Messier Marathon

[Frank Mraz]

I asked this question before, but do not remember etting an answer, so I am trying again. If I use ACP Planner to create a Messier Marathon (without any regard to the date), will ACP, MaxIm, and Planner skip over any "M"'s not visible at the time as well as not try to move my MI-250 out of the protected region of the sky ? I figure that this plan can be used to view the VISBLT "M"'s and, when the Marathon is possible, actually do the Marathon.

Frank

[Bob Denny]

If you have the horizon in ACP set to avoid your mount's "protected regions" then the answer is "yes, but..."

Targets which happen to be below the ACP horizon (slew limits) will be skipped. But it will not do the analysis required to know whether a target might be above the horizon later in the night. The target is just skipped when it comes up in the plan. And depending on whether other targets are skipped before a given one, the time at which that one is considered will vary.