[1.0]CactEye 2 Orbital Telescope BETA 5.2

[Engineer of Stuff]

This is really cool!

[Lornuir]

Don't know if it's worth mentioning and if it is an intended feature, but making observation of planets and transmitting them back to Kerbin completes contracts like "Transmit or recover data from space while orbiting *body*". By the way, i had one active for Jool and was not planning on sending any more probes, so when i saw it completed after a simple observation in the commodity of a Kerbin orbit i was like

[cicatrix]

I have questions:

Do reaction wheels from this mod provide better precision than the stock ones? How many should I install on the telescope? Does position matter?

[RainDreamer]

I have questions:

Do reaction wheels from this mod provide better precision than the stock ones? How many should I install on the telescope? Does position matter?

1.Yes. The reaction wheels strength can be modified on the go when you use the telescope UI. It can be tuned down for much better precision when zoom in really close. Note that at extreme zoom and range, KSP is not handled for such fine movement, and will the telescope still drift a lot.

2. Usually 1 is good enough. Remember that these things has life span, and they will all tick down together if you use many at once.

3. Not really, at least in my experience. Although it may be better to stick to the normal reaction wheel placement and watch its position relative to the COM.

[Tommygun]

I was wondering how well it could handle extrasolar objects.

The star Stella (far right) and three of its four planets at 2 billion kilometers from Kerbin.

I think it did well. The telescope does seem to break down much too quickly, although I may be using it wrong.

Odysseus and one of its moons. It's between the orbits of Duna and Jool.

Another of Odysseus's moons.

[HotSandwich]

I'm getting a similar error as Lorniur, with a dreaded NRE thrown in for good measure:

[LOG 11:56:23.105] CactEye 2: Processor activated! True
[ERR 11:56:45.089] [R&D]: No Experiment definition found with id Default Experiment

[LOG 11:56:45.091] CactEye 2: Exception 4: An error occured producing a science report!
[LOG 11:56:45.091] System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at ScienceSubject..ctor (.ScienceExperiment exp, ExperimentSituations sit, .CelestialBody body, System.String biome) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at ResearchAndDevelopment.GetExperimentSubject (.ScienceExperiment experiment, ExperimentSituations situation, .CelestialBody body, System.String biome) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at CactEye2.CactEyeAsteroidProcessor.DoScience (Vector3 TargetPosition, Boolean IsSmallOptics, Single FOV, UnityEngine.Texture2D Screenshot) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at CactEye2.TelescopeMenu.DrawProcessorControls () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
[ERR 11:56:53.924] [R&D]: No Experiment definition found with id Default Experiment

[Catman2021]

Apologies in advance if this is a stupid or obvious question, but does Cacteye 2 still need Hull cam and KAS to run? Or can it run without those mods installed?

Thank you so much for updating this mod Raven, you're doing great work!!

[RainDreamer]

Apologies in advance if this is a stupid or obvious question, but does Cacteye 2 still need Hull cam and KAS to run? Or can it run without those mods installed?

Thank you so much for updating this mod Raven, you're doing great work!!

Yes. Hullcan for the telescope display, KAS for being able to grab/replace the thingies that you need to conduct experiment.

[a__gun]

Yes. Hullcan for the telescope display, KAS for being able to grab/replace the thingies that you need to conduct experiment.

NO you do not need HullCam

[RainDreamer]

NO you do not need HullCam

oh thought hullcam was what is used for the zooming and display function. Guess I was wrong.

[a__gun]

Used to be - when the new window came in it was dropped as a dependency

[mr_trousers]

This sounds like it could be cool, but... is there anywhere I can get more information on the features? It's a little sparse at the moment, and I'd like to know more before I install.

Also, do you happen to know if this would be compatible with Real Solar System/Realism Overhaul? Does it require the Kerbol system or would it work with all the planets and orbits and distances changed?

[Catman2021]

Thanks guys ! I will download it and KAS then (for some reason, not sure why, I just haven't installed KAS yet).

[SpaceHungryMan]

Also, do you happen to know if this would be compatible with Real Solar System/Realism Overhaul? Does it require the Kerbol system or would it work with all the planets and orbits and distances changed?

Should work fine with RSS. I added a new star and a bunch of planets to my game and CactEye works flawlessly.

[RainDreamer]

This sounds like it could be cool, but... is there anywhere I can get more information on the features? It's a little sparse at the moment, and I'd like to know more before I install.

Also, do you happen to know if this would be compatible with Real Solar System/Realism Overhaul? Does it require the Kerbol system or would it work with all the planets and orbits and distances changed?

You can check the original mod page which lists the features of the mod. Most of them remains the same with the continued version here, except for the occultation processor which is currently not in right now (will return later), and different GUI, and a few more things I probably forgot.

[RainDreamer]

So I was just messing around today with my telescope, and took a pic of the Mun while I have a "collect science from space around the Mun" contract and I got it completed! I didn't think that would work! Even though it makes so much sense, I never once thought that I can collect science data from the moon from just looking at it. This mod is great!

[Woopert]

Alright, time for me to catch up. Does this mod work with Distant Object Enhancements now? In February of last year I used this and DOE in tandem and it was quite fun. I saw on GitHub there was a not about something with compatibility with DOE. The reason I ask is because for 0.24, Rubber Ducky mentioned that the mods were then incompatible.

Cheers, and thanks for keeping this mod going, along with MOARdV for keeping DOE going

[Sigma88]

I'm having some problems with the quality of the images, they don't look anything like what you have in the first post.

the only mods I have that could be interfering with that are EVE/KSPRC and distant object enhancment

do you have any idea of what could be the cause?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/65401284/Duna1y-243d-1h-8m-31s.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/65401284/Jool1y-243d-1h-2m-34s.png

[UnanimousCoward]

Alright, time for me to catch up. Does this mod work with Distant Object Enhancements now? In February of last year I used this and DOE in tandem and it was quite fun. I saw on GitHub there was a not about something with compatibility with DOE. The reason I ask is because for 0.24, Rubber Ducky mentioned that the mods were then incompatible.

Cheers, and thanks for keeping this mod going, along with MOARdV for keeping DOE going

The download includes a folder named "Compatibility Patch for Distant Object v1.5.1". I'd imagine they work fine - I'll find out for sure soon enough in my career game.

[Sigma88]

The download includes a folder named "Compatibility Patch for Distant Object v1.5.1". I'd imagine they work fine - I'll find out for sure soon enough in my career game.

it works fine with distant object, what I cannot make it work with is atmosphere or clods mod, they all make ....ty polygons instead of clouds when you watch from the cacteye

[milbournosphere]

I downloaded this mod, and overall it's superb, but I'm having a REALLY hard time taking photos even of Duna or Eve. I hone in, set the gyro (the advanced model, purple band) to near 0% or at 0%, and once I zoom in enough to actually make out the planet, the sensitivity of the keys is just insane, even with CAPS lock on. I'm finding it very hard to take any decent photos or keep the planet in sight long enough to click the 'generate science' button. Perhaps you could add a key or two to the GUI to allow very fine adjustments?

I have my scope in geosync orbit around Kerbin, at about 30 degrees, with the wide angle 2 processor. I haven't researched the third yet. Would that be why I'm having a hard time?

[Sigma88]

I downloaded this mod, and overall it's superb, but I'm having a REALLY hard time taking photos even of Duna or Eve. I hone in, set the gyro (the advanced model, purple band) to near 0% or at 0%, and once I zoom in enough to actually make out the planet, the sensitivity of the keys is just insane, even with CAPS lock on. I'm finding it very hard to take any decent photos or keep the planet in sight long enough to click the 'generate science' button. Perhaps you could add a key or two to the GUI to allow very fine adjustments?

I have my scope in geosync orbit around Kerbin, at about 30 degrees, with the wide angle 2 processor. I haven't researched the third yet. Would that be why I'm having a hard time?

definitely not, I had the same issues with the final processor

did you turn off other reaction wheels? maybe you have some probe with reaction wheel that is making you turn

I found out that activating SAS and setting it pointing to target helps. mainly because you will see the planet move in the sky so you need to constantly move to keep it in the frame

I've got pretty good pictures of both duna and jool as far as "placement" and "magnification", the clouds on the contrary always look very bad.

I would like to know which mods were used to make the photos in the OP

[milbournosphere]

The only source of SAS is the gyro module. I'm using the slim probe body that came with the mod which, per the part description, has no torque generation. I have been using the SAS target mode to help, but the reticle doesn't always match up with the planet, so that's not always a solution.

[Sigma88]

The only source of SAS is the gyro module. I'm using the slim probe body that came with the mod which, per the part description, has no torque generation. I have been using the SAS target mode to help, but the reticle doesn't always match up with the planet, so that's not always a solution.

that's true, I was thinking about putting the probe on a couple of infernal robotics parts, so you can get the center of the telescope aligned with the planet

(setting the control from the probe instead than from the telescope body)

I never tried, I'll get back to you when I'm done

do you have any clouds mod in your save?

[milbournosphere]

No, no cloud mods. No memory for em!