[APBeta] Problems Controlling 8SE

[Dan Kuchta]

Hi Paul:

I have a Celestron 8SE and have started playing around with  
controlling it with Astroplanner.  Either I'm doing something very  
wrong or there seems to be lots of problems with it.  I tried it on  
both a Mac running Snow Leopard, and on a Windows Netbook running XP  
Home. I'm testing indoors so I can't actually look at the sky.

On Windows I can connect to the scope and tell it to slew to M57.   
When the scope is done with the slew, it seems to be pointing in the  
right direction, and when I check via the handset on the 8SE, the RA  
and Dec are correct.  But if I switch to the FOV display, and I have  
Auto checked beside the Get Scope button, and I hover my mouse over  
the center of the FOV to get the RA and Dec, I get very strange  
behavior.  Initially, the RA & Dec are correct, but only for an  
instant.  The FOV refreshes every couple of seconds and the RA dashes  
across the sky till it gets to about 9, then it comes back a ways, and  
then it slowly homes in on 9:53:32 which is exactly 9 hours different  
from the 18:53:32 it is supposed to be.  Each time the FOV refreshes,  
I can see the objects marching across the view till it finally stops  
after maybe 20 or so refreshes.  M57 is nowhere to be seen in the  
FOV.  All this time, the scope is not moving other than tracking.

Without changing the scope, I disconnect from the PC, connect to the  
Mac, launch Astoplanner, go to the FOV tab, hit the Get Scope button,  
and hover my mouse over the center of the FOV.  Again, it says the  
scope is aimed at 9:53:32, while the scope handset reports 18:53:32.

On the Windows machine, after I tell it to go to M57 and it slews to  
that location, the Slew to Object button has changed to Abort Slew and  
remains there even after the slew has completed.  I have to hit Abort  
Slew to reset it.

On the Mac, it seems to think everything is below the horizon and the  
slew button next to the telescope selection is dimmed.  There is a  
message under the telescope selection popup in the Objects view that  
says something like Object not Visible.  If I use the "Slew To" popup  
at lower right and select Jupiter, I get a message that says Jupiter  
is below the horizon, even though in the object table Jupiter is  
listed as having an altitude of 30°.

I also tried the Spiral scan option on both Mac and Windows and it  
seems to do nothing on either platform.

-Dan Kuchta

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The trick to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss.