Telescope
While most everyone else is at TPC, I am at home playing with the new 60mm telescope my wife bought me. It's way cool. Aside from the regular stuff, it has a computer so it can automatically find celestial objects, and you can hook that computer up to your PC and control it with the included software.
The CD even comes with ActivePerl (yes, it's Windows; I am running it under Virtual PC), to script the telescope, but the software is only scriptable for a certain number of days before you have to pay. Well, if I am able to hook it up to my Mac and control it via Virtual PC, I might do that at some point. For now, I am just learning to use the thing.
It also comes with an "electronic" eyepiece, for plugging the telescope into a video source, like a video camera or TV. So I can sit in my living room, control the telescope from the computer, and watch it on TV. OK, that's all a bit too perverse.
I can see me spending a lot of money on eyepieces and such for this thing. Gotta take it slow. :-)
The CD even comes with ActivePerl (yes, it's Windows; I am running it under Virtual PC), to script the telescope, but the software is only scriptable for a certain number of days before you have to pay. Well, if I am able to hook it up to my Mac and control it via Virtual PC, I might do that at some point. For now, I am just learning to use the thing.
It also comes with an "electronic" eyepiece, for plugging the telescope into a video source, like a video camera or TV. So I can sit in my living room, control the telescope from the computer, and watch it on TV. OK, that's all a bit too perverse.
I can see me spending a lot of money on eyepieces and such for this thing. Gotta take it slow. :-)
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
Leave a comment