NexPlane can drive your telescope quickly, possibly in directions you do not expect. Though it makes an effort to avoid pointing at the Sun, you could easily misconfigure NexPlane (or it could suffer a catastrophic failure) such that this might happen anyway. Pointing a telescope at the Sun is very dangerous and could permanently damage your vision (or your telescope)! It is your responsiblity to remain aware of the locations of the Sun and your telescope at all times and take whatever steps are necessary with your equipment to avoid disaster. Additionally, many telescopes may not be able to point in certain directions without having parts of themselves collide, possibly causing damage. NexPlane has no way to know which directions these are, so you must be careful about this as well. Do not let NexPlane run unattended.
NexPlane comes with absolutely no warranty, and use of NexPlane is entirely at your own risk.
NexPlane can help you drive a Celestron or Sky-Watcher telescope mount to track airplanes and satellites. See the Requirements section for a list of supported models.
In order to track airplanes, you will need a source of live data about airplanes near you in SBS-1 (BaseStation) format. An easy way to generate such data is with an ADS-B radio receiver and Dump1090.
In order to track satellites, you will need recent TLE files downloaded from CelesTrak. These will
be read by satellites.py, which will then emit SBS-1 (BaseStation) format data so that NexPlane
can pretend that they are very fast, very high altitude airplanes.
Because all the software elements communicate over the network, you may place them on separate
computers if you wish. Though technically you could place some of them in the cloud or otherwise
disperse them across the Internet, you should probably try to keep them all close together to
minimize latency. Furthermore, none of the communication between the pieces of NexPlane is
authenticated, so it would be your responsibility to figure out how to keep hooligans from
comandeering your telescope. Personally, I run telescope_server.py on a Raspberry Pi
connected to my telescope mount, and everything else on a laptop, with the two communicating
directly by Wi-Fi.
- Linux
- Your Linux distro's GLUT package (on Ubuntu that's
libglut-dev, on Arch that'sfreeglut). - Python 3.11 or later, and the Pip packages spelled out in
requirements.txt. Python 3.10 may work, but has not been tested. Python 3.9 or earlier will not work. Check your python version withpython3 --version. - A supported Celestron or Sky-Watcher Go-To telescope mount.
- If you want to look at airplanes: an ADS-B receiver and antenna.
The following telescope mounts have been tested and shown to work.
- Celestron mounts
- NexStar SE mount for the 8SE and 6SE models
- Sky-Watcher mounts
- AZ-EQ6 PRO, but only with motor controller firmware version 3.39 or later.
- AZ-GTi. Probably also requires motor controller firmware version 3.39 or later.
These models are likely to work, but have not been tested. If you have one and it works, please let me know so I can add it to the list above.
- Celestron mounts that have a NexStar hand controller attached to them with a cable.
- Advanced VX series (aka AVX)
- CGEM II series
- CGX
- CGX-L series
- CPC Deluxe HD series
- CPC series
- LCM series
- NexStar Evolution series
- NexStar SE mount for the 5SE and 4SE models
- NexStar SLT series
- SkyProdigy series
- Sky-Watcher mounts that have a SynScan hand controller attached to them with a cable,
and motor controller firmware version 3.39 or later.
- CQ350 PRO
- EQ3 PRO
- EQ5 PRO
- EQ6 PRO
- EQ6R PRO
- EQ8 PRO
- EQM-35 PRO
- HEQ5 PRO
- Virtuoso
- Sky-Watcher mounts that connect to a smart phone by Wi-Fi. They probably also require
motor controller firmware 3.39 or later.
- AZ-GTiX
- Star Adventurer GTi
These models are probably not going to work without modifications to NexPlane. If you have such a mount and are willing to experiment, open a GitHub issue and if I have time I might be able to help you. No promises.
- Celestron mounts that connect to a smart phone by Wi-Fi.
- Astro Fi series
- Origin
These models may never work, but you're welcome to try.
