Meade Instruments Corporation

Stanley H Dewan

Kenneth W Baun

Brian G Tingey

John E Smith

Michael A Wachala

Brent G Duchon

John E Hoot

A telescope system has an intelligent motor controller for accurately controlling telescope position to facilitate location of celestial objects and to precisely control the speed at which the telescope moves to facilitate tracking of celestial objects. An optical encoder utilizes two photodetectors to provide enhanced servo control of the telescope positioning motors, a calibration circuit eliminates a need to test LED's during assembly of the optical encoder and a brushless mount provides electrical communication to an altitude drive motor located in a fork thereof in a manner which mitigates problems due to undesirable wrapping of an electrical cable around the mount as the mount rotates in azimuth.

Telescope system having an intelligent motor controller

A telescope system facilitates easy upgrading from friction lock mounting to manual worm drive, and from manual worm drive to motor drive. Vibration isolation provides a steady field of view for enhanced observation and photography. A telescope mount facilitates enhanced below the horizon and zenith viewing. A tripod has detents which hold the legs thereof in a deployed position during handling of the tripod. A cam lock reliably maintains a desired length of telescoping tripod legs. An X-Y adjustable finder scope facilitates easy alignment thereof with the telescope

Upgradeable telescope system

A fully automated telescope system is able to be fully operable in both Alt-Az and polar configurations. In either configuration, the telescope aligns itself to be celestial coordinate system following a simplified initialization procedure during which the telescope tube is first pointed north and then pointed towards a user's horizon. A command processor, under application software program control orients the telescope system with respect to the celestial coordinate system given the initial directional inputs. The initial telescope orientation may be further refined by initially inputting a geographical location indicia, or by shooting one or two additional celestial objects. Once the telescope's orientation with respect to the celestial coordinate system is established, the telescope system will automatically move to and track any desired celestial object without further alignment invention by a user.

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Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, United States of America

Stanley H Dewan