POINTING LIMITS

Creation -- 11/06/02 -- EF

  • The software has a protection against slewing too far over. The telescope will not move if you have requested an illegal move. On the mount PC monitor, the word Next will be highlighted in red. It is possible however, to go to the limit by slewing with the hand paddle.

    Currently, the limits are: |HA| <= 6 hours, DEC >= -40 degrees and sec(Z) <= 10.0. There are additional restrictions, depending on which direction you are pointing.

  • If you have reached any of these limits, perhaps by moving there with the hand paddle, or perhaps the telescope simply tracked into the western limit, the motors will shut off automatically. The dome may also rotate incessantly. To get restarted, first and most important, find out what you did wrong and correct that. It could be that you have reset the coordinates completely wrong, and then tried to slew to what would have been a reasonable place, but which was rendered impossible to achieve by the zero-point mistake. Once you know what you did wrong, go out to the telescope and determine whether a move in RA or in Dec is needed. Now clear the "Panic" mode on the mount PC screen by typing "F9 F10 F9" (perhaps several times) on its keyboard. The dome should stop moving at this point after it has homed itself.

  • The telescope may now be moved with the hand paddle or under computer control (please don't repeat the previous move). You should check the dome to make sure it is homed; if not, use the home dome button in the TCS window (on flwo60), under "Tele Tasks."