- Sky-Watcher mounts for which motor controller firmware version 3.39 or later is not available.
They will probably move, but they will not be able to smoothly track moving targets.
- AllView
- AZ SynScan
- AZ-EQ5 PRO
- Sky-Watcher mounts which do not appear to have full Go-To capability
(but I've never tested them myself).
- Star Adventurer
- Star Adventurer Mini Wi-Fi
You will need to set up a Python virtualenv and install the required packages.
$ python3 -m venv venv
$ . venv/bin/activate
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
Begin by configuring NexPlane with your current location. NexPlane comes with a file called
config_default.yaml, which you may examine to see the configuration syntax and the default
values of things. You will want to create a new file in the same directory called config.yaml
in which you override anything in the default configuration that does not apply to you.
NexPlane will read both files when it starts up, so you don't need to copy everything from
config_default.yaml. To set your current location, put something like this in config.yaml:
locations:
home:
lat_degrees: 38.879084
lon_degrees: -77.036531
alt_meters: 18.0
location: home
You can verify that this worked and see how your new config.yaml file was combined with
config_default.yaml by running dump_config.py:
$ ./dump_config.py
gains:
kd: 0.1
ki: 0.1
kp: 1.0
hootl: false
landmark: null
location: home
locations:
griffith:
alt_meters: 346.0
lat_degrees: 34.118874
lon_degrees: -118.300536
hollywood_sign:
alt_meters: 481.0
lat_degrees: 34.134046
lon_degrees: -118.321633
home:
alt_meters: 18.0
lat_degrees: 38.879084
lon_degrees: -77.036531
mt_wilson:
alt_meters: 1742.0
lat_degrees: 34.222901
lon_degrees: -118.062696
mount_mode: altaz
sbs1_servers:
- localhost:30003
- localhost:40004
serial_port: auto
telescope_protocol: nexstar-hand-control
telescope_server: localhost:45345
tle_files:
- tle/visual.txt
- tle/stations.txt
The simplest way kick the tires is a pure software test (no telescope or other hardware attached). Start by downloading some TLE files from CelesTrak:
$ cd tle
$ ./fetch.sh
$ cd ..
This will download several interesting collections of satellite data for you to play with,
and store them as .txt files in the tle/ directory. Now you can start up satellites.py,
a server that will compute the current trajectories of satellites. It will publish them on TCP
port 40004.
$ ./satellites.py
Listening on port 40004
In a separate terminal, start up nexplane.py in Hardware Out Of The Loop (HOOTL) test mode.
This will act as though it is controlling a real telescope, but in fact it will only control a simulation.
$ . venv/bin/activate
$ ./nexplane.py --hootl
It will open a window that looks like this:
This is an equirectangular projection of the sky. The horizon is the green line at the bottom. The top of the screen is straight up. South is in the middle, and North is at the sides. The current position of the telescope is the red cross with a circle around it. Satellites appear as white crosses with labels. Airplanes (if you connect an ADS-B receiver) are the same but blue. Coloration is determined by altitude.
The Sun and Moon are drawn too, with big yellow circles around the Sun to help you judge when
you're getting dangerously close. An important safety feature of NexPlane is that if your telescope
strays into the yellow circles around the Sun, NexPlane will immediately stop the telescope and
will refuse to move it. You will have to use your telescope's hand controller to move your telescope
away from the Sun (because you don't have a physical telescope in HOOTL, your only recovery option
will be to restart nexplane.py).
To being tracking a target, click on it. It will turn orange, and the telescope will move
towards it. You will also notice a lighter orange cross appear nearby. The white, blue, or orange crosses
indicate the last known positions of targets, updated whenever nexplane.py receives an update
from dump1090 or satellites.py. The lighter orange cross indicates the current estimated
position, based on the last known position, the last known velocity, and how old the data is.
This is where the telescope will point.
Once the telescope is pointed near the target, you may then apply manual corrections with the keyboard, as described in the next section.
