On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM driver. But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later. It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months. I did so and can control the mount using the keypad.

I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier. I need to know how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set to UT. I am in the Central US time zone.

I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.

Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp

On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM

I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the

I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to

Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp

On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-gmt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local time
and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is looking to the
computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to local
time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary
Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the purposes of
a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time. The
mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it does
factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts time that
you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same time as your
local time - is just for convenience. The latter - inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were to
program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad today,
it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT so that the
proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad every
time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone altogether)
is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that it can use to do
this automatically. You might ask "well how hard would it be for the keypad
to have one so that I don't need to do this". It's a valid question, but the
reasons are fairly basic. The timezone database is large and would occupy a
non-trivial amount of the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It
also changes quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This would
demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up
with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver, this
changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this case, it is
presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate as any modern OS
will automatically sync the computer's clock to an internet time source at
least once a week or more often, assuming it has internet access. There is a
setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time directly in
this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to US/Central, the OS
itself still operates in UTC internally. Because your OS does have a
maintained timezone database, it can do the display and input conversions
between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is if you
prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of time on your PC
to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going to get programmed
with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset of 0 so
that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want it do display
and take time input in terms of your local time, you will need to manually
set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.

On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM

driver.  But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from
standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months.  I
did so and can control the mount using the keypad.

I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the

mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried
to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier.  I need to know
how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set
to UT.  I am in the Central US time zone.

I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to

setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.

Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp

-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-gmt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local time
and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is looking to the
computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to local
time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary
Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the purposes of
a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time. The
mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it does
factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts time that
you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same time as your
local time - is just for convenience. The latter - inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were to
program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad today,
it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT so that the
proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad every
time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone altogether)
is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that it can use to do
this automatically. You might ask "well how hard would it be for the keypad
to have one so that I don't need to do this". It's a valid question, but the
reasons are fairly basic. The timezone database is large and would occupy a
non-trivial amount of the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It
also changes quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This would
demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up
with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver, this
changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this case, it is
presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate as any modern OS
will automatically sync the computer's clock to an internet time source at
least once a week or more often, assuming it has internet access. There is a
setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time directly in
this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to US/Central, the OS
itself still operates in UTC internally. Because your OS does have a
maintained timezone database, it can do the display and input conversions
between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is if you
prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of time on your PC
to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going to get programmed
with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset of 0 so
that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want it do display
and take time input in terms of your local time, you will need to manually
set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.

On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM

driver.  But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from
standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months.  I
did so and can control the mount using the keypad.

I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the

mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried
to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier.  I need to know
how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set
to UT.  I am in the Central US time zone.

I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to

setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.

Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp

-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

Virus-free. www.avg.com

On Mar 16, 2021, at 20:44, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale and the Others Who Responded,

I tried leaving the AP keypad set to UT and setting the PC to my local time (CDT) and added a second UT Clock. I got a similar view to what you sent to me. I tried setting my location in SkyTools to Central Time with Auto DST enabled in SkyTools. I tried to slew to the Sun at about 5PM CDT and from the Park 3 position, the mount started moving to the eastern side of the meridian. The Sun was setting in the WSW. I stopped the slew, parked the mount in the Park 3 position and shut down SkyTools and APCC.

I powered the mount down, waited 30 seconds and powered it back up. I set the keypad to Central Time and Summer. I set the computer time to Central Time, eliminated the second time zone (UT) and started SkyTools. I set my location to Central and enabled auto DST rules. I connected the mount to Sky Tools, did a slew to the Sun, it did so with the Sun centered.

I give up on trying to use UT in the keypad and will have to bite the bullet and change the keypad twice a year to conform to either winter or summer. Using this technique for 6 years has worked. I just wanted to eliminate the semi-annual change the keypad time routine. But I am finding the doing so is easier and less stressful than trying to use UT.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N 89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
………………………………….Neil Peart


From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 11:24 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Cc: mallincamusa@...
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary Astronomy Programs for Control


As the document implies, confusion can be lessened by just running all the things in UTC, especially if the person is unaccustomed to operating in multiple time zones. By having your PC and keypad display in UTC, you won't have to change the GMT offset on the keypad twice each year and the time on the keypad will always match the time displayed on your PC. In that sense, such consistency might be attractive to some people.

