Hey Bill & Bob,

I was able to test Guide with ASCOM and EQMOD last Saturday and am
happy to report that things went pretty well.

You were right, Bill, the time issue wasn't an issue at all. There's no
need for constant updates to time as the alignment procedure is based
on stepper location, so you could essentially take as much time as needed.
(Bob, I did use F3 to update the screen throughout the evening)

The only real consideration is location - Latitude and Longitude must
match in both Guide and EQASCOM.

Here's an image taken during a 2 hour break in the cloud cover last
Saturday. The mount was controlled via a wireless gamepad :o)

http://eyegasms.zenfolio.com/p569617511/h27e5317e#h27e5317e

Many Thanks,
Mark V

--- In guide-user@yahoogroups.com, "Elliott, Robert C." <elliottb@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Mark and all.
> I am in the habit of hitting the F3 key just before I ask Guide to slew the telescope. That way I get an update on the objects Alt and Azimuth as well as other information so I know that the telescope will not hit the dome etc.
>
> Bob
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: guide-user@yahoogroups.com [guide-user@yahoogroups.com] on behalf of Mark V [mva@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 09:43
> To: guide-user@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [guide-user] Re: Guide8 & EQMOD
>
> 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.
> >
>
>
>
>
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