1. Merop Ciel & Espace meeting 11 & 12 november 2006 www.astrimage.org/merop

2. Merop : What is it ??? Enable to move telescopes (focus, moving) like a hand-controller Compatible LX200 (Meade Protocole) Analog joystick : 64 positions per axis to control the direction of movement and speedin a single gesture Databases of important objects and customizable

3. www.astrimage.org/merop History Summer 2005: First thoughts on the project September/October 2005 : Dévelopment November 2005 : First prototype December 2005 : Management of Messier objects, functional user interface January 2006 : Management of the various modes of communication, 110 Messier objects and 250 reference stars September 2006 : Stabilization of the software and the electronic database NGC functional January 2007 : First order placed

4. www.astrimage.org/merop Project developpment Software developpment entirely axed on a database system Depth mechanical design

5. www.astrimage.org/merop Functionnalities Displacement of the telescope by moving the joystick, configuration of the telescope Customizing speeds on the joystick Supports motors for focus Supports protocol LX200 (Meade GUI Databases : 110 Messier 250 reference stars 7840 NGC Objects Wired communication mode (RS232) Multilingual : English/French, possibility of adding other language

6. www.astrimage.org/merop Future functionnalities Date/Time Sensors end race (Hub Merop) Calculations of corrections: atmospheric refraction, precession, nutation IC Catalog Catalog of standard stars for astrophotography Catalog of custom objects (500 objects)

7. www.astrimage.org/merop Architecture Avery simple architecture! PIC 18F252 at 20MHz Microcontroller Storage on 6 EEProm of 64Ko of databases : objects, GUI

8. www.astrimage.org/merop Merop : simple use Pic-Astro Merop Mount PC One link

9. www.astrimage.org/merop Le Hub Merop Point central de l’interconnexion des équipements du télescope, il gère la communication entre: Pic-Astro (Entraînement) PC HQF (Micro-Autofocuser) Merop (Commande) Roue à filtre

10. www.astrimage.org/merop Le Hub Merop Motofocus Pic-Astro Hub Merop Merop Roue à filtres Monture PC

11. www.astrimage.org/merop Ressources www.astrimage.org/merop

12. Cost of implementation About 70 euros with a high quality housing Allow about 30 euros for Hub Mérop These costs will be reduced through the groupe orders Astrimage

13. www.astrimage.org/merop Demonstration Movements with joystick Synchronisation Goto Declination inversion