On Sat, Mar 8, 2025 at 10:59 AM, Michael A. Covington wrote:
I run my Gemini on UTC year round -- saves trouble.
That's a common practice. With L6 and above, setting the correct timezone in Gemini has become less of a necessity. In previous versions, time set from a PC was sent as local/civil time, courtesy of the old Meade LX200 protocol. A wrong timezone would then result in the wrong time being set in Gemini.
?
With L6, the PC can now set Gemini time using UTC time (ASCOM driver does this). Even if the timezone is set incorrectly, Gemini internal time would still be correct. What's more, a wrong time zone would not affect the initial pointing accuracy in this case. The main downside would be the wrong civil time being displayed on the HC (which is also a downside of setting a 0 timezone offset year round, like you're doing).
Paul Kanevsky