Required

Telescope.EquatorialSystem Property

Telescope.EquatorialSystem (read-only, EquatorialCoordinateType)

Equatorial coordinate system used by this telescope.

Syntax

Telescope.EquatorialSystem

The property syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
Value (EquatorialCoordinateType)	Equatorial coordinate system used by this telescope.

Remarks

Most amateur telescopes use local topocentric coordinates. This coordinate system is simply the apparent position in the sky (possibly uncorrected for atmospheric refraction) for "here and now", thus these are the coordinates that one would use with digital setting circles and most amateur scopes.

More sophisticated telescopes use one of the standard reference systems established by professional astronomers. The most common is the Julian Epoch 2000 (J2000). These instruments apply corrections for precession, nutation, abberration, etc. to adjust the coordinates from the standard system to the pointing direction for the time and location of "here and now".

Symbolic Constants

The (symbolic) values for EquatorialCoordinateType are:

Constant	Value	Description
equLocalTopocentric	1	