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