I'm int the process of setting up a telescope and mount (skywatcher AZ-EQ5GT) to look at an artificial star that we will generate in the mesosphere using laser aiming to measure the magnetic field up there. I've successfully set up KSTARS/EKOS and it works fine with controlling the mount.
However, I've not been able to find an efficient way of giving altitude and azimuth as Goto input in EKOS, except by right-clicking on the sky map which isn't very efficient and accurate. EKOS seems to be set up only to receive celestial coordinates, which of course makes sense for looking at celestial objects, but my artificial star will be stationary with respect to the ground. We will be pointing the laser at several locations in the sky, so it will be necessary to change direction of the telescope as well.
Are there any ways of giving horizontal coordinates as input for goto in EKOS?
Hints will be highly appreciated! Maybe I just missed some functionality?

Cheers,
Magnar

Read More...