ASTRONOMY SOFTWARE FEEDBACK Last updated: 27 December 2004

Subject:	re: Autoguiding
Sent:	Monday, December 27, 2004 10:42:07
From:	Richard Seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com)
I must be missing something... Starry Night and ACP can 
guide the scope to where the autostar -thinks- a target is.

(another program is the shareware AstroPlanner, from 
http://www.ilangainc.com   )

From your note, it sounds like you are GoTo'ing with SNP/ACP,
but that it's missing by some amount (how far?).

However, they can only do as well as the Autostar/ETX itself is
aligned.  And -that- also depends upon Training the Drives,
level tripod head, etc.etc.

How well does the Autostar -itself- GoTo targets?
(use STARS for this test.... the Autostar can mis-calculate
the moon and planets by varying amounts, so they're not
good testing targets when you're using the Autostar by itself.).

If the Autostar is arriving at the targets with precision,
but SNP/ACP isn't, then it's a puzzle.

However if the Autostar isn't arriving accurately, then
SNP/ACP won't either, since they're depending upon the Autostar's
idea of how the RA/DEC coordinates "map" to the sky.

have fun
--dick

Subject:	Autoguiding
Sent:	Monday, December 20, 2004 04:32:59
From:	TIM TAYLOR (tim.taylor5@btopenworld.com)
I wonder if you can help, I am the proud ownder of a Meade ETX125 scope
and have the latest update to the #497 autostar. I also have a Phillips
Toucam Pro webcam and a Canon IXUS II Digital camera which I connect to
my PC for astrophotography. Also, I can control the ETX125 by my PC as I
have Starry Night Pro Plus 4.52 and ACP. Therefore I can take photos and
control my scope from the comfort of my house even though the scope is
in my back garden however are you aware of any software I can
buy/download that will automatically guide my scope to a star/planet as
presently I have to make a lot of manual adjustments mostly by using
ACP.

Thanks
 
Tim Taylor
Tim@TTaylor35.fsnet.co.uk

Subject:	PocketPC Astronomy Software
Sent:	Thursday, December 9, 2004 16:47:18
From:	Eric Ingram (quantumerix@yahoo.com)
For anyone looking for some good (and free) PocketPC astornomy software,
check out:

http://www.alfcen.com/pocket/index.htm

There are several programs there that all do different things. I've only
used Taiyoukei (Japanese for Solar System) so far. It's a little
confusing to navigate at first, but it's a good quick reference for
looking up various things.

-Eric

Someone named Jonathan Sachs also makes a good program for tracking the
moon called Ephemeris. It's available for download at:

http://home.comcast.net/~jonsachs/#Ephemeris%201.0

It will show the rise and set times, as well as the Alt/Az points of the
Sun and Moon. It will also show the phase of the Moon along with a Moon
phase calender.

It's an excellent piece of software. It's very basic, but I love it. It
loads quick and I've never had any problems with it.

-Eric

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