Is there such a thing as a CGI scope for EQMOD Simulator?

[BrendanC]

Hi all,

On Wednesday I'm giving a virtual presentation, taking some people on a Zoom tour of the skies.

I've done it before 'live' - as in, sharing my screen during the Zoom session, actually slewing the scope to objects in APT, showing Stellarium to indicate where the scope is, and taking shots, which I then shared with them afterwards. It went really well as a live session, mainly because we did it at very short notice when I realised we had a small window in the weather and we were up and running in minutes.

However, this one is a scheduled talk, this Wednesday, and the weather (as always) is forecast to be terrible. So, no live scope, but I've been looking into the EQMOD Simulator. It works well in Stellarium - I can show exactly where the scope is, and show it slewing to different objects.

This is actually good enough as it introduces a bit of 'virtual realism' to the proceedings. However, it would be even cooler if there were some sort of CGI scope I could also hook up to the simulator, by which I mean, a small 3D graphic of the scope, that I could have in the corner of the screen, that slews as the real one normally would. I've looked around and can't find anything, but I could be using the wrong search terms.

Obviously it would be even cooler if such a thing were to exist that could let me choose the mount and scope! So I could pick an NEQ6 mount, and a 130PDS scope, and that would slew, while the crosshair slews in Stellarium.

Any ideas? I'm sure I've seen something like this before but cannot find anything.

Thanks, Brendan

Edited January 25, 2021 by BrendanC

[BrendanC]

This is probably what I once saw, looks like it's nothing to do with EQMOD.

https://www.siriusimaging.com/Help/APCC/threed_scope_editor.htm

Would be cool if there was something though, or if this could be made to work with it.

[Merlin66]

There's a little program from the OnStep designers called TeleViz, (https://onstep.groups.io/g/main/search?q=televiz) this interacts with EQMOD/ CdC to show the telescope moving and repositioning.

It can be re-configured to match your actual scope.

 

TeleViZ_053.zip

[BrendanC]

Thanks! Looks promising. I don't currently have CdC installed, although I used to. I guess that, even if this doesn't work directly with Stellarium, I might be able to run CdC in the background to power the graphics.

Although AVG has blocked the executable unfortunately, for it to be 'thoroughly examined' in their 'Threat lab'.

Hopefully when the Threat lab has done its thorough examination I'll be able to use it...!

[BrendanC]

It worked! First time!

Works perfectly off the EQMOD simulator, so that's communicating with TeleViz and Stellarium. Slew to an object, and I can watch it gracefully slide across the sky in Stellarium, while the scope graphic also slews. 

Absolutely what I was after and it should make a huge difference to the session.

Thank you so much!