Hello Pete,

> Question 1. Is there any way to draw a 18° radius circle around the
> NCP to simplify where I can't slew without crashing the scope. Yes,
> I've set the declination limit to 72°, and the scope won't go there.
> But Meade's software crashes if the "don't go there" limit is crossed
> and I have to reboot and realign - a real pain. It would be really
> nice to be able to draw a red circle indicating the limits beyond
> which I'll crash.

it should be possible to draw such a circle as an Overlay (|Overlays|Edit
Overlay|(Create new overlay)| and then toggle overlay on|off. But up to now I
had no luck in drawing such an overlay. Creating is ok. But then I have to pass.
The corresponding UOV file is empty besides the header line with the name of
the overlay. The other UOV files seems to be binary. Perhaps someone else can
help here.

> Question 2. Is it currently possible (as with The Sky 5) to input a
> custom horizon? Being able to mark the viewing constraints, such as
> the neighbor's tall elm tree, would simplify planning.

Yes it is possible. You have to edit the file HORIZON.DAT in your Guide folder.
A description is given at the end of the file. You only have to measure your
horizon line in alt/az coordinates. Aim your telescope to its local horizon and
write the corresponding azimuth and height readings from Guide into the file
HORIZON.DAT. For me it was necessary to define a second bottom line at 20
degress below the horizon:

; HORIZON.DAT -- Definition file of the horizon for
; Sternwarte Herne, 2004/01/03
; after trees in south western direction were cut
;
hor 35 10 0
0 14
3 12
15 7
24 10
25 8
32 8
32 26
34 26
34 12
60 13
67 8
78 9
80 15
103 9
103 6
105 8
108 10
112 11
115 7
118 6
120 9
125 3
130 4
140 3
143 5
145 2
154 2
154 4
155 4
155 2
160 2
160 5
185 5
190 7
200 5
205 6
212 9
218 6
224 6
224 10
230 11
235 8
238 5
240 8
250 8
255 15
260 19
265 12
275 10
275 15
280 15
280 9
290 5
300 5
303 9
305 13
310 9
312 14
316 9
330 9
355 8
355 18
358 18
0 14
hend
hor 35 5 5
0 -20
10 -20
20 -20
30 -20
40 -20
50 -20
60 -20
70 -20
80 -20
90 -20
100 -20
110 -20
120 -20
130 -20
140 -20
150 -20
160 -20
170 -20
180 -20
190 -20
200 -20
210 -20
220 -20
230 -20
240 -20
250 -20
260 -20
270 -20
280 -20
290 -20
300 -20
310 -20
320 -20
330 -20
340 -20
350 -20
360 -20
0 -20
hend
end

Hope this helps
Bernd


Bernd Brinkmann

Sternwarte Herne, MPC code A18
Herne, Germany

e-mail: info@...
http://www.sternwarte-herne.de