But it isn't an absolute must for proper operation of the mount. You can still run your PC and keypad in any combination of UTC and local time, you just need to be aware of what the keypad is set to regardless, and if it is set to something other than GMT/UTC, then you will need to manually adjust the timezone offset twice a year if you are in a locale that observes some form of DST.

In Windows (and, at least Windows 10, I'm not sure about previous versions) you can configure the clock in the system tray to display the time in multiple timezones. For example, my imaging PC's clock's main display is my local time zone (US/Eastern), but I added UTC as well if you mouse over it. You add time zones to display under the system time settings in Windows.

<image001.png>



On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-gmt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local time
and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is looking to the
computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to local
time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N 89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary
Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the purposes of
a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time. The
mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it does
factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts time that
you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same time as your
local time - is just for convenience. The latter - inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were to
program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad today,
it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT so that the
proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad every
time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone altogether)
is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that it can use to do
this automatically. You might ask "well how hard would it be for the keypad
to have one so that I don't need to do this". It's a valid question, but the
reasons are fairly basic. The timezone database is large and would occupy a
non-trivial amount of the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It
also changes quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This would
demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up
with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver, this
changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this case, it is
presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate as any modern OS
will automatically sync the computer's clock to an internet time source at
least once a week or more often, assuming it has internet access. There is a
setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time directly in
this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to US/Central, the OS
itself still operates in UTC internally. Because your OS does have a
maintained timezone database, it can do the display and input conversions
between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is if you
prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of time on your PC
to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going to get programmed
with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset of 0 so
that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want it do display
and take time input in terms of your local time, you will need to manually
set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.



On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM
driver. But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from
standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months. I
did so and can control the mount using the keypad.


I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the
mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried
to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier. I need to know
how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set
to UT. I am in the Central US time zone.


I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to
setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.


Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp









--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com








Virus-free. www.avg.com

Dale and the Others Who Responded,

I tried leaving the AP keypad set to UT and setting the PC to my local time (CDT) and added a second UT Clock.  I got a similar view to what you sent to me.  I tried setting my location in SkyTools to Central Time with Auto DST enabled in SkyTools.  I tried to slew to the Sun at about 5PM CDT and from the Park 3 position, the mount started moving to the eastern side of the meridian.  The Sun was setting in the WSW.  I stopped the slew, parked the mount in the Park 3 position and shut down SkyTools and APCC.

I powered the mount down, waited 30 seconds and powered it back up.  I set the keypad to Central Time and Summer.  I set the computer time to Central Time, eliminated the second time zone (UT) and started SkyTools.  I set my location to Central and enabled auto DST rules.  I connected the mount to Sky Tools, did a slew to the Sun, it did so with the Sun centered.

I give up on trying to use UT in the keypad and will have to bite the bullet and change the keypad twice a year to conform to either winter or summer.  Using this technique for 6 years has worked.  I just wanted to eliminate the semi-annual change the keypad time routine.  But I am finding the doing so is easier and less stressful than trying to use UT.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack HuerkampJack

Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC

38388 Pine Street

Pearl River, LA 70452-5192

985-445-5063

mallincamusa@...

www.mallincamusa.com

30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.

………………………………….Neil Peart

On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-gmt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local time
and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is looking to the
computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to local
time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary
Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the purposes of
a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time. The
mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it does
factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts time that
you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same time as your
local time - is just for convenience. The latter - inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were to
program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad today,
it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT so that the
proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad every
time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone altogether)
is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that it can use to do
this automatically. You might ask "well how hard would it be for the keypad
to have one so that I don't need to do this". It's a valid question, but the
reasons are fairly basic. The timezone database is large and would occupy a
non-trivial amount of the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It
also changes quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This would
demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up
with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver, this
changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this case, it is
presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate as any modern OS
will automatically sync the computer's clock to an internet time source at
least once a week or more often, assuming it has internet access. There is a
setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time directly in
this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to US/Central, the OS
itself still operates in UTC internally. Because your OS does have a
maintained timezone database, it can do the display and input conversions
between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is if you
prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of time on your PC
to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going to get programmed
with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset of 0 so
that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want it do display
and take time input in terms of your local time, you will need to manually
set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.

On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM

driver.  But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from
standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months.  I
did so and can control the mount using the keypad.

I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the

mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried
to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier.  I need to know
how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set
to UT.  I am in the Central US time zone.

I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to

setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.

Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp

-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

On Mar 16, 2021, at 20:44, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale and the Others Who Responded,

I tried leaving the AP keypad set to UT and setting the PC to my local time (CDT) and added a second UT Clock. I got a similar view to what you sent to me. I tried setting my location in SkyTools to Central Time with Auto DST enabled in SkyTools. I tried to slew to the Sun at about 5PM CDT and from the Park 3 position, the mount started moving to the eastern side of the meridian. The Sun was setting in the WSW. I stopped the slew, parked the mount in the Park 3 position and shut down SkyTools and APCC.

I powered the mount down, waited 30 seconds and powered it back up. I set the keypad to Central Time and Summer. I set the computer time to Central Time, eliminated the second time zone (UT) and started SkyTools. I set my location to Central and enabled auto DST rules. I connected the mount to Sky Tools, did a slew to the Sun, it did so with the Sun centered.

I give up on trying to use UT in the keypad and will have to bite the bullet and change the keypad twice a year to conform to either winter or summer. Using this technique for 6 years has worked. I just wanted to eliminate the semi-annual change the keypad time routine. But I am finding the doing so is easier and less stressful than trying to use UT.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N 89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
………………………………….Neil Peart


From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale
Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 11:24 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Cc: mallincamusa@...
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to
Auxiliary Astronomy Programs for Control


As the document implies, confusion can be lessened by just running all the things in UTC, especially if the person is unaccustomed to operating in multiple time zones. By having your PC and keypad display in UTC, you won't have to change the GMT offset on the keypad twice each year and the time on the keypad will always match the time displayed on your PC. In that sense, such consistency might be attractive to some people.

But it isn't an absolute must for proper operation of the mount. You can still run your PC and keypad in any combination of UTC and local time, you just need to be aware of what the keypad is set to regardless, and if it is set to something other than GMT/UTC, then you will need to manually adjust the timezone offset twice a year if you are in a locale that observes some form of DST.

In Windows (and, at least Windows 10, I'm not sure about previous versions) you can configure the clock in the system tray to display the time in multiple timezones. For example, my imaging PC's clock's main display is my local time zone (US/Eastern), but I added UTC as well if you mouse over it. You add time zones to display under the system time settings in Windows.

<image001.png>



On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-g
mt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local
time and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is
looking to the computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to
local time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N 89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale
Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to
Auxiliary Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the
purposes of a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time.
The mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it
does factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts
time that you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same
time as your local time - is just for convenience. The latter -
inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were
to program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time
is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad
today, it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT
so that the proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad
every time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone
altogether) is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that
it can use to do this automatically. You might ask "well how hard
would it be for the keypad to have one so that I don't need to do
this". It's a valid question, but the reasons are fairly basic. The
timezone database is large and would occupy a non-trivial amount of
the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It also changes
quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This
would demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver,
this changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this
case, it is presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate
as any modern OS will automatically sync the computer's clock to an
internet time source at least once a week or more often, assuming it
has internet access. There is a setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time
directly in this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to
US/Central, the OS itself still operates in UTC internally. Because
your OS does have a maintained timezone database, it can do the
display and input conversions between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is
if you prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of
time on your PC to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going
to get programmed with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset
of 0 so that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want
it do display and take time input in terms of your local time, you
will need to manually set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.



On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the
ASCOM driver. But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP
keypad from standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6
months. I did so and can control the mount using the keypad.


