NIGHTWATCH

Autonomous Maksutov-Newtonian Observatory System

Voice-controlled telescope observatory designed for central Nevada dark sky installation. Combines optics excellence with modern automation and local AI inference — no cloud dependency, full local control.

Project Status: v0.1 development in progress — core services implemented. See the Full Build Specification for hardware details.

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v0.1 Quickstart

Get started with NIGHTWATCH in under 5 minutes:

# Clone and setup
git clone https://github.com/THOClabs/NIGHTWATCH.git
cd NIGHTWATCH
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r services/requirements.txt

# Run tests to verify installation
pytest tests/unit/ -v

# Start with simulators (no hardware required)
python -m nightwatch.cli --simulate

Voice Commands (examples):

• "Slew to Andromeda"
• "What's the current position?"
• "Park the telescope"
• "What's the weather like?"
• "Watch for meteors tonight"

See docs/QUICKSTART.md for detailed setup instructions.

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Key Components

Component	Description
Optical Tube	Intes Micro MN76 (178 mm f/6 Maksutov-Newtonian, sometimes designated MN78) — hand-figured Russian optics renowned for planetary contrast
Mount	DIY harmonic drive German Equatorial Mount — smooth, backlash-free tracking
Controller	OnStepX on Teensy 4.1 — mature, community-supported open-source control
Weather	Ecowitt WS90 weather station + AAG CloudWatcher — comprehensive environmental monitoring
Edge AI	NVIDIA DGX Spark — local voice pipeline and automation, zero cloud latency

Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         NIGHTWATCH System                           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                     │
│  ┌─────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌───────────────────┐    │
│  │   Voice     │     │   Safety     │     │    Observatory    │    │
│  │  Pipeline   │────▶│   Monitor    │────▶│     Services      │    │
│  │ (DGX Spark) │     │              │     │                   │    │
│  └─────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └───────────────────┘    │
│        │                    │                       │              │
│        │              ┌─────┴─────┐                 │              │
│        ▼              ▼           ▼                 ▼              │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌──────────┐ ┌─────────┐    ┌────────────┐        │
│  │  Whisper  │  │ Weather  │ │  Cloud  │    │   Mount    │        │
│  │   STT     │  │ Station  │ │ Watcher │    │  Control   │        │
│  └───────────┘  │ (WS90)   │ │  (AAG)  │    │ (OnStepX)  │        │
│        │        └──────────┘ └─────────┘    └────────────┘        │
│        ▼                                           │              │
│  ┌───────────┐                              ┌──────┴──────┐       │
│  │   Piper   │                              │   Intes     │       │
│  │   TTS     │                              │  MN76 OTA   │       │
│  └───────────┘                              │  + Camera   │       │
│                                             └─────────────┘       │
│                                                                    │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Design Methodology: Panel of Specialists

NIGHTWATCH uses an innovative Panel of Specialists (POS) framework — a simulated 30-day design retreat where 12 domain experts collaboratively refine every aspect of the system.

Specialist	Domain	Contribution
Howard Dutton	OnStepX Firmware	Mount control, encoder integration
Damian Peach	Astrophotography	Imaging workflow optimization
Yuri Petrunin	Russian Optics	MN76 thermal management
Michael Clive	NVIDIA AI	DGX Spark voice pipeline
C.W. Musser	Harmonic Drives	Precision mount mechanics
Alec Radford	Speech Recognition	Whisper STT integration
Michael Hansen	Voice Synthesis	Piper TTS deployment
Antonio García	Weather Sensing	Safety interlocks
Richard Hedrick	Precision Mounts	Frame design, FEA
Craig Stark	Autoguiding	PHD2 integration
Bob Denny	Integration	ASCOM/ACP standards
SRO Team	Remote Ops	Power/network resilience

This multi-perspective deliberation process produces robust designs with documented reasoning. See pos/README.md for the full methodology.

Repository Structure

NIGHTWATCH/
├── docs/research/          # Research documentation and sourcing
├── firmware/onstepx_config/ # OnStepX controller configuration
├── pos/agents/             # POS retreat simulation personalities
├── services/               # 14 observatory microservices
│   ├── mount_control/      # Telescope mount interface
│   ├── camera/             # Imaging and capture
│   ├── weather/            # Environmental monitoring
│   ├── safety_monitor/     # Automated safety systems
│   ├── ephemeris/          # Celestial calculations
│   ├── meteor_tracking/    # Fireball/meteor monitoring
│   └── ...                 # guiding, focus, astrometry, etc.
└── voice/                  # Voice control pipeline
    ├── stt/                # Speech-to-text (Whisper)
    ├── tts/                # Text-to-speech (Piper)
    └── tools/              # Telescope voice commands

Requirements

Hardware

• NVIDIA DGX Spark (or compatible CUDA-enabled device)
• Teensy 4.1 microcontroller
• Ecowitt WS90 weather station
• AAG CloudWatcher cloud sensor

Software

• Python 3.11+ (3.12 also supported)
• OnStepX firmware
• CUDA toolkit (for DGX Spark inference)

Installation

Quick Start (Development)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/THOClabs/NIGHTWATCH.git
cd NIGHTWATCH

# Create a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies in order
pip install -r services/requirements.txt    # Observatory services
pip install -r voice/requirements.txt       # Voice pipeline
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt         # Development tools

# Install pre-commit hooks (recommended)
pre-commit install

Using pyproject.toml (Alternative)

# Install core package only
pip install -e .

# Install with all optional dependencies
pip install -e ".[all]"

# Install specific features
pip install -e ".[services]"    # Observatory services
pip install -e ".[voice]"       # Voice pipeline
pip install -e ".[dev]"         # Development tools

Verify Installation

# Run tests
pytest

# Check linting
ruff check .

# Check types
mypy nightwatch/

Documentation

Document	Description
Quickstart Guide	Get up and running quickly
Installation	Full installation instructions
Configuration	System configuration reference
Voice Commands	Complete voice command reference
Hardware Setup	Hardware connection guide
Build Specification	Complete build spec — optics, mount, electronics
Panel of Specialists	Design methodology and expert panel

Roadmap

• Complete optical tube assembly sourcing
• Finalize harmonic drive mount design
• Build OnStepX controller assembly
• Deploy weather monitoring station
• Integrate voice pipeline with observatory services
• First light at Nevada dark sky site

License

This project is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

You are free to share and adapt this material for non-commercial purposes, with attribution and under the same license terms.

See LICENSE for full details.

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Contributing

Contributions, feedback, and ideas are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Whether you're experienced with OnStepX, astrophotography automation, or edge AI — we'd love to hear from you.

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_{NIGHTWATCH: Where Russian optics meet Nevada skies.}