Richard is a software engineer and hobbyist designer with a passion for astronomy, vintage electronics, and unusual form factor computers.
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When stargazing, amateur astronomers need to know what their telescope is looking at in the vast darkness of space, yet this is easier said than done. “Finding very small and dim objects in the night sky can be challenging, historically requiring paper charts and a good working knowledge of the constellations,” Richard Sutherland explains.
There are, however, newer ways to determine a telescope's position and find objects. “There are computerised pointing systems that rely on rotary encoders mounted securely to a telescope mount,” Richard continues. “They monitor a telescope's movement and extrapolate where it is pointing from this information, but they can be difficult to add to a…