I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected
the mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the
scope tried to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier.
I need to know how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount
and computer are set to UT. I am in the Central US time zone.


I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back
to setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.


Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp









--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com








Virus-free. www.avg.com

Jack,

Interesting.  I’ve found the opposite. 

I too got tired of dealing with Daylight Savings and set all my EQ mounts to UTC as I found that easier.  And that includes my AP Mach-1.  I haven’t used any of my GEM’s in a while, but as I recall, I only set the mount’s HC to UTC.  I’m pretty sure I left TSX Pro and SkySafari set to local time as set by my laptop and phone.  But I could be wrong about that.

And my wrist watch displays two time zones so I set the second one to UTC.

But I had no luck setting my Alt/Az mounts to UTC and running them with SkySafari from my phone, so they are all set to local time.

Woody

Dale and the Others Who Responded,

I tried leaving the AP keypad set to UT and setting the PC to my local time (CDT) and added a second UT Clock.  I got a similar view to what you sent to me.  I tried setting my location in SkyTools to Central Time with Auto DST enabled in SkyTools.  I tried to slew to the Sun at about 5PM CDT and from the Park 3 position, the mount started moving to the eastern side of the meridian.  The Sun was setting in the WSW.  I stopped the slew, parked the mount in the Park 3 position and shut down SkyTools and APCC.

I powered the mount down, waited 30 seconds and powered it back up.  I set the keypad to Central Time and Summer.  I set the computer time to Central Time, eliminated the second time zone (UT) and started SkyTools.  I set my location to Central and enabled auto DST rules.  I connected the mount to Sky Tools, did a slew to the Sun, it did so with the Sun centered.

I give up on trying to use UT in the keypad and will have to bite the bullet and change the keypad twice a year to conform to either winter or summer.  Using this technique for 6 years has worked.  I just wanted to eliminate the semi-annual change the keypad time routine.  But I am finding the doing so is easier and less stressful than trying to use UT.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack HuerkampJack

Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC

38388 Pine Street

Pearl River, LA 70452-5192

985-445-5063

mallincamusa@...

www.mallincamusa.com

30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.

………………………………….Neil Peart

On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-gmt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local time
and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is looking to the
computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to local
time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary
Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the purposes of
a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time. The
mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it does
factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts time that
you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same time as your
local time - is just for convenience. The latter - inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were to
program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad today,
it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT so that the
proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad every
time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone altogether)
is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that it can use to do
this automatically. You might ask "well how hard would it be for the keypad
to have one so that I don't need to do this". It's a valid question, but the
reasons are fairly basic. The timezone database is large and would occupy a
non-trivial amount of the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It
also changes quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This would
demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up
with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver, this
changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this case, it is
presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate as any modern OS
will automatically sync the computer's clock to an internet time source at
least once a week or more often, assuming it has internet access. There is a
setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time directly in
this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to US/Central, the OS
itself still operates in UTC internally. Because your OS does have a
maintained timezone database, it can do the display and input conversions
between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is if you
prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of time on your PC
to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going to get programmed
with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset of 0 so
that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want it do display
and take time input in terms of your local time, you will need to manually
set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.

On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM

driver.  But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from
standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months.  I
did so and can control the mount using the keypad.

I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the

mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried
to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier.  I need to know
how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set
to UT.  I am in the Central US time zone.

I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to

setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.

Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp

-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

Jack,

Interesting.  I’ve found the opposite. 

I too got tired of dealing with Daylight Savings and set all my EQ mounts to UTC as I found that easier.  And that includes my AP Mach-1.  I haven’t used any of my GEM’s in a while, but as I recall, I only set the mount’s HC to UTC.  I’m pretty sure I left TSX Pro and SkySafari set to local time as set by my laptop and phone.  But I could be wrong about that.

And my wrist watch displays two time zones so I set the second one to UTC.

But I had no luck setting my Alt/Az mounts to UTC and running them with SkySafari from my phone, so they are all set to local time.

Woody

Dale and the Others Who Responded,

I tried leaving the AP keypad set to UT and setting the PC to my local time (CDT) and added a second UT Clock.  I got a similar view to what you sent to me.  I tried setting my location in SkyTools to Central Time with Auto DST enabled in SkyTools.  I tried to slew to the Sun at about 5PM CDT and from the Park 3 position, the mount started moving to the eastern side of the meridian.  The Sun was setting in the WSW.  I stopped the slew, parked the mount in the Park 3 position and shut down SkyTools and APCC.

I powered the mount down, waited 30 seconds and powered it back up.  I set the keypad to Central Time and Summer.  I set the computer time to Central Time, eliminated the second time zone (UT) and started SkyTools.  I set my location to Central and enabled auto DST rules.  I connected the mount to Sky Tools, did a slew to the Sun, it did so with the Sun centered.

I give up on trying to use UT in the keypad and will have to bite the bullet and change the keypad twice a year to conform to either winter or summer.  Using this technique for 6 years has worked.  I just wanted to eliminate the semi-annual change the keypad time routine.  But I am finding the doing so is easier and less stressful than trying to use UT.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack HuerkampJack

Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC

38388 Pine Street

Pearl River, LA 70452-5192

985-445-5063

mallincamusa@...

www.mallincamusa.com

30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.

………………………………….Neil Peart

On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-gmt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local time
and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is looking to the
computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to local
time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary
Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the purposes of
a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time. The
mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it does
factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts time that
you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same time as your
local time - is just for convenience. The latter - inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were to
program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad today,
it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT so that the
proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad every
time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone altogether)
is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that it can use to do
this automatically. You might ask "well how hard would it be for the keypad
to have one so that I don't need to do this". It's a valid question, but the
reasons are fairly basic. The timezone database is large and would occupy a
non-trivial amount of the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It
also changes quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This would
demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up
with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver, this
changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this case, it is
presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate as any modern OS
will automatically sync the computer's clock to an internet time source at
least once a week or more often, assuming it has internet access. There is a
setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time directly in
this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to US/Central, the OS
itself still operates in UTC internally. Because your OS does have a
maintained timezone database, it can do the display and input conversions
between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is if you
prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of time on your PC
to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going to get programmed
with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset of 0 so
that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want it do display
and take time input in terms of your local time, you will need to manually
set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.

On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM

driver.  But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from
standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months.  I
did so and can control the mount using the keypad.

I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the

mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried
to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier.  I need to know
how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set
to UT.  I am in the Central US time zone.

I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to

setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.

Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp

-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

Woody,

When I posed a question about this issue on the SkyTools forum, Greg Crinklaw responded that his program is set up to handle the changes to daylight savings time automatically – just use it.  I guess he does not use an AP mount.

Jack

Jack Huerkamp

Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC

38388 Pine Street

Pearl River, LA 70452-5192

985-445-5063

mallincamusa@...

www.mallincamusa.com

30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.

………………………………….Neil Peart

Jack,

Interesting.  I’ve found the opposite. 

I too got tired of dealing with Daylight Savings and set all my EQ mounts to UTC as I found that easier.  And that includes my AP Mach-1.  I haven’t used any of my GEM’s in a while, but as I recall, I only set the mount’s HC to UTC.  I’m pretty sure I left TSX Pro and SkySafari set to local time as set by my laptop and phone.  But I could be wrong about that.

And my wrist watch displays two time zones so I set the second one to UTC.

But I had no luck setting my Alt/Az mounts to UTC and running them with SkySafari from my phone, so they are all set to local time.

Woody

Dale and the Others Who Responded,

I tried leaving the AP keypad set to UT and setting the PC to my local time (CDT) and added a second UT Clock.  I got a similar view to what you sent to me.  I tried setting my location in SkyTools to Central Time with Auto DST enabled in SkyTools.  I tried to slew to the Sun at about 5PM CDT and from the Park 3 position, the mount started moving to the eastern side of the meridian.  The Sun was setting in the WSW.  I stopped the slew, parked the mount in the Park 3 position and shut down SkyTools and APCC.

