Patent ID: 7769475

Claim:
An automatic introduction apparatus for automatically introducing a target celestial object by controlling a rotation of an astronomical telescope around at least two axes, said apparatus comprising: an image-capturing means, which is adapted to capture an image of a celestial object at a plurality of focal distances; a celestial object database; and a celestial object identification means for identifying celestial objects which images have been captured by said image-capturing means, by comparing said images of celestial objects captured by said image-capturing means with a set of celestial object information in said celestial object database, wherein said automatic introduction apparatus is configured to perform an alignment process for defining a set of coordinate transformation information of a coordinate system in said astronomical telescope relative to a celestial coordinate system comprises an automatic routine including: (a) capturing an image of celestial objects by said image-capturing means which is set at a predetermined focal distance; (b) identifying a celestial object in said celestial object image; (c) correcting said coordinate transformation information based on the position information of said identified celestial object; and (d) determining if said identified celestial object is introduced into a center of field in the captured image with a sufficient precision; (e) controlling a rotation of said astronomical telescope so that said celestial object is introduced into a center of field in the captured image if said identified celestial object is not introduced with the sufficient precision, and ending said automatic routine if said identified celestial object is introduced with the sufficient precision; (f) shifting the focal distance of said image-capturing means to a longer focal distance for a more telescopic side; and (g) capturing an image of said celestial object by said image-capturing means which is set at said longer focal distance, wherein the steps (b) to (g) of said automated routine are repeated, until said automated routine is ended in the step (e).