Python module for LX200 telescope command set

[Alan Kennedy]

[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