Well...
Imagine combining the thrill of stargazing with the satisfaction of building something from scratch. That's exactly what I've set out to do.
RustyScope is a high-performance, open-source telescope and focuser controller built entirely in Rust, running on the powerful and affordable ESP32 microcontroller. It is fully compatible with the modern ASCOM Alpaca standard, allowing it to be controlled by popular astrophotography software like N.I.N.A., PHD2, and Stellarium right out of the box.
This project was born from a passion for astronomy and a desire to create a truly open, high-precision, and community-driven alternative to expensive, closed-source commercial controllers.
Checkout my journal here - Journal
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RustyScope is packed with features typically found only in high-end commercial mounts:
- High-Precision Tracking: The motion planner uses a high-frequency (5 kHz) interrupt service routine and a 128-bit fixed-point Digital Differential Analyzer (DDA) to achieve incredibly smooth and accurate tracking rates.
- GPS-Disciplined Timing: An integrated GPS module with Pulse-Per-Second (PPS) support is used to continuously discipline the ESP32's internal clock against an atomic time standard. This eliminates tracking errors caused by crystal drift and temperature changes.
- Intelligent GoTo Slewing: A 4-quadrant, shortest-path slew calculator understands the geometry of a German Equatorial Mount, ensuring fast, efficient, and physically correct slews that avoid pier crashes and unnecessary rotations.
- Full Alpaca Compatibility: Provides a built-in web server that implements the ASCOM Alpaca standards for
TelescopeandFocuserdevices, including UDP discovery. It just works. - Robust Multi-Tasking Architecture: Built on FreeRTOS, the system dedicates a full CPU core to real-time motion control, completely isolated from networking and other application tasks for maximum stability.
- "Headless" Operation: The controller is designed to run in a lean, headless mode for maximum reliability. An optional display feature can be enabled for local status monitoring.
- Advanced Pointing Model: The software correctly handles hemisphere-agnostic pole crossing ("pole flips"), ensuring full sky coverage.
- Persistent Configuration: All mount settings are saved to the internal flash filesystem, preserving your calibration across reboots.
- Truly Open Source: Licensed under the MIT, ensuring that the project and any derivatives will always remain free and open for the community to use, modify, and improve.
This project is designed around the affordable and powerful Makerbase MKS DLC32 controller board, which provides an excellent all-in-one platform with integrated stepper drivers, power management, and I/O.
A complete bill of materials and wiring guide can be found in the [Hardware Guide] section of the documentation.
- Microcontroller: ESP32 (Dual Core)
- Motion Control: 74HC595 Shift Register with standard Step/Dir motor drivers
- Timing & Location: u-blox NEO-7M GPS Module with PPS
- Storage: Onboard SPIFFS and external SD Card support
- Display An optional TFT screen for a dashboard (optional - recommnded not to use)
This is a passion project, and contributions are welcome! Whether it's reporting a bug, suggesting a feature, improving the documentation, or submitting a pull request, your help is appreciated.