Norman Silverstone wrote:

Is anybody here interested in the idea of a star party in
Pembrokeshire in November?


Put my name down and I probably could get at least one other possibly 2 from
the St David's area.

Norman



Hi Andrew,

Put me down for 4 places please.

Steve

Hi Steve

"Steve Taylor" wrote in message
...
Is anybody here interested in the idea of a star party in
Pembrokeshire in November?


Put my name down and I probably could get at least one other possibly 2
from
the St David's area.

Put me down for 4 places please.

Well, we have now been researching the net for star parties. And things look
pretty
promising. What I am suggesting is that we put out adverts etc, and decide
by a date
in October whether there is enough interest through bookings etc. Otherwise
maybe
start planning for the new year.

We have people here who can do talks, so we are pretty much able to handle
such
an event. What I plan to do over the next few days is to research all the
astro bulletin
boards that seem to be prevailent and work out some kind of advertisiment or
announcement without making it look like spam.

We plan on having our second West Wales Group meeting sometime in October,
maybe you could come along to discuss things.

But for your information we are slowely, like you, developing our astronomy
centre
here. We have a 8 foot diameter dome that needs to be relocated with a
concerete
base with a mount that has to be aqcuired. We have started with 2 8'x8'
concerete
bases, that can be accessed with a path from our Astrovan.

In fact tomorrow I will take photos and send tomorrow evening to give you an
idea
of what we are doing here. You might have heard of Steve Wainwright who has
a
van here. He founded the QCUIAG group in 98 which now has over 5000 members
worldwide

www.qcuiag.co.uk

He, and in fact we, have demonstrated that the kind of results obtained by
multi
million pound hardware can easliy be obtained with cheap off the shelf
products and
imaginatively written software. And these are the kind of topics we can talk
about at
the star party. The point being is we can have just as much fun.

Andrew