GPS EQMOD and Navigation

[Photosbykev]

I've just bought a BlueNext usb GPS dongle to plug into my win 7 64-bit system and it works a treat with EQMOD picking up location, altitude and gps time. USB GPS UNIT, BN-903S - BN-903S - BLUENEXT

If I'm running EQMOD with Stellarium or CdC it looks like I still need to manually input my location into the Stellarium or CdC software to match them all up. I am missing a trick here or is it just the way it has to be done?

[chrisshillito]

No you're not missing a trick - but the planetarium programs are

CDC could for easily use the ASCOM interface to read the location settings from EQASCOM - but it doesn't For some reason it only chooses to provide the option to write site locations over ascom rather than read them. EQASCOM doesn't allow clients to change its site - the last thing you want is each client application telling the mount it as at a different location!

With stellarium I'm afraid things are never going to be easy as they have no native ASCOM support (due to the fact ASCOM is not multi-platform) It may be possible for Stellarium-scope to be modifed to read the site from EQASCOM and change Stellarium's setup files prior to kicking off stellarium itself - I'll have a word with the authors.

Chris.

[chrisshillito]

Just thought a few additional thoughts...

So long as EQASCOM has the correct time and location having the planetarium's location "deadly accurate" isn't particularly important - not as far as gotos are concerned anyhow.

When the planetarium issues gotos/synchs it does so using RA/DEC coords and of course they don't change based upon your location. mount position is also read using RA/DEC so the planetarium will always show the scope in the correct position relative to other celestial objects.

If you're not "perfectly" synched up he worst that can happen is that you may notice effects like the planetarium showing an object has crossed the meridian or dipped below a horizon whilst the mount hasn't - that said these small differences drive some folks mad!

Anyhow I've contacted the StellariumScope developer and he is now considering having it read EQASCOM's site data and writing stellarium's accordingly. Low priority stuff though, so be patient.

Chris.

[Photosbykev]

Thanks for the extra info Chris I'm patient and can wait As least knowing there isn't a quick shortcut to transfer the info as least means I'll stop wondering lol I normally do a quick 3 star alignment on the side I'm going to be playing and sync the data with EQMOD. From then on I've found the system to be very accurate and it improves with each sync point added.