Telescope
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The Telescope Center Star function (see Center Star button on the Telescope window) will not move the telescope unless the move would cause the target star to move more than the X and Y pixel values specified. Thus, if the star is close to being centered than the telescope may not move to perfectly center the star.
Enable this feature if the telescope performs a flip when crossing the meridian - most German Equatorial Mounts (GEM’s) do. This setting is used in conjunction with the Center Star feature and must know which side of the meridian the telescope is pointing.
The number of degrees E /W of the meridian before the telescope will perform a flip.
Telescope driver requires topocentric coordinates (JNow, Earth surface), default is enabled
Time in seconds to allow the telescope to settle following a slew, default = 5 sec
Time in seconds that FocusMax will use to poll and display telescope (RA, Dec, Az, Alt) information found on the Telescope Window, default = 1 sec
Telescope move calibration is required if the Center feature is to be used in FocusMax (see the Center Star button on the Telescope Control Tab). This routine will determine the image scale and CCD orientation by slewing the telescope in all four directions then measuring the corresponding shift in the target star position.
Slew Distance in arc minutes should first be set by the user
If value is too large and the star moves off the CCD then the calibration will fail
If this value is too small then the calibration will not have sufficient accuracy.
Start button will trigger FocusMax to take an image, slew the telescope in all directions, taking multiple images to determine the orientation of the camera. This is necessary if the Center Star feature is to be used successfully.
Stop button will stop the calibration process but it may take a few seconds before the stop is completed.
Once calibrated, the Image Scale in arc-sec/pixel and the CCD Angle in degrees will be displayed in the Calibration frame along with the Sky Direction frame will show the directions of North and East on the CCD image. The user can reset the sky direction by selecting Flip Top to Bot. and/or Flip Left to Right options in the Calibration frame.
The Site information is used to set the observing location, time zone, etc.
The Get From Telescope button will attempt to obtain the information from the Telescope driver.
Note: the information must be accurately entered if the AcquireStar feature is to be used.
