Hi Roger,

Ray has suggested one way to get something like this: set up the
program the way you want it, then save a mark file with a name such
as "My Defaults". I recommend doing this anyway; that way, if you
do something odd with magnitude limits or get the display in some
truly strange configuration, you can just load up your defaults
and be back in business. (This would also be true if you loaded the
"Factory Defaults" mark file. But then you would be using _my_
idea of good default values, which includes having your viewpoint
be in Bowdoinham, Maine, corporate headquarters of Project Pluto.)

Two comments on Ray's proposal:

One slight problem with the scheme is that when you load that
mark file, it'll reset the date/time. You can evade that by editing
the 'my_default.mar' file. The format of these mark files is described
a bit at

http://www.projectpluto.com/mar_fmt.htm

As is described there, one line in your .mar file will look like

16 currtime 2450537.124028

Take that out, and Guide won't reset the time when you load up
"My Defaults".

Second problem is that Guide stores an RA/dec in mark files. That
is, if you shut down the program with Guide centered on Spica, then
when you start it up again six hours later, it'll still show you
Spica. You're asking to have it "think" in terms of alt/az, so that
if it's shut down (or you save a mark file) looking to azimuth 180,
then _that_ is what ought to be stored. I will ponder this one...
I may just make it an option to have Guide store alt/az coordinates
rather than RA/dec ones.

_Usually_, the alt/az method would be confusing; you'd come back
to your computer six hours after shutting Guide down, start it up,
and see a totally different chunk of sky (one that's six hours
greater in RA). But in the situation you describe, no confusion
ought to arise.

-- Bill