Known by their characteristic mounting solution, Dobsonian telescopes are the standard in amateur astronomy due to their lower cost and ease-of-use. But after seeing how some of the larger, motorized telescopes at observatories can simply pivot to a target of interest, one member from the FabLab at Orange Digital Center Morocco wanted to add this functionality to his own hobbyist telescope.

The base of the telescope guidance system was made by cutting a large disk from a sheet of plexiglass on a laser cutter and then wrapping it in a timing belt for setting the azimuth (yaw). Once mounted, a 3D-printed set of gears, along with some bearings, were attached to one side in order to provide the altitude adjustments. Each axis is moved by a single stepper motor and accompanying A4988 stepper driver, and both plug into an Arduino Nano.

Over on the controls side of the project, an interface was added that gives the user two buttons, an analog joystick, and an LCD screen at the top. With it, they can select between three different modes. In offline mode, locations that have been preloaded into the other Nano can be chosen as the target, while any arbitrary location can be sent via serial from a host PC in online mode. Finally, the joystick can be used in manual mode to move anywhere.

To read about this project in more detail and see some of the incredible photos that were captured, you can visit its write-up here on Instructables.