Future Improvements

The system is not yet perfect. Some improvements for the future are listed in this section. The Compuscope filter wheel can be attached to the Lynxx camera. This has not been done yet, but may be a consideration for the future. The filter wheel also has three empty positions. Additional filters would be useful. Suggestions for H and [OIII] have been made. A bigger screen is required to properly take advantage of the Xterminal capabilities of the PC. A second PC would be useful, since the observer could use the ST-4 to see the guide star as he is imaging with the Lynxx or ST-6. This would prevent lost hours from trying to find the star that the ST-4 was tracking on. A second PC would also allow the filter wheel to be run in a different mode. Presently, the filter wheel is run in a pop-up window mode. This does not tell the operator which filter is in position. The other program with the filter wheel would show that information.

Better reduction and camera software would be an improvement to the current system. A beta test version of new data Acquisition software, called The Sky is on order. More analysis programs that are user friendly would be helpful to the current library. This is being worked on. An upgrade to the WINDOWS operating system would also be helpful. WINDOWS 95 and Windows for Workgroups are capable of more efficient multitasking and faster data transfer rates than currently available under WINDOWS. WINDOWS itself, or any of the upgrades can run more efficiently if the computer had more than 8 megabytes of memory. Sixteen megabytes of RAM is the minimum suggested memory for a machine running the number of processes we expect the machine to be running during data acquisition in the near future (e.g. Windows for Workgroups operating system, SkyPro data acquisition, IDL data analysis, QVTNET FTP utility.)

A final consideration would be electronic setting circles. With these circles, observed could simply align the telescopes, calibrate the circles, and then type in the numbers for the target. This system would make observing a much shorter routine, but the thrill of finding a target is gone.