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Subject: "Home" Command: Update
From: \
Reply To: mapug@shore.net
Date: Tue Jun 18 21:17:44 1996

Tonight I went out to the scope, removed the cover, set the RA to 00HH and
the DEC to 0 degrees, went into the house, turned on the scope power,
waited for the scope to initialize, established communications with
TheSky, updated the computer time with TheSky's Time Service Command,
updated the LX-200 time from TheSky, and slewed to a nearby mag 2.8 star.
Very close to the center of the CCD chip. I SYNCed on the star and the
scope was set for the night. So, I guess it works.

I do find that long slews (like Due South to Due North) are not accurate
enough to land the desired object on the CCD chip (18 arc minutes x 12 arc
minutes), so I usually have to "star hop" across the sky, re-SYNCing on
bright stars along the way. Generally, things start to slip within about
90 degrees. This is true whether I sync manually or with this new
procedure. I think the error is mostly due to the OTA not being perfectly
aligned with the forks and maybe some slight polar alignment error. Also,
I'm still running 3.2 ROMS (six week lead time on 3.34 ROMs!) Does anyone
get significantly better slewing accuracy out there?

By the way, Jerry Gunn points out that while my simulated Home command
works, it is not sufficient for a remotely controlled scope located far
away. If you lose power or telecommunications while operating the scope,
you're in for a car ride to visit your scope. With magnetic switches and
special software, Jerry is able to slew the scope to a known position and
SYNC. Seems like that's the only way to solve the problem for truley
remote scopes.

Dick Green