[RayS] > I've begun a Python module to provide a complete interface to the Meade > LX200 command set:
and > History: after searching for such a thing, I had found only: > http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:hOgO7H_MUeYJ:phl3pc02.phytch.dur.ac.uk/~jrl/source/source_code.html+lx200.py&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 > > > from University of Durham, but the code is not available... > and > http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/projgalileo/lx200/lx200.py?rev=1.4 > from the Galileo project, but which only has a subset and is aimed at > their needs, mostly. Some of the Galileo code looks useful, and so I > might want to make use of at least some of the methodology, even if only > to get their interest as well. Do you know about ASCOM? "The primary goal of the ASCOM Initiative is to provide software driver technology that will help bring about a rebirth of science in amateur astronomy by making instruments scriptable via standard low-level scripting interfaces." http://ascom-standards.org/faq.html IIUC, ASCOM is a set of Windows COM objects which provides a standardised API for controlling telescopes. Since it uses Windows COM, you should be able to control it easily from python using the excellent win32 extensions. Python for Windows Extensions http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/ From this page http://ascom-standards.org/nr-11Jun01.html comes the statement """ Telescopes currently supported are the Meade LX200 and Autostar, Celestron NexStar, Vixen SkySensor 2000, Software Bisque Paramount (via TheSky), a number of mounts that support subsets of the LX200 serial protocol (Astro-Physics, Bartels, etc.), and many research-grade telescopes that use the Astronomy Control Language (ACL). Products that support telescope control via ASCOM are Starry Night by SPACE.com, MaxIm DL V3 by Cyanogen Productions, and ACP2 by DC3 Dreams. """ HTH, -- alan kennedy ------------------------------------------------------ email alan: http://xhaus.com/contact/alan -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list