Neal -

As usual, in an attempt to be brief, Bob Denny is doing his product a
disservice...

The ACP is such a powerful and versatile program that it is difficult to
categorize - people tend to see the voice recognition and say, "That's
cool", and not realize just how powerful and flexible it is. Some of the
features are as follows:

Keypad functions: the ACP provides access to LX200 keypad functions (e.g.
slew rate, movement, and a particularly well-done GOTO dialog).

Alignment Wizard: Mr. Denny has done an excellent job on the startup and
alignment procedures for either Alt-Az or Equatorial mode; each step is
explained, with check lists. The iterative method used for attaining polar
alignment works very well. If you set up your LX200 at a variety of sites,
you will particularly appreciate the ability to enter as many sites as you
like; a simple mouse click synchronizes the LX200 clock to your PC.

Smart Search: the LX200 has a FIND feature, which searches the database for
nearby objects (i.e. near to where the telescope is pointed). The user can
specify a range of parameters to limit the search. It also has a FIELD
function, which displays a list of objects currently in the field of view.
These features appear to be seldom used, even by experienced LX200 users.
The ACP provides a simple interface to perform these searches. Release of
the ACP last year helped to identify a bug in the LX200 firmware (the
so-called "Bermuda Triangle" bug): if a FIELD command is issued when the RA
is greater than about 23 1/2 hours, some LX200's crash, requiring a
complete reset. Until Mr. Denny released the ACP, very few LX200's had ever
responded to a FIELD command. For those LX200's that exhibit this behavior,
Mr. Denny has included a check box to turn this option off.

Voice recognition: the program not only responds to user voice commands
(e.g. "Go to Mars" or "Go to M-101"), it also announces objects visible in
the eyepiece based on the current field of view (e.g. telescope/eyepiece
combination). This is, needless to say, a big hit at star parties.

Interfacing to other software: the ACP currently interfaces directly to a
variety of astronomy programs, including TheSky, DeepSky 99, Starry Night,
and SkyMap Pro. (Starry Night will even display the field of view for the
optics currently set in the ACP)

I use the ACP in conjunction with TheSky; for star parties, I use the Smart
Search, toggling over to TheSky for more information about a potential
target. Guests are always impressed when the telescope not only slews to
your selected target, but announces the object when the slew is completed!

What I find most impressive is that Mr. Denny has created an object that
encapsulates the functionality of the LX200. Users can now write anything
from simple scripts to extensive programs that access the LX200 without
having to get down to the hardware level. I have been playing with some
trivial scripts and am amazed at the power that resides here! Work load
permitting, I will post some of these scripts here or on my web site soon.

Obviously a very satisfied customer...

Wes Erickson

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