Satellite Tracking Telescope

Sept. 2022 - Present (Work in Progress)

I got the idea for this project when I was gifted a telescope for my birthday. While trying to use it, I was having difficulty making fine adjustments to the azimuth and elevation. The hardware provided with the telescope had too much play, and it was near impossible to settle on one object. Then, in a few minutes, you'd have to re-adjust the telescope again, and the issue would once again present itself. I felt there had to be a better way, and then the idea was born.

To automate the adjustment of the azimuth and elevation angles, I chose Nema 17 stepper motors for their high torque and high precision. Each stepper motor is also equipt with a 100:1 gearbox to ensure the motors have no issue rotating the heavy telescope. Each motor is driven by a driver that allows for micro-stepping. This was done to give the user/computer an even finer adjustment of azimuth and elevation. Each motor is set to a micro step of 800, meaning the usual 1.8-degree rotation of the shaft per step has been reduced to 1.8/800 degrees per step. Once the gearbox is taken into account, this leaves a control resolution of 0.0000225 degrees per step.

The motors are controlled using an Arduino Nano for the logic, and a 12-volt power supply for the power. For manual control, there is a 10K potentiometer that adjusts the sensitivity of the movement, and four buttons to allow for control of the telescope. For object tracking, the object's TLE and the current epoch time must be input into the Arduino's code beforehand, then tracking mode must be enabled. An LCD is wired to the Arduino to provide the user with relevant information. This display tells the user how to switch between tracking and manual mode, which mode the telescope is currently in, and how to use tracking mode. It does this through a series of menus. Besides the use of libraries, all software to operate the telescope was custom coded in the Arduino IDE.

To design the software, a prototype of all electronic components was put together and tested. Once all components and software were finalized, a custom printed circuit board (PCB) was designed and ordered. As of now, I am waiting on the arrival of the PCB. Once it arrives, all components will be soldered, a housing will be 3D printed to hide any exposed electronic components that aren't necessary for operation, and the telescope will be ready for final testing.