On Monday, March 21, 2016 at 9:04:29 PM UTC-5, Davoud wrote:
Davoud:
If so, you may be able to tell me why TheSkyX Pro (latest daily build
running on the latest El Capitan) reports that the OTA is on the east
side of the mount immediately after resuming from Park 1, when the OTA
is most definitely on the west side of the mount. I don't know if it's
the mount reporting its position improperly or the TheSkyX being
confused. I suspect the latter, as GOTO works from the A-P
keypad--indicating that the A-P knows where it is. But that doesn't
necessarily mean that it is properly reporting what it knows to
TheSkyX.

SlurpieMcDoublegulp:
Park 1 is at the Meridian pointing to the Northern Horizon. The moment that
you start the mount tracking, it will track past the meridian and the
telescope will indeed be on the east side of the meridian. Yes, it's on the
west side physically, but the tube assembly is now underneath the mount
(counterweights are slightly above), and the optics will be pointing to the
eastern portion of the horizon.

Actually I was wrong about this. Pier side is a convention that was made by
the professional astronomy community many many years ago, well before the age
of amateur GoTo mounts. Basically it has to do with whether the Declination
number is positive or negative. For all positive Dec numbers with the scope
on the West side, your planetarium program (TheSkyX Pro) will declare that
the scope is on the west side. For all negative Dec numbers - basically all
numbers below the pole - TheSkyX will declare the scope to be on the East side.

OK, here's what's really happening as I have learned just today.
Firstly, TheSkyX does not declare anything. It gets a piece of data
from the A-P hand controller that says either "east" or "west." TheSkyX
merely repeats what it has been told. At least one of your statements
above is true.

But that's not the important thing. The important thing is that
Astro-Physics has released the following in a PDF
http://www.astro-physics.com/images/Park_Positions_Defined.pdf:
"WARNING! Park 1 is considered an obsolete park position. Use Park 1 at
your own risk!" and "[Park 4] is the new Reference Park Position."

This is most unfortunate for me, as my observatory is very small
(2-meter dome) and Park 1, which was sanctioned by Astro-Physics for
many years, was the only position that gave me sufficient space to
comfortably place a small laptop table (fold-up, but sturdy,
slide-projector stand from 1976!) and a small stool for my comfort. I
used Park 1 with-and-without a computer for many years with no
problems. I have no idea why Park 1 is suddenly Bad, but if I had to
guess I would say a bug in recent hand controller software. I know that
the software has a leap-year bug that affected Park 1 from 1 January to
1 March.

In any case, I'm going to have to do some re-thinking, including how
I'll get through my main (north side) door without bashing my face on
my camera http://www.primordial-light.com/observatory.html.

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm

You can use Park 1, I use it all the time. It is NOT obsolete, just not recommended due to sensitivity to user error. You just have to remember that once you start the mount, it will begin to track at the sidereal rate. If you walk away or fall asleep, eventually the scope can be driven into the mount. If you keep your clutches somewhat loose, nothing bad will happen. The RA axis will simply slip when the scope cannot go any further. However with clutches fully tight you might damage the scope or mount when contact is made.

The Leap year bug in the keypad is fixed, so nothing to worry about there either.