These are the most frequently used buttons:
| Button | Effect |
|---|---|
| Left mouse | Begin tracking target |
| Escape | Stop tracking target |
| w or k | Small manual correction up |
| s or j | Small manual correction down |
| a or h | Small manual correction left |
| d or l | Small manual correction right |
| W or K | Large manual correction up |
| S or J | Large manual correction down |
| A or H | Large manual correction left |
| D or L | Large manual correction right |
| q or o | Reset manual corrections |
Note that up and down correspond to elevation above the horizon and left and right correspond to azimuth. This is true no matter whether your mount is in alt/az mode or equatorial mode. For example, if you have an equatorial mount, pressing "W" will apply an offset in both right ascension and declination in order to achieve the correction you specified in elevation.
There are also buttons for adjusting the PID controller gains, which you can experiment with if the default gain set is not to your liking. Whenever you make an adjustment the PID controllers will reset any controller wind-up and the new gain set will be printed to the console.
| Button | Effect |
|---|---|
| r | Increase proportional gain by 0.01 |
| f | Decrease proportional gain by 0.01 |
| t | Increase integral gain by 0.01 |
| g | Decrease integral gain by 0.01 |
| y | Increase differential gain by 0.01 |
| u | Decrease differential gain by 0.01 |
Once you find a gain set you like, you can add it to config.yaml.
gains:
kp: 1.0
ki: 0.1
kd: 0.1
How you attach your telescope mount to your computer depends on the kind of mount you have.
- If you have a Celestron mount with a NexStar hand controller, connect the hand controller to your computer with a USB cable (or on very old models, a serial cable).
- If you have a Sky-Watcher mount, you have several choices:
- Connect the mount head (not the SynScan hand controller) to your computer with a USB cable.
- Unplug the SynScan hand controller and plug your computer into the hand controller port on the mount head, using an appropriate cable (sometimes known as an "EQMOD dongle"). How to buy or build such a cable is beyond the scope of this document.
- If your mount has Wi-Fi, connect your mount and computer to the same Wi-Fi network and determine your mount's IP address. Sky-Watcher's network protocol is unreliable, so this option may cause more jittery control than the others.
Set the telescope_protocol option in your config.yaml file to describe how you connected
your telescope to your computer:
telescope_protocol: nexstar-hand-control
Valid values are:
nexstar-hand-controlis the default, so if you have a Celestron mount then no configuration is needed.skywatcher-mount-head-usbskywatcher-mount-head-eqmodskywatcher-mount-head-wifi
Now, unless you are connecting directly to your mount head with Wi-Fi, run this on the computer with the telescope mount attached:
$ ./telescope_server.py
Celestron and Sky-Watcher mounts plug into your computer using either a serial port (older models) or a USB port
(newer models). However, even the newer models are just connecting a serial port emulator chip,
so from the software's perspective it's always just a serial port. By default, telescope_server.py
assumes that you are using a USB telescope and that your telescope is the only USB serial device
connected. As such, it scans through /dev/ttyUSB0 to /dev/ttyUSB9 and picks the first device
it finds. If you wish to override this behavior to pick (for example) /dev/ttyS0, you may put a
line like this in config.yaml:
serial_port: /dev/ttyS0
or you may specify this on the command line:
$ ./telescope_server.py --serial-port /dev/ttyS0
Running telescope_server.py will start a server on port 45345 that provides clients the ability
to send serial commands to the telescope and receive responses. This is not necessary if you are
connecting directly to your mount with Wi-Fi.
Once this is running, restart nexplane.py without the --hootl option, and it will attach to
the server and command the telescope.
$ ./nexplane.py
Note that mounts typically store alignment data in the hand controller, not the mount head. If you are using a Sky-Watcher mount and have therefore bypassed the hand controller, your telescope will not be correctly aligned. You must follow the steps in the Landmark alignment section.
