I spent some more time digging thru the dome slaving code ,and found another rather significant discrepancy in the math, which I corrected. The other detail, to correctly handle a gem mount requires side of pier information, but not all mounts report side of pier, and, those that do are not always consistent. I added code to 'figure it out' based on the hour angle, which works well here.
Dome slaving is now accurate. I just spent an evening with a telescope wandering all over the sky, and had no issues with slit alignment, after every slew the scope was pointed directly at the center of the slit.
I wrote up a bit of a blurb on how I initially tested these changes, with photos and a description of the test procedure, you can read that here:-
astro.rozehaven.ca/astro/?p=223
I think this change will put the issue of slit alignment to bed for good. My test setup now shows the dome is placing the slit directly in front of the telescope in all directions
Dome slaving is now accurate. I just spent an evening with a telescope wandering all over the sky, and had no issues with slit alignment, after every slew the scope was pointed directly at the center of the slit.
I wrote up a bit of a blurb on how I initially tested these changes, with photos and a description of the test procedure, you can read that here:-
astro.rozehaven.ca/astro/?p=223
I think this change will put the issue of slit alignment to bed for good. My test setup now shows the dome is placing the slit directly in front of the telescope in all directions