A computer-driven astronomical telescope guidance and control system with superimposed star field and celestial coordinate graphics display.

摘要

A Telescope Graphics Display System (TGDS) was proposed which fully integrates a computer into the operation of an astronomical telescope. A prototype was constructed to demonstrate the feasibility and utility of two key novel features: (1) the real-time display of star fields in the vicinity of the telescope field of view, and (2) the real-time display of symbols representing celestial objects, and other data, superimposed upon the actual images in the telescope eyepiece. To our knowledge, this is the first system proposed to perform these functions. A variety of applications are proposed, ranging from training observers to performing measurements. The prototype was successfully tested under actual observing conditions.