Look into the crystal ball.. What comments will there be on this forum 1 year from now?
In the moment, ASA's direct drive / encoder mount technology has bested the competition, but how much long-term value does it bring to its owners? Are direct drive motors, encoders, and outstandingly useful software programs the high point in mount technology? What else must one consider besides the technology and implementation?
I'm assuming that most Astro-imagers have been around the block a few times, have had experience with multiple mounts, and are wondering what lies ahead. I've moved from a photo-tripod to an alt-az, to a fork, to a go-to, to a 'clock driven' goto, to a GEM, to a better GEM... and now I want my ultimate mount. Coming from an AP900 owner, that's a pretty lofty goal.
Where is the intersection of Innovation, Value, and Usability? What is the ASA competitive position, or more precisely, what things do ASA mounts do better than the rest, and where could it improve? As a Software Engineer by trade, I have analyzed and coded hundreds of systems, and found the following factors critical in long-term system viability:
1) The implementors must have a deep understanding of the domain; e.g, Astronomy and Imaging. No questions here. 2) The solution must automate and/or significantly simplify the most difficult and challenging aspects of the system. In this case, this would translate into a simple, near flawless polar alignment, and the creation, execution, and application of a model applied to both pointing and tracking. Again, from what I gather, A+ for ASA here. 3) The users should be assured of a constant evolution of the system - a committment from the vendor - to protect the investment by offering incremental improvements to the system as technology progresses. Nothing comes free; other vendors charge a yearly subscription... I thnk it would be a win-win.
Some significant non-functional requirements would be things like convenience, flexibility, quality, and 'robustness'. Since most of the bases seem to be addressed by ASA in spades, I'd like to discuss convenience.
If I were anointed "King for the Day at ASA", I would ask my engineers to produce a 'black box' interface to plug into the mount. This box might even look suspiciously like the one that "other" European mount-maker produces. It could be differentiated by not only containing the physical interfaces (focuser, power, ethernet, USB, etc), but also CPU, network capabilites, and secondary storage. In essence, a computer without a monitor. No ugly arrows here... It would contain all of the 'backend' programs contained in Autoslew, Maxim, and Sequence, but the 'inteface' would be via bluetooth to an iPad! Essentially, it would be the 'server' that the iPad 'client' would use to communicate with the mount.
The iPad client app might have big buttons with captions like "Polar Align", "Tune Mount", "Take Image", "Configure Black Box", "Diagnostics", "Balance Mount", "GoTo Object", "Maintain Observing List", etc. Again, all of the logic, even secondary storage such as flash drives, stored images, program logic ... Bluetooth, WiFi, etc... all on the black box, except for the Graphical interface.
I sent an email to ASA and was told that, at the very minimum, a tablet implementation was 'in the plans.' I have also seen posts stating that Dr. Keller expends a significant amount of time and effort in a labor of love to keep his software relevant, correct, and up to date... so maybe this post is unnecessary. I'm sure ASA and Dr. Keller have thought about this a few times.
While the 'other guys' are busy creating bulky hand-held, wired devices to allow non-laptop use, ASA could again 'hop' ahead of the competition; perhaps leaving them so far behind the war would be over!
Think of it!..
1) Setup mount physically 2) Plug in the black box, enable blue-tooth. 3) Click your iPad Icon to connect. 4) Click "Polar Align", "Tune Mount", then "Create Model" and you are ready to go.
You might even be able to have a "Quick Visual Setup" mode, where you use an illuminated reticle eyepiece to quickly create your configuration for the night. I don't have a crystal ball, but wouldn't it be fun if next year, everyone would be griping about "When will the Android version of the Software be released?"
Am I just "moonstruck?" Am I mad? Do I have a new disease called 'equatorial fever?"
Question
destrehandave
Look into the crystal ball.. What comments will there be on this forum 1 year from now?
In the moment, ASA's direct drive / encoder mount technology has bested the competition, but how much long-term value does it bring to its owners? Are direct drive motors, encoders, and outstandingly useful software programs the high point in mount technology? What else must one consider besides the technology and implementation?
I'm assuming that most Astro-imagers have been around the block a few times, have had experience with multiple mounts, and are wondering what lies ahead. I've moved from a photo-tripod to an alt-az, to a fork, to a go-to, to a 'clock driven' goto, to a GEM, to a better GEM... and now I want my ultimate mount. Coming from an AP900 owner, that's a pretty lofty goal.
Where is the intersection of Innovation, Value, and Usability? What is the ASA competitive position, or more precisely, what things do ASA mounts do better than the rest, and where could it improve? As a Software Engineer by trade, I have analyzed and coded hundreds of systems, and found the following factors critical in long-term system viability:
1) The implementors must have a deep understanding of the domain; e.g, Astronomy and Imaging. No questions here.
2) The solution must automate and/or significantly simplify the most difficult and challenging aspects of the system. In this case, this would translate into a simple, near flawless polar alignment, and the creation, execution, and application of a model applied to both pointing and tracking. Again, from what I gather, A+ for ASA here.
3) The users should be assured of a constant evolution of the system - a committment from the vendor - to protect the investment by offering incremental improvements to the system as technology progresses. Nothing comes free; other vendors charge a yearly subscription... I thnk it would be a win-win.
Some significant non-functional requirements would be things like convenience, flexibility, quality, and 'robustness'. Since most of the bases seem to be addressed by ASA in spades, I'd like to discuss convenience.
If I were anointed "King for the Day at ASA", I would ask my engineers to produce a 'black box' interface to plug into the mount. This box might even look suspiciously like the one that "other" European mount-maker produces. It could be differentiated by not only containing the physical interfaces (focuser, power, ethernet, USB, etc), but also CPU, network capabilites, and secondary storage. In essence, a computer without a monitor. No ugly arrows here... It would contain all of the 'backend' programs contained in Autoslew, Maxim, and Sequence, but the 'inteface' would be via bluetooth to an iPad! Essentially, it would be the 'server' that the iPad 'client' would use to communicate with the mount.
The iPad client app might have big buttons with captions like "Polar Align", "Tune Mount", "Take Image", "Configure Black Box", "Diagnostics", "Balance Mount", "GoTo Object", "Maintain Observing List", etc. Again, all of the logic, even secondary storage such as flash drives, stored images, program logic ... Bluetooth, WiFi, etc... all on the black box, except for the Graphical interface.
I sent an email to ASA and was told that, at the very minimum, a tablet implementation was 'in the plans.' I have also seen posts stating that Dr. Keller expends a significant amount of time and effort in a labor of love to keep his software relevant, correct, and up to date... so maybe this post is unnecessary. I'm sure ASA and Dr. Keller have thought about this a few times.
While the 'other guys' are busy creating bulky hand-held, wired devices to allow non-laptop use, ASA could again 'hop' ahead of the competition; perhaps leaving them so far behind the war would be over!
Think of it!..
1) Setup mount physically
2) Plug in the black box, enable blue-tooth.
3) Click your iPad Icon to connect.
4) Click "Polar Align", "Tune Mount", then "Create Model" and you are ready to go.
You might even be able to have a "Quick Visual Setup" mode, where you use an illuminated reticle eyepiece to quickly create your configuration for the night. I don't have a crystal ball, but wouldn't it be fun if next year, everyone would be griping about "When will the Android version of the Software be released?"
Am I just "moonstruck?" Am I mad? Do I have a new disease called 'equatorial fever?"
What do you think?
Thanks for listening...
Destrehan Dave
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