If you have an equatorial mount, you must specify this in config.yaml:
mount_mode: eq
or you may specify this on the command line:
$ ./nexplane.py --mount-mode eq
If nexplane.py and telescope_server.py are running on separate computers, then you will
have to tell NexPlane where to find the telescope server. You can do this by putting something
like this in config.yaml:
telescope_server: 192.168.0.5:45345
or you may specify this on the command line:
$ ./nexplane --telescope 192.168.0.5:45345
Note that in the case of separate computers, both computers should have the same config.yaml file.
Similarly, if you are using Wi-Fi to connect to your telescope, you must specify the IP and port
of your mount head in the telescope_server config field. If your Sky-Watcher mount is operating
in access point mode, its IP address will probably be 192.168.4.1. Sky-Watcher mounts accept
connections on port 11880.
telescope_server: 192.168.4.1:11880
If you have an ADS-B radio receiver, you can run
Dump1090, and nexplane.py will consume data from it
just like it will from satellites.py. dump1090 will output data on port 30003 by default,
and nexplane.py will look for this.
$ ./dump1090 --net
If nexplane.py and dump1090 are running on separate computers, then you will have to tell
NexPlane where to find dump1090. You can do this by putting something like this in
config.yaml:
sbs1_servers:
- 192.168.0.6:30003 # dump1090
- localhost:40004 # satellites.py
or you may specify this on the command line:
$ ./nexplane.py --sbs1 192.168.0.6:30003 --sbs1 localhost:40004
The usual way to align your telescope mount (if it's a Celestron) is with its built in alignment routines (SkyAlign, Auto Two-Star Align, etc.). These work fine in many conditions, but if none of the required celestial objects are visible, or if you're using a Sky-Watcher mount, NexPlane presents you with another option.
If you can see a landmark on Earth with a known latitude, longitude, and altitude,
add it to config.yaml, like so:
locations:
home:
lat_degrees: 38.879084
lon_degrees: -77.036531
alt_meters: 18.0
washington_monument:
lat_degrees: 38.889475
lon_degrees: -77.035243
alt_meters: 190.0
location: home
Now point your telescope at that landmark, and then tell nexplane.py that you have done so
when you start it up.
$ ./nexplane.py --landmark washington_monument
Alternatively, if you can see a star or planet, tell nexplane.py that you're pointing at
that. Using stars as landmarks requires an internet connection to look them up:
$ ./nexplane.py --landmark sky:jupiter
$ ./nexplane.py --landmark sky:sirius
$ ./nexplane.py --landmark sky:betelgeuse
The offset between the known azimuth and elevation to that landmark and the reported azimuth and elevation from the telescope will be recorded and compensated for. This is similar to performing a One-Star Align.
If you quit NexPlane then it can by annoying to point your telescope back at the landmark
before you start it again. To simplify this, you may instead run align.py to record the
offset between the position reported by the telescope mount, and the position of the
landmark. The information is saved to a file of your choosing, specified by the
--alignment option.
$ ./align.py --landmark washington_monument --alignment align.yaml
Now you can pass the --alignment option to nexplane.py, and it will load the saved
offsets. This way you can restart nexplane.py as many times as you like without pointing
the telescope back at the landmark if you leave the mount powered on. If you power off
the mount then the alignment data is invalidated.
$ ./nexplane.py --alignment align.yaml
NexPlane probably contains bugs. It has not been tested by a large number of people or on diverse mount hardware. If it doesn't work for you, try reading through the code and making experimental changes to locate the problem. Diagnostic print statements are your friends!
One source of trouble in my experience has been unreliable networking. NexPlane makes a basic effort to tolerate network issues, but if you have a drop out for more than a second or two things are liable to go haywire. Running everything on one computer should fix most problems in this area. Wired networks are also likely to be more reliable than Wi-Fi.
Another source of trouble is the CPU overloading. I have tried to optimize things well enough to avoid this on my hardware, but if your computer is slower than mine you may run into trouble. Further optimization is certainly possible. An important sign that NexPlane is running up against the limits of your CPU is if one or more cores is running at 100% utilization (meaning that NexPlane is not taking any time to rest between cycles).
