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Subject: Re: GOTO Star 902
From: Robert Preston
Reply To: mapug@shore.net
Date: Fri Apr 14 10:44:47 1995

Paul Smith wrote: >... at some point a fanatical LX200
>user will try for Venus during daylight hours and one would hate to have
>the telescope possibly slew through (or to) the sun.

I've been such a "fanatical user" on several occasions! The possible incident that Paul mentions is an additional reason (the manual for the scope gives another) for putting the cover over the corrector plate during daytime slews.

>
>Forgot to mention: After failing to automatically acquire Venus, I sent
>the telescope back to Jupiter. It landed within the relatively small field
>afforded by the Meade 6.4mm Super Pl. eyepiece + f6.3 focal reducer!

I recall a similar thing happening to me, but alas kept no notes. It is possible that this was the time I switched motherboards and failed to correct the date, which is required for planetary ephemerides. It seems possible that your date might have glitched out, which would possibly give a small error for the outer planets and a large error for venus at the same time (??). Venus is usually found quite accurately with my ver 3.2, so your problem is not a completely general one.

R. A. Preston Pittsburgh, PA 79deg 54' 41" W 40deg 28' 11" N rapr@med.pitt.edu