Great Upgrade

[dennishohman]

The Version 6 upgrade of ACP is working very well with my system which includes a domed observatory. I am glad that UCAC3 support was added since it seems to have more stars in especially star-poor areas where I study AGNs, Polars and other high-energy objects. With only a 15 x20 min field of view I would have occasional plate solve failures when viewing objects in these fields. That doesn't seem to happen now. I continue to let Focusmax use the GSC catalog so there are bright stars for focusing--- seems to be the best of both worlds. There are some other improvments in the Web interface that are a big plus too!

I have been using ACP for almost a year and notice great reluctance to return to other automation tools I used to use. Before purchasing ACP, I had an extensive conversation with Bob Denny about problems I had with observatory automation and his advice was to clean up some of the mechnaical issues that I tried to compensate for with software. I did exactly that and what a great improvment it made! Now instead of focusing on hardware stuff, I use ACP Planner and The Sky 6 to quickly generate observing plans and sit back watching how well ACP centers objects, autoguides and how well it handles adverse observing conditions.

It took a little longer to set up ACP and learn how to use it to it's fullest extent but that investment has been well worth it. I can focus on observing and gathering data and not on the how -- that's now taken care of.

Thanks Bob for a great product and to all the users who contribute to this support web site.!

Dennis Hohman
Stone Edge Observatory
Orchard Park, NY

[Bob Denny]

Dennis --

Wow, you made my day. It's a rainy afternoon in Waikoloa Hawaii, and it's Stevie and my first day of a mini-vacation after the Telescopes from Afar conference. So what am I doing here on the Comm Center??? It's raining and we just got back from some driving around the island, and I thought I'd look in on a couple of things.

Anyway, thanks so much. I appreciate the good news!