Command line options allow you to override most settings in config.yaml on a one-time basis.
The default values for command line options are sourced from the config file, and so will
be different if you have changed the configuration from the default.
$ ./nexplane.py --help
usage: nexplane.py [-h] [--config CONFIG] [--hootl] [--no-hootl] [--bw]
[--white-bg] [--location LOCATION] [--alignment ALIGNMENT]
[--landmark LANDMARK] [--telescope TELESCOPE]
[--mount-mode MOUNT_MODE]
[--telescope-protocol TELESCOPE_PROTOCOL] [--sbs1 SBS1]
Helps you track airplanes and satellites with a Celestron NexStar telescope mount.
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--config CONFIG Specify an additional config file to be read that takes
priority over config.yaml and config_default.yaml. This
option can be provided multiple times, causing multiple
config files to be read, with later ones taking priority
over earlier ones. These config files may alter the
defaults for other command line arguments, in effect
serving as customized short-hand for complex argument
combinations.
--hootl Do not connect to a real telescope, but instead run an
internal simulation of the telescope. This is useful for
testing.
--no-hootl Opposite of --hootl. This is the default
--bw Make the display black and white (this is useful for
increasing contrast when operating in direct sunlight).
--white-bg Make the display background white (this is useful to read
more easily on dimmer screens when operating in direct
sunlight).
--location LOCATION Where are you? Pick a named location from your config file
(default: griffith)
--alignment ALIGNMENT
File storing telescope alignment data, created by align.py
and read by nexplane.py. (default: None)
--landmark LANDMARK If it is not possible to use the telescope's internal
alignment functions (perhaps because it is cloudy), you
can manually point the telescope at a location listed in
your config file, and then start this program with the
--landmark option specifying where the telescope is
pointed. The offset between the known location and the
telescope's reported position will be recorded and
compensated for. (default: None)
--telescope TELESCOPE
The host:port of the telescope_server.py process, which
talks to the telescope mount (default: localhost:45345)
--mount-mode MOUNT_MODE
Type of telescope mount, either altaz or eq. Default:
altaz
--telescope-protocol TELESCOPE_PROTOCOL
Which protocol to use to talk to the telescope (default:
nexstar-hand-control)
--sbs1 SBS1 The host:port of an SBS1 server for airplane data. You can
specify this argument multiple times in order to receive
data from multiple servers. (default: localhost:30003,
localhost:40004)
$ ./telescope_server.py --help
usage: telescope_server.py [-h] [--config CONFIG] [--hootl] [--no-hootl]
[--serial-port SERIAL_PORT]
[--network-port NETWORK_PORT]
[--telescope-protocol TELESCOPE_PROTOCOL]
[--location LOCATION] [--mount-mode MOUNT_MODE]
Exposes the telescope serial interface on the network.
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--config CONFIG Specify an additional config file to be read that takes
priority over config.yaml and config_default.yaml. This
option can be provided multiple times, causing multiple
config files to be read, with later ones taking priority
over earlier ones. These config files may alter the
defaults for other command line arguments, in effect
serving as customized short-hand for complex argument
combinations.
--hootl Do not connect to a real telescope, but instead run an
internal simulation of the telescope. This is useful for
testing.
--no-hootl Opposite of --hootl. This is the default
--serial-port SERIAL_PORT
Which serial port to use (default: the first port it finds
between /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB9.)
--network-port NETWORK_PORT
Which network port to use (default: 45345)
--telescope-protocol TELESCOPE_PROTOCOL
Which protocol to use to talk to the telescope (default:
nexstar-hand-control)
--location LOCATION Where are you? Pick a named location from your config file
(default: griffith)
--mount-mode MOUNT_MODE
Type of telescope mount, either altaz or eq. Default:
altaz
$ ./satellites.py --help
usage: satellites.py [-h] [--config CONFIG] [--location LOCATION] [--port PORT]
[tle_files ...]
