Sky-Watcher/Papymerlin Panorama Robot

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Below is a demonstration by Aaron Estrada of his panoramic Sky-Watcher/Papymerlin Panorama Robot. The system is based on a Sky-Watcher alt-azimuth non-goto telescope mover with a shutter release port built right in to the the head. The head is controlled wirelessly via a Papymerlin serial to bluetooth adapter module, all controlled via a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet (very neat):



Aaron states that the kit, all-in, is still less expensive than any other dedicated panorama robot on the market yet in many ways more flexible. For example, it can be programed to do custom shooting patterns, "gigapans" and even time-lapse. The software has a great GUI and integration on the N810. On top of it all, the Papywizard software is open source and written in Python, so if one has the chops they can hack it to customize it anyway they like.

You can see more of his panoramas here: 360cities.net/profile/hyperfocus, the majority of Aaron's panoramas are usually produced with Virtual Sets and Image Based Lighting in mind. As a result, most of the his panoramas are available as floating point HDR images.

We like this a lot, especially the bluetooth link to the N810 and the results speak for themselves.