I think you've nailed it here Bill. The Mac concerned is on the observatory and it does go to sleep for long periods when I'm not imaging.

Your post, together with the code inspection from Nou, shows that KStars does not have a robust approach to timekeeping.

I have tried changing the time setting to 'Mount updates KStars', since in my case that is a TCP link to TheSkyX, which does have robust timekeeping. but I have't seen any improvement yet.

Another problem with the set of 3 options (i.e. beyond the problem that there is no option of computer clock or NTP) is that they miss some obvious use cases. Imagine you have a GPS-based time (so 'GPS updates KStars'). Then you would also want 'KStars updates all devices' but selecting that option deselects the GPS.

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