I powered the mount down, waited 30 seconds and powered it back up.  I set the keypad to Central Time and Summer.  I set the computer time to Central Time, eliminated the second time zone (UT) and started SkyTools.  I set my location to Central and enabled auto DST rules.  I connected the mount to Sky Tools, did a slew to the Sun, it did so with the Sun centered.

I give up on trying to use UT in the keypad and will have to bite the bullet and change the keypad twice a year to conform to either winter or summer.  Using this technique for 6 years has worked.  I just wanted to eliminate the semi-annual change the keypad time routine.  But I am finding the doing so is easier and less stressful than trying to use UT.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack HuerkampJack

Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC

38388 Pine Street

Pearl River, LA 70452-5192

985-445-5063

mallincamusa@...

www.mallincamusa.com

30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.

………………………………….Neil Peart

On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-gmt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local time
and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is looking to the
computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to local
time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary
Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the purposes of
a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time. The
mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it does
factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts time that
you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same time as your
local time - is just for convenience. The latter - inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were to
program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad today,
it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT so that the
proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad every
time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone altogether)
is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that it can use to do
this automatically. You might ask "well how hard would it be for the keypad
to have one so that I don't need to do this". It's a valid question, but the
reasons are fairly basic. The timezone database is large and would occupy a
non-trivial amount of the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It
also changes quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This would
demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up
with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver, this
changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this case, it is
presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate as any modern OS
will automatically sync the computer's clock to an internet time source at
least once a week or more often, assuming it has internet access. There is a
setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time directly in
this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to US/Central, the OS
itself still operates in UTC internally. Because your OS does have a
maintained timezone database, it can do the display and input conversions
between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is if you
prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of time on your PC
to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going to get programmed
with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset of 0 so
that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want it do display
and take time input in terms of your local time, you will need to manually
set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.

On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM

driver.  But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from
standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months.  I
did so and can control the mount using the keypad.

I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the

mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried
to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier.  I need to know
how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set
to UT.  I am in the Central US time zone.

I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to

setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.

Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp

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On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-gmt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local time
and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is looking to the
computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to local
time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N  89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary
Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the purposes of
a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time. The
mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it does
factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts time that
you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same time as your
local time - is just for convenience. The latter - inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were to
program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad today,
it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT so that the
proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad every
time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone altogether)
is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that it can use to do
this automatically. You might ask "well how hard would it be for the keypad
to have one so that I don't need to do this". It's a valid question, but the
reasons are fairly basic. The timezone database is large and would occupy a
non-trivial amount of the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It
also changes quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This would
demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up
with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver, this
changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this case, it is
presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate as any modern OS
will automatically sync the computer's clock to an internet time source at
least once a week or more often, assuming it has internet access. There is a
setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time directly in
this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to US/Central, the OS
itself still operates in UTC internally. Because your OS does have a
maintained timezone database, it can do the display and input conversions
between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is if you
prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of time on your PC
to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going to get programmed
with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset of 0 so
that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want it do display
and take time input in terms of your local time, you will need to manually
set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.

On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the ASCOM

driver.  But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from
standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months.  I
did so and can control the mount using the keypad.

I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I connected the

mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried
to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier.  I need to know
how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set
to UT.  I am in the Central US time zone.

I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go back to

setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.

Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp

-- 
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

Virus-free. www.avg.com

The sky does not care if I am in standard time or daylight savings
time. Is it possible to set the keypad on the
AP1600 to Central time and Winter, and also set the computer to
Standard Time not subject to changing when daylight savings time
changes occur? If so, the mount and computer would be in sync. They
both would have a different time showing than local time, but who cares as long as the planetarium program is able to slew to targets successfully.

-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io [mailto:main@ap-gto.groups.io] On Behalf
Of Jack Huerkamp
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2021 7:08 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Cc: mallincamusa@...
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to
Auxiliary Astronomy Programs for Control

I woke up this morning and started thinking again about the issue with
daylight savings time and my AP1600 mount/keypad. I know that can be dangerous!



