11/20/2006 Hand Me the NexRemote, Please

Well I finally did it. In the true spirit of ultimate laziness, I am sitting in my living room, controlling the telescope outside as it faithfully images the Pleiades.
Is this as fun as sitting in the cold, looking through an eyepiece? No way. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that can compare with sitting under the starlit skies and pondering the mysteries of the universe. And let's face it, I could just as easily simply download a pretty picture of M45, in fact probably one much prettier than I'll ever produce, for a lot less hassle.
But there is a certain thrill to the engineering aspect of this hobby, an excitement that comes from managing all sorts of little details and getting them to actually work as one cohesive unit. It's fulfilling to see the scope alignment go smoothly, to get the robofocuser to fine-tune the FWHM, to see the pixels light up on the monitor after the ccd image downloads. I have not counted but I'm guessing there are hundreds of unique little tasks that must come together properly before the first image is taken.
So tonight I added a few more, first by figuring out how to get the hand control of the telescope to run on the computer using Celestron's NexRemote software, then by working out an internet remote control program called LogMeIn to allow me to retreat to the comfy chair in the living room. I'm typing this on the kids' homework computer, but actually I'm remotely typing it on the laptop outside (which is chained up and alarmed just in case). Meanwhile I'm watching MaximDL manage the camera, running TheSky, Outlook, and a few other odds and ends.
Surprisingy there does not seem to be a noticeable speed decrease. The first few images of M45 have come up and all looks well - the autoguider is tracking nicely, especially after turing on the PEC correction curve from last night's PEMPro run on the CGE mount.
Cool stuff, all this technology, but I have to be careful. The stars will keep shining down outside, and there are plenty of other photon-lovers to take my place with the Seven Sisters if I don't show up in the crisp dark night. Plus, I'd hate to become a couch-potato!