A fully automated telescope system is operable in both alt-az and equatorial
modes.
In either configuration, the telescope system aligns and orients itself to the
celestial coordinate system following a simplified initialization procedure during
which the telescope tube is first pointed North and then pointed towards the horizon.
A command processor, under application software control, orients the telescope
system with respect to the celestial coordinate system given the initial directional
inputs. The initial telescope orientation is refined by automatically inputting
geographical location data and a timing parameter. A simplified tracking procedure
allows tracking of celestial objects after the telescope system has had its axis
positions initialized to a horizontal and a vertical index. Object tracking is
subsequently performed with no additional orientation procedure required.
