Lawrence Feb 29, 2004
>Subject: Re: LX-200 pointing troubleHi Bill
>
>Hi Lawrence,
>
> Hmmmm... just how much error are we looking at here? A few arcminutes?
>Dozens? Degrees? I assume the error is repeatable (i.e., go from one
>part of the sky to another and back again, and it's still off in the
>same direction by the same amount)? Any clues other than "it's off"?
> You mention that you don't get good results with the synch operation:I haven't noted that point. Perhaps I should do more meaningful
>do things get worse? Better? Exactly the same? Still bad, but in
>a different direction?
> One possible source of trouble is in the epoch used by LX-200 scopes.I expect more clear skies tonight so I shall try this bit - though I
>I've been unable to find information about this, and it hasn't mattered
>much in the past; we've been close enough to J2000 that the difference
>would be less than the usual pointing error in the scopes. Guide assumes
>that the RA/dec sent to or received from the scope ought to be in the
>epoch of date. If I'm wrong, then you should hit Alt-J and enter
>
>SCOPE_EPOCH=2000
>
> This will adjust the coordinates sent to the scope by up to a few
>arcminutes. I'd be _very_ interested to hear from anyone who tries this
>out. The above capability was originally added mostly for folks with
>home-brew LX-200 clones who needed an adjustable epoch... but it could
>be that my assumptions about the epoch used in LX-200s have been wrong!