The sky does not care if I am in standard time or daylight savings
time. Is it possible to set the keypad on the
AP1600 to Central time and Winter, and also set the computer to
Standard Time not subject to changing when daylight savings time
changes occur? If so, the mount and computer would be in sync. They
both would have a different time showing than local time, but who cares as long as the planetarium program is able to slew to targets successfully.



Yours truly,



Jack



Jack Huerkamp

Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC

38388 Pine Street

Pearl River, LA 70452-5192

985-445-5063

mallincamusa@... <mailto:mallincamusa@...>

www.mallincamusa.com <http://www.mallincamusa.com/>

30.37N 89.76W



All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.

………………………………….Neil Peart







From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Don
Anderson via groups.io
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 10:15 PM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to
Auxiliary Astronomy Programs for Control



Me too. takes 60 seconds to make the biannual change in the keypad.



Don Anderson





On Tuesday, March 16, 2021, 06:44:38 p.m. MDT, Jack Huerkamp <mallincamusa@...> wrote:





Dale and the Others Who Responded,



I tried leaving the AP keypad set to UT and setting the PC to my local
time (CDT) and added a second UT Clock. I got a similar view to what
you sent to me. I tried setting my location in SkyTools to Central
Time with Auto DST enabled in SkyTools. I tried to slew to the Sun at
about 5PM CDT and from the Park 3 position, the mount started moving to the eastern side of the meridian. The Sun was setting in the WSW. I stopped the slew, parked the mount in the Park 3 position and shut down SkyTools and APCC.



I powered the mount down, waited 30 seconds and powered it back up. I
set the keypad to Central Time and Summer. I set the computer time to
Central Time, eliminated the second time zone (UT) and started
SkyTools. I set my location to Central and enabled auto DST rules. I connected the mount to Sky Tools, did a slew to the Sun, it did so with the Sun centered.



I give up on trying to use UT in the keypad and will have to bite the
bullet and change the keypad twice a year to conform to either winter
or summer. Using this technique for 6 years has worked. I just
wanted to eliminate the semi-annual change the keypad time routine. But I am finding the doing so is easier and less stressful than trying to use UT.



Yours truly,



Jack



Jack Huerkamp

Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC

38388 Pine Street

Pearl River, LA 70452-5192

985-445-5063

mallincamusa@... <mailto:mallincamusa@...>

www.mallincamusa.com <http://www.mallincamusa.com/>

30.37N 89.76W



All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.

………………………………….Neil Peart





From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale
Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 11:24 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Cc: mallincamusa@...
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to
Auxiliary Astronomy Programs for Control





As the document implies, confusion can be lessened by just running all
the things in UTC, especially if the person is unaccustomed to
operating in multiple time zones. By having your PC and keypad display
in UTC, you won't have to change the GMT offset on the keypad twice each year and the time on the keypad will always match the time displayed on your PC. In that sense, such consistency might be attractive to some people.



But it isn't an absolute must for proper operation of the mount. You
can still run your PC and keypad in any combination of UTC and local
time, you just need to be aware of what the keypad is set to
regardless, and if it is set to something other than GMT/UTC, then you will need to manually adjust the timezone offset twice a year if you are in a locale that observes some form of DST.



In Windows (and, at least Windows 10, I'm not sure about previous
versions) you can configure the clock in the system tray to display
the time in multiple timezones. For example, my imaging PC's clock's
main display is my local time zone (US/Eastern), but I added UTC as well if you mouse over it. You add time zones to display under the system time settings in Windows.









On Mar 16, 2021, at 11:29, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

Dale,

I got this link from George at Astro-Physics in which it says for a
dedicated observatory PC, to set its clock to UT along with the hand
controller being set to UT:

https://astro-physics.info/tech_support/mounts/keypad/keypad-setting-gmt-utc
.pdf

But it sounds like you are saying to set the observatory PC to local time
and the hand controller to UT, since SkyTools in my case is looking to the
computer time to locate targets.

If so, I will go to the observatory today and set the computer back to local
time, set SkyTools as well and see what happens.

Yours truly,

Jack

Jack Huerkamp
Jack's Astro Accessories, LLC
38388 Pine Street
Pearl River, LA 70452-5192
985-445-5063
mallincamusa@...
www.mallincamusa.com
30.37N 89.76W

All of us get lost in the darkness.
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars.
..............Neil Peart



-----Original Message-----
From: main@ap-gto.groups.io <main@ap-gto.groups.io> On Behalf Of Dale Ghent
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:58 AM
To: main@ap-gto.groups.io
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] AP 1600, Universal Time and Connecting to Auxiliary
Astronomy Programs for Control


So here's the deal: the mount CP deals only in UTC. All calculations
involving positions of objects in the sky are done UTC. For the purposes of
a mount's internal operations, UTC is the only thing that matters.

When you set the timezone on the keypad, you are essentially just
configuring the keypad's display and input of UTC time as local time. The
mount itself doesn't care that your offset from GMT is now -5 instead of -6.
That factors into none of its operations and calculations. What it does
factor into is how your keypad displays time, and how it converts time that
you input to and from UTC. The former - displaying the same time as your
local time - is just for convenience. The latter - inputting your local time
- is critical for the mount to derive the proper UTC time if you were to
program the mount's clock using the keypad. So if your local time is
18:45:00 and you were to program your mount's clock using the keypad today,
it would definitely need to know your current offset from GMT so that the
proper conversion to UTC can take place (that it would be 23:45:00 UTC).

The reason why you have to manually set the GMT offset in your keypad every
time DST begins or ends (or if you move to a different timezone altogether)
is because the keypad lacks its own timezone database that it can use to do
this automatically. You might ask "well how hard would it be for the keypad
to have one so that I don't need to do this". It's a valid question, but the
reasons are fairly basic. The timezone database is large and would occupy a
non-trivial amount of the keypad's very finite amount of static memory. It
also changes quite often as various countries and locales change their DST
observances or, in rare cases, which timezone(s) they are in. This would
demand that A-P issue several firmware updates a year in order to keep up
with these changes.

As for the computer and accessing the mount through the ASCOM driver, this
changes the situation in terms of mount time management. In this case, it is
presumed that your computer's clock is reasonably accurate as any modern OS
will automatically sync the computer's clock to an internet time source at
least once a week or more often, assuming it has internet access. There is a
setting in the A-P ASCOM driver to sync the computer's clock to the mount.
This should always be on if your computer's clock is reasonably accurate.
The ASCOM driver itself will then program the mount in UTC time directly in
this case. Despite your computer's timezone being set to US/Central, the OS
itself still operates in UTC internally. Because your OS does have a
maintained timezone database, it can do the display and input conversions
between your timezone and its internal clock, which runs in UTC.

So, the only reason why you would want to run your computer in UTC is if you
prefer viewing time that way. Even if you set the display of time on your PC
to be in your local timezone, the mount is still going to get programmed
with the proper time in UTC. It makes no difference to the mount.

As for the keypad, you can also just leave it with a timezone offset of 0 so
that it displays and takes input in UTC. However if you want it do display
and take time input in terms of your local time, you will need to manually
set the proper GMT offset whenever DST starts and ends.




On Mar 16, 2021, at 09:13, Jack Huerkamp <Mallincamusa@...> wrote:

I use SkyTools 3 and SkyTools 4 to control my AP1600 mount using the
ASCOM

driver. But every 6 months, I was having to switch the AP keypad from
standard time to daylight savings time and then back again 6 months later.
It was suggested to me to set the AP keypad to UT and also setting the
computer to UT to avoid have to mess with keypad settings every 6 months. I
did so and can control the mount using the keypad.


I then tried configuring my observatory location, but when I
connected the

mount to SkyTools and did a slew to the Sun this afternoon, the scope tried
to aim into the ground on the southwest side of the pier. I need to know
how to set my location in SkyTools now that the mount and computer are set
to UT. I am in the Central US time zone.


I would appreciate feedback on this as I would hate to have to go
back to

setting the computer and AP keypad to the current local time.


Yours truly,

Jack Huerkamp









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