[Kstars-devel] KStars and remote control

[Jasem Mutlaq]

Hello,

I had the chance today to use Mr. Chitwood's telescope in Florida.

He kindly created a user account for me. I ssh-ed to his machine, and after 
fixing up instllation issues, we started testing the telescope.separationcope 
needed to be aligned first before it can be used. This means that you need a 
human operator at the other end, but the purpose is to permit fully automated 
control. 

But KStars only need to align the telescope once, after alignment is complete, 
the user can use the "Park" command to park the telescope for use on future 
sessions without any human operators at the other end.

Controlling a remote device is quite easy and requires few steps

$ ssh -l loginname -L portNum:local_host:portNum remoteHost

in our session, it was 

$ ssh -l jmutlaq -L 7200:127.0.0.1:7200 CJ_IP_ADDRESS

after I logged in the machine I ran

$ indiserver -p 7200 lx200autostar

Then, back on my machine, I added a new host with Host 127.0.0.1 and port 7200 
and connected! In 2 seconds I was up and running. The telescope crosshair was 
centered on Altair, which is what the telescope was pointing at after the 
alignment.

After few tests, I slewed and tracked Mars. I asked CJ to check what the 
telescope thinks it's tracking, and the telescope said Mars (the telescope 
identifies the nearest object to the current RA, DEC, the reported seperation 
was 0 degrees and 0 minutes.. perfect!).

The results are great and promising, and I'd like to thank CJ Chitwood for his 
valuable time and input regarding this matter!

Clear skies,
Jasem