We have installed a robotic telescope from scratch at NASA‘s Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC). The telescope can already be remote-controlled during observations and it will be fully-automatic at some point in the future. The new drivers are controled with our new software, this give us complete control, notifications, warnings, etc., in an automate mode.
The MDSCC located in Robledo de Chavela has a new observatory, inside, there’s a new Meade LX 200 optical night telescope equipped with a CCD ready to obtain data from the cosmos.
We were in-charged of the system design and installation of all the equipment. The already operational facilities include weather station, dome, telescope, security system, ccd with filters, main control computer, remote control computer, and other minor devices.
We also designed an integrated control software for the observatory. With a single program you can control:
- Telescope Mount
- CCD
- Weather Station
- Focuser
- Webcams
- Filters Wheel
- Dome
- Lights
- Air Conditioner
- Electrical Installation
Once the installation was completed, we tested the software: we pointed the telescope to different sources and saw it moving with the webcams, we took a few images of different objets testing all the filters and we received data from the weather station (temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind, etc.). Everything worked fine.
