Portable robotic telescope for the teaching of solar astronomy

Abstract

This work describes a prototype of a miniature robotic telescope, with the didactic purpose of the teaching of solar astronomy, Arduino programming and basic control theory. The telescope is made from low cost components: a 3D printed base that supports a commercial lens (typically used for bird watching and covered with a white-light solar filter). The system is guided by a program that uses the amount of light collected by a set of four light detecting resistors as an input signal to rotate a pair of small stepper motors, pointing the lens towards the Sun. A simple control scheme is implemented for ensuring that the image of the Sun is centered within the frame. The images and video captures of the Sun is collected by a small photographic camera and uploaded to a website.