Hello Bob--
Tom K. & I have been working to identify the reason for 13 sec of time loss with each ACPS observing plan with our Paramount’s - here is an example:
00:27:02 Calculated field of view (arcmin): H = 25.8 V = 17.2
00:27:02 Using focus offsets from FilterInfo.txt <==
00:27:15 ACPS Observation #131235 - ER UMa_Obs_001 Follow-up <==
13 sec consumed by some activity
I found the smoking gun which is below and have made a small change to AcquireSupport to declare c_haveTrackOffset = True (Paramount) and eliminated the test for offset tracking.
Code:
Telescope.RightAscensionRate = 0.01 ' Try offset tracking
If Err.Number = 0 Then ' Assume if we can change RA rate, we can change Dec rate
c_haveTrackOffset = True ' We have it!
Telescope.RightAscensionRate = 0.0 ' But make sure it's turned off
Telescope.DeclinationRate = 0.0
Else
c_haveTrackOffset = False ' Cannot apply tracking offsets
End If
Digging further, TheSky driver has the following wait times which are required for the Paramount according to notes in the TheSky driver.
Telescope.RightAscensionRate (5 sec wait)
Telescope.DeclinationRate (2 sec wait)
Here is an example with my changes to AcquireSuppot:
20:18:09 Calculated field of view (arcmin): H = 25.8 V = 17.2
20:18:09 Using focus offsets from FilterInfo.txt <==
20:18:09 ACPS Observation #98540 - AR And <==
I thought I would pass this along for the next ACP update as I believe this could affect every user that uses TheSky driver. Perhaps there should be a one-time test at start up with results saved in the registry.....
Steve Brady