"The instrument is the means; the measurement is the point."
Research question: does the measured radiant position and activity rate of the 2026 Geminids match the values predicted by the International Meteor Organization?
Design principle: no purchased GoTo hardware, no third-party plate-solving service.
Heritage-90 OTA on an AS5600-encoded AZ mount, ESP8266 PID controller, Pi HQ camera. Closed-loop pointing, blind plate-solving, real-time frame-difference meteor detection.
Doubles as a mini observatory: the 90mm OTA handles deep-space astrophotography with fine tracking and auto-stacking, while a separate fixed wide-field camera runs meteor detection all night.
Per-session meteor log, radiant convergence, and measured-vs-predicted ZHR curve — compiled and published without manual intervention.
Open parts list, open-source code — built to be reproducible, and extensible to multi-station triangulation.
Request a deep-sky target and the station will slew to it at the right time, image it, stack it, and send the result back to you.
Further project details to follow as the build progresses.