Actually, GPS could be useful if you regularly moved the scope to various observation locations, and if it were able to provide user feedback in a practical way to set up using an equatorial wedge, like telling you how much to increase or decrease elevation, provide precise true-north alignment during the day or on nights when polaris might be obscured by clouds, etc. Once those factors are precisely set (or, on a more elaborate system, where mount leveling, the wedge angle and north orientation would be achieved by stepper motors directed by the GPS), then goto and tracking would work fine with an equatorial wedge. That may well be the next step for these guys... Rich --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Can someone tell me why a GPS is even needed? You don't need to know your precise latitude to polar-align. It would be useful for occultation work, especially if you travel long distances to unknown territory, but a USGS topo map works just as well. What am I missing?
Thanks
C.
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