Table of Contents
How the "Park" position works with the Schulman Telescope
On a general telescope park positions can be defined by a physical limit switch/indicator or through software by means of defining a particular telescope position. Some software programs also couple the position of “Park” with the action of moving to a park position and then turning off sidereal tracking. Not all software programs do this.
Schulman Telescope Implementation of Park
Different software programs handle Park in different ways:
| Program | Behavior |
|---|---|
| LCOGT GUI | Park is a position only. Its state is asynchronous. |
| ACP | Park will set park variable (recorded by ACP and LCOGT) to “parked”, send to the defined park position and turn off tracking |
| TheSky | Connects to telescope via “ASCOM Mount.” In this way, park is only a position. The behavior is like ACP if connected to a Bisque controller. |
Fixing the problem
Below is the typical error encountered in ACP.
- First clear the error by closing the dialog window. If ACP closes, restart ACP.
- In ACP Park the telescope under the Telescope menu.
- Wait approximately 10 seconds for telescope to settle and return.
- In the Telescope menu select Unpark.
- Point the telescope to the next target as normal.
In step #2, even if the telescope is already physically at the Park position, re-parking will synchronize the variable states of Park in the LCOGT GUI and ACP. Simply selecting unpark will not work.
For More Information
You are welcome to see a video that explains this issue by watching the below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Wx783Zc20
Also see the Telescope Limits page.
