The last time I used my solar telescope more than a month ago I encountered a communication problem between the telescope mount and the software controlling the mount. Up until that point the mount and software had performed flawlessly. I waited through cold cloudy January for an opportunity to investigate the problem. Finally, on February 4th, afternoon temperature reached the low 50's. Thin clouds were present, it was windy, and the seeing was not very good, but it was warm enough to work on the mount/software problem without numb fingers.
Upon startup the mount initially moves to a predetermined "home" position. If the mount is nearly aligned to the north celestial pole, the telescope will then point at the celestial equator about 30 degrees west of the meridian. If the software is properly synchronized with the mount, the software should show the telescope pointing at the celestial equator 30 degrees west of the meridian. When I began my problem solving session on February 4th the telescope itself seemed to be pointing at the correct position in the sky above. The software, however, showed the telescope pointing well below the celestial equator. In other words, the telescope mount and the software were "not on the same page". I hoped I could correct the problem by simply moving the telescope to the Sun and "synchronizing" on the Sun. After this synchronization I commanded the mount to move to the "home" position. This time both the mount and the software were, indeed, "on the same page". I hope this has solved the problem. I'll know the next time I set my equipment up.
After fixing the synchronization problem I captured a few videos through the thin, thickening clouds. A few modest sunspots were scattered about along with a nice collection of filaments on the Sun's eastern side. The following 13-image mosaic made with a 2X Barlow lens shows most of the interesting features. (Click on the images below for a larger view.)
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