Re: [guide-user] LX200 guiding
Bill J Gray Oct 24 1:27 PM
Hi Lawrence,
"...So when I do a 'you are here' click on the alignment star,
how much of the data is retained?"
Almost none, I think. The sole effect of that function is that
Guide tells the LX-200: "Right now, the scope is pointed at the
following RA/dec."
I am not entirely certain of what the LX-200 does with this bit
of information. I _think_ that what it does is something like this:
"Really? I'm pointed at the coordinates (RA1, dec1)? Heck, I
_thought_ I was pointed at (RA2, dec2). From now on, I'm going
to offset everything by (RA1 - RA2, dec1 - dec2). This will give
me exactly correct results at this new alignment point, and I
hope it will give me some improvement in areas near that alignment
point."
But I'd not expect it to help on much of an all-sky basis. A
more intelligent version of the LX-200 might remember several
alignment stars, and would calculate an offset based on whichever
one of those points happened to be closest to its current position.
But I'm pretty sure that it just remembers one such alignment star.
Otherwise, I'd expect to see more LX-200 serial commands to handle
alignment star data... things like "retrieve data for Nth star" and
such. Meade apparently didn't want to do that sort of thing.
-- Bill