Consume TLE files that you downloaded from CelesTrak, and emit SBS-1 data that
nexplane.py can consume in order to point at satellites.
positional arguments:
tle_files TLE files to consume (default: tle/visual.txt,
tle/stations.txt)
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--config CONFIG Specify an additional config file to be read that takes
priority over config.yaml and config_default.yaml. This
option can be provided multiple times, causing multiple
config files to be read, with later ones taking priority
over earlier ones. These config files may alter the
defaults for other command line arguments, in effect
serving as customized short-hand for complex argument
combinations.
--location LOCATION Where are you? Pick a named location from your config file
(default: griffith)
--port PORT Port to run the SBS-1 server on (default: 40004)
$ ./align.py --help
usage: align.py [-h] [--config CONFIG] [--hootl] [--no-hootl]
[--location LOCATION] [--alignment ALIGNMENT]
[--landmark LANDMARK] [--telescope TELESCOPE]
[--mount-mode MOUNT_MODE]
[--telescope-protocol TELESCOPE_PROTOCOL]
Tool for creating saved alignment files that can be loaded by nexplane.py in lieu
of landmark alignment.
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--config CONFIG Specify an additional config file to be read that takes
priority over config.yaml and config_default.yaml. This
option can be provided multiple times, causing multiple
config files to be read, with later ones taking priority
over earlier ones. These config files may alter the
defaults for other command line arguments, in effect
serving as customized short-hand for complex argument
combinations.
--hootl Do not connect to a real telescope, but instead run an
internal simulation of the telescope. This is useful for
testing.
--no-hootl Opposite of --hootl. This is the default
--location LOCATION Where are you? Pick a named location from your config file
(default: griffith)
--alignment ALIGNMENT
File storing telescope alignment data, created by align.py
and read by nexplane.py. (default: None)
--landmark LANDMARK If it is not possible to use the telescope's internal
alignment functions (perhaps because it is cloudy), you
can manually point the telescope at a location listed in
your config file, and then start this program with the
--landmark option specifying where the telescope is
pointed. The offset between the known location and the
telescope's reported position will be recorded and
compensated for. (default: None)
--telescope TELESCOPE
The host:port of the telescope_server.py process, which
talks to the telescope mount (default: localhost:45345)
--mount-mode MOUNT_MODE
Type of telescope mount, either altaz or eq. Default:
altaz
--telescope-protocol TELESCOPE_PROTOCOL
Which protocol to use to talk to the telescope (default:
nexstar-hand-control)
If you are making changes to NexPlane, or you are having trouble and want a more complete check that the software is good independently of your physical telescope mount, you can run the full HOOTL test suite.
This will run the MyPy static type checker for Python, and then start NexPlane over and over again in a variety of configurations. For each such test, the NexPlane window will open up and you can interact with it. When you close the window, NexPlane will start again with a different configuration. There are currently 12 such tests.
$ ./run_test.py
TEST 0: MyPy
mypy dump_config.py nexplane.py rpc_client_test.py rpc_server_test.py run_test.py satellites.py skywatcher_wifi_hootl.py telescope_server.py
Success: no issues found in 8 source files
TEST 1: NexStar mount in Alt-Az mode
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./nexplane.py --hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol nexstar-hand-control --mount-mode altaz
Listening on port 40004
New connection
TEST 2: NexStar mount in Equatorial mode
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./nexplane.py --hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol nexstar-hand-control --mount-mode eq
Listening on port 40004
New connection
TEST 3: Sky-Watcher mount with USB in Alt-Az mode
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./nexplane.py --hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-usb --mount-mode altaz
Listening on port 40004
New connection
TEST 4: Sky-Watcher mount with USB in Equatorial mode, Black and white
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./nexplane.py --hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-usb --mount-mode eq --bw
Listening on port 40004
New connection
TEST 5: Sky-Watcher mount with EQMOD, White and black
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./nexplane.py --hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-eqmod --mount-mode eq --bw --white-bg
Listening on port 40004
New connection
TEST 6: Sky-Watcher mount with WiFi, White and color
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./nexplane.py --hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-wifi --mount-mode eq --white-bg
Listening on port 40004
New connection
TEST 7: Server mode - NexStar mount
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./telescope_server.py --hootl --location griffith --network-port 45345 --telescope-protocol nexstar-hand-control --mount-mode altaz
./nexplane.py --no-hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol nexstar-hand-control --mount-mode altaz --telescope localhost:45345
Listening on port 40004
Starting RPC server...
Ready.
New connection
TEST 8: Server mode - Sky-Watcher mount with USB
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./telescope_server.py --hootl --location griffith --network-port 45345 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-usb --mount-mode altaz
./nexplane.py --no-hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-usb --mount-mode altaz --telescope localhost:45345
Starting RPC server...
Ready.
Listening on port 40004
New connection
TEST 9: Server mode - Sky-Watcher mount with EQMOD
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./telescope_server.py --hootl --location griffith --network-port 45345 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-eqmod --mount-mode altaz
./nexplane.py --no-hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-eqmod --mount-mode altaz --telescope localhost:45345
Starting RPC server...
Ready.
Listening on port 40004
New connection
TEST 10: Server mode - Sky-Watcher mount with WiFi
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./skywatcher_wifi_hootl.py 45345
./nexplane.py --no-hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-wifi --mount-mode altaz --telescope localhost:45345
Listening on port 40004
New connection
TEST 11: Server mode, Alignment test - Sky-Watcher mount with USB in Alt-Az mode
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./telescope_server.py --hootl --location griffith --network-port 45345 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-usb --mount-mode altaz
./align.py --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --mount-mode altaz --alignment /tmp/tmpzgt3qpl1/align.yaml
Listening on port 40004
Starting RPC server...
Ready.
./nexplane.py --no-hootl --location griffith --alignment /tmp/tmpzgt3qpl1/align.yaml --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-usb --mount-mode altaz --telescope localhost:45345
New connection
TEST 12: Server mode, Alignment test - Sky-Watcher mount with USB in Equatorial mode
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./telescope_server.py --hootl --location griffith --network-port 45345 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-usb --mount-mode eq
./align.py --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --mount-mode eq --alignment /tmp/tmp92q3i1hp/align.yaml
Starting RPC server...
Ready.
Listening on port 40004
./nexplane.py --no-hootl --location griffith --alignment /tmp/tmp92q3i1hp/align.yaml --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-usb --mount-mode eq --telescope localhost:45345
New connection
If you wish to run only a couple particular tests, you may specify which ones on the command line:
$ ./run_test.py 0 4
TEST 0: MyPy
mypy dump_config.py nexplane.py rpc_client_test.py rpc_server_test.py run_test.py satellites.py skywatcher_wifi_hootl.py telescope_server.py
Success: no issues found in 8 source files
TEST 4: Sky-Watcher mount with USB in Equatorial mode, Black and white
./satellites.py tle/geo.txt --location griffith --port 40004
./nexplane.py --hootl --location griffith --landmark hollywood_sign --sbs1 localhost:40004 --telescope-protocol skywatcher-mount-head-usb --mount-mode eq --bw
Listening on port 40004
New connection
All of the tests run satellites.py.
$ ./satellites.py
Some of these tests are the simple HOOTL simulation described above, performed by
passing --hootl on the command line to nexplane.py.
$ ./nexplane.py --hootl
Others are more advanced and test the network connection between nexplane.py
and telescope_server.py. In these tests, nexplane.py doesn't know it's a test:
$ ./nexplane.py
and telescope_server.py is running the simulator:
$ ./telescope_server.py --hootl
There's also a separate simulator that impersonates a Sky-Watcher Wi-Fi mount, used to test that protocol.
$ ./skywatcher_wifi_hootl.py