On Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 2:17:30 AM UTC, SlurpieMcDoublegulp wrote:
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.
This is how the 'sidereal rate' and its rotating celestial sphere framework looks to you -
http://www.opencourse.info/astronomy...phere_anim.gif
This is how it actually looks in reality -
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140620.html
Technically you look like thugs run amok in the discipline of astronomy but you are all that exists after centuries worth of devastation visited on many of the great insights.
Today is the celebration of the Easter rising in Ireland where a few men took it upon themselves to challenge a regime knowing they were going to die and especially knowing the wider population didn't generally support the action. People come around to an atmosphere that is productive and creative when they sit up and pay attention to things which once didn't occupy consideration so as long as they sleep within celestial sphere ideologies they will never experience the intimate connection they have with the planet's motions within the structure of the solar system and the wider Universe.