How it works

Methodology

MountMonitor communicates over ethernet and starts with retrieving the mount model, firmware version, and ID. It then looks at which side of the pier the telescopes are, sets the output resolution to high (to get more decimals in the output) and retrieves the current azimuth and altitude. The information retreived in this stage is only used to to populate the headers of the log and data files. MountMonitor does not alter any data in the mount, it only sets its output to high-resolution (only in LX200 mode, and automatically goes to low-res upon reboot), other settings are left in their current state.

MountMonitor also allows to connect to a NIST-server to check the time at regular intervals (see preferences). MountMonitor does not change the time of the PC and mount clocks.

Once running it records status, time, RA, DEC and the axial orientations from the mount, draws this data in the DEC, RA and time graphs, and looks if the data stays within the tolerances as set by the user. As reference the median of the data or the mount's target coordinates can be used. Optionally a simple seismometer can be connected, which results in an additional graph, so correlation between environmental vibrations and tracking anamolies can be seen.