Thanks, this is interesting! I work at JHU/APL where there are people that do similar stuff, although I don't personally. The APL Astronomy Club is actually in the midst of trying to get some of our unused scopes & equipment in better shape and possibly put to use so I'm thinking about ways to automate things. Plus I'm not happy with the state of data processing for amateurs, it seems like everything is bespoke and old freeware or expensive software packages. That is what got me thinking about how the pros do things. Looking forward to your email!