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Re: [ATM] Patent Application for an Automatic Telescope
The telescope ought to have some digital imaging device, and if it
receives too much light, it gives an error message saying let's call it
a day...
The whole thing seems possible, but I expect an auxiliary wide-angle
camera that catches a large celestial area in one shot might make more
sense than having the telescope tube sweep the sky.
I have an old 50 mm f/0.7 lens that I haven't yet found any use for -
the true field is about 1/2", and off the cuff this would mean a 15 deg
field or so. It may be useful for such a purpose. Then I expect it
takes a bit of computer processing, but not unreasonably so...
Nils Olof
>>>>This is hilarious and a little interesting at the same time.
Wonder what happens when the dumb user (this is what the invention is
for)
sets up the scope and turns it on in the daytime to watch it work.
Patent Application:
An automatic telescope (10) capable of determining an orientation
without
requiring input from a user or any external source. The telescope (10)
preferably includes a database (22) to store astronomical information,
a
processor (24) to control a drive mechanism (18), a vision device (30)
to
sense bright stars, and a motion sensor (32) to generate a motion
signal.
When the vision device (30) is slewed from alignment with a first
bright
star to a second bright star, the motion signal is preferably
representative
of a measured angle between the first and second bright stars. This
process
is preferably repeated for several bright stars to generate several
measured
angles. The processor (24) can then use the measured angles to
identify the
bright stars and determine the orientation of the telescope (10).
You'll have to unwrap the URL; or you can go to http://www.uspto.gov/
and
select Search; by 'Publication Number Search' and enter 20050225854
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?
Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=
1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050225854%22.
PGNR.
&OS=DN/20050225854&RS=DN/20050225854
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