Electronically Assisted Astronomy Workshop

Following our recent FAS workshops on Telescopes and Astrophotography, we would not like to take our members into the emerging area of “Electronically Assisted Astronomy” or “EAA” for short.

Observational astronomy has starting to shift from the traditional setup where people look through the eyepiece to view celestial objects to something which seems more like a cross between remote observation, astrophotography and computer/smartphone app usage. This is the area of EAA.

While the exact definition of EAA seems to be elusive within the astronomy community, Bobby and team will use this workshop to zone into its benefits, show what options there are and take a deep dive into setting up a typical EAA kit using a small single board computer called a Raspberry Pi.

He will demonstrate how you can use the Raspberry Pi to install an integrated astronomy software called Astroberry which can then be used to remotely control a refractor telescope with an autofocuser that is mounted onto an equatorial go-to mount. For image capture, he will use a CCD guidescope and a DSLR Camera.

At the end of this session, you will gain insights into how you can make simple and relatively cost-effective upgrades to your existing equipment to create a remote-controlled assembly. This will enable your celestial targets to be viewed and photographed from your computer or other devices in the comfort of your home.