telescope track

Bruno Tilgner (Bruno_Tilgner@compuserve.com)
Wed, 28 Jul 1999 07:27:06 -0400

Bryan Lowe wrote:

>The only scope I have found so far that can easily track sats is the Meade
>ETX90 and 125.   But now celestron has come out with another scope like the
>ETX series that looks better. The problem is it does not have sat tracking
>ability in its built in computer, but it does allow a computer to control
>the scope through an rs232 port.

The VIXEN SkySensor 2000 PC is capable of tracking satellites. It comes
with two motors which are designed for the VIXEN Polaris mounts, but work
also with some others. The good thing: you don't have to buy a telescope
with it but can use whatever you have.

The database can hold the TLEs of up to 30 satellites. They can be
entered manually, but it is much easier to do it via the serial port
of a PC.


Bruno Tilgner
Paris, France

Bruno_Tilgner@compuserve.com