Scope control

Bill J Gray May 21, 2002

I did misunderstand Bernard here. In the setup he's discussing,
you have an LX-200-like system (as far as Guide is concerned).

The problem here is that Guide treats encoders in one way, and
motorized scopes in a very different way. This turned out to be a
really bad decision on my part.

With encoders, you can indeed get a symbol that shows where
the telescope is pointing. It moves around the screen as the scope
moves; when it gets close enough to the edge of the screen, Guide
automatically pans over. Also, encoders can take advantage of
the mechanical error correction code.

Once I complete my project of ripping out the existing scope
control code and revising it to run in a logical manner, these
functions will be available for all scopes. (Also, the alignment
routine will not be as bone-headed as it currently is.)

For encoder-based systems, I'm contemplating a "slew scope"
command where you indicate the target in Guide, click "slew scope",
and get a series of commands telling you how to move the scope
("ten degrees left, five down... two left, one up...", etc.)
This might actually be a good area to use the sound card, with the
computer giving "spoken" directions as to how to move the scope.

-- Bill