[LEAPSECS] Telescope pointing

[Steve Allen]

On 2012 Jun 8, at 09:11, Warner Losh wrote:

> I've heard of some with built-in GPS receivers to get time,

> and the internal receivers were hard to swap out


The last one in my paper is the APF.  It is a closed-source
black-box system which relies on its own nonconformant code for
celestial and terrestrial reference systems, and gets its time
from a commercial GPS receiver.  The field of view of its guider
is very small, and it was purchased with the intention that its
software would be able to point and acquire objects with no
human assistance.  That telescope will fail if rules for UTC change. 

We are fortunate that we can construct incorrect information for
one of its configuration inputs and fix the problem.  This trick
is, however, extremely dependent on the particulars of the system
and the way we will use it.  Your mileage may vary.
                                                                            
--
Steve Allen               <sla at ucolick.org>              WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory      Natural Sciences II, Room 165  Lat  +36.99855
University of California  Voice: +1 831 459 3046         Lng -122.06015
Santa Cruz, CA 95064      http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/   Hgt +250 m