Thanks for the replies, Bob and Bill.

What you state below makes sense, Bill. I suppose even an
hourly update (via F3 as Bob mentioned) or via the Animation
dialog would suffice.

I guess the true test will come when I can get set up under
the stars for a number of hours.

Mark V

--- In guide-user@yahoogroups.com, Bill J Gray <pluto@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> There are a couple of solutions. As Bob Elliott pointed out,
> hitting F3 will do the job. Or you can run animation in "real
> time" mode, with a reasonably frequent update rate.
>
> _Or_, I strongly suspect, you can ignore the entire issue.
> Guide will send RA/decs to the scope. The RA/dec of stars and
> galaxies is (to the level of accuracy of the scope *) independent
> of time and location on the earth.
>
> If you're looking at a much nearer object, and didn't have
> the time/date or your latitude/longitude set correctly, then
> Guide might compute an RA/dec for that object which doesn't
> correspond to reality. For the Moon, for example, if you
> set Guide to show the universe from the opposite side of the
> earth, you might have a two-degree error. Guide would send
> the wrong RA/dec to the scope, and you'd be out of luck.
>
> For an artificial satellite, the time should be dead on.
> But for almost everything else, ballpark accuracy of a few
> minutes in time and a few degrees on the earth's surface ought
> to get the scope where it's supposed to go.
>
> -- Bill
>
> (*) If you had Guide set to the year 1000 or 3000, then
> stars would be off because a thousand years of proper motion
> was thrown into the mix. Arcturus would be almost a degree off;
> most fainter stars, less so. Just make sure you haven't been
> simulating an ancient eclipse or something just before you
> hook up the scope.
>