Paramount GEM User Guide
23 | P a g e
If, after homing the mount, the telescope cross hairs do not end up near hour angle 2.0 and declination
0.0 (or hour angle –2.0, declination 0.0 in the southern hemisphere), either TheSky Professional’s site
information is wrong, or the mount has been synchronized on the wrong star.
Remember, the mechanical home position of the Paramount cannot change. So, if the mount’s relative
home position is wrong (or the telescope cross hairs do not appear in the correct location on the Sky
Chart), please double check the synchronization (page 25) and TheSky Professional’s location, date, and
time settings for your location before submitting a support request.
To Label the Home Position in TheSky
The following procedure assumes this is a first-time mount synchronization.
1. From TheSky Professional, click Input, Location and make sure the settings on the Custom tab
match your observing site.
2. Click Tools, Verify TheSky Time to make sure your computer’s time matches an independent time
source.
3. Click Telescope, Connect to establish communication with the mount. The mount’s Status text
on the Telescope window will show Not Homed.
4. On the Telescope window, click Start Up, Find Home to slew to the home position.
5. From the Telescope window, click the Tools, Turn Tracking Off. This turns the mount’s sidereal
tracking off to keep the mount at the home position.
6. Click Telescope, TPoint Module.
7. On the Setup tab, turn off the Apply Pointing Corrections checkbox and click Close. TPoint will
change the position of the telescope cross hairs based on the current model, but the goal is to
show the home position label without modeling.
8. Click on the center of the telescope cross hair and note the altitude and azimuth of this position.
This is the horizon-based coordinate of the home position.
9. Click Input, My Chart Elements.
10. Click Add Object, then press the Command button + click (macOS) or the Control button + click
(Windows/Linux) with the cursor on the desired position of the home position on the Sky Chart.
This adds a Reference Point element to the My Chart Elements list and to the Sky Chart.
11. Highlight this element in the My Chart Elements list and click Edit. Select Horizon and enter the
Alt/Az coordinates of the home position from step #8. For the label, enter Absolute Home
Position. Click OK show this Reference Point on the Sky Chart.
The Sky Chart now shows a label at the absolute home position of the mount. To double-check the
accuracy of this position, on the Telescope window, click Tools, Find Home.
Note, once the telescope has been calibrated and a working TPoint model is in place, the position of the
telescope cross hairs are modified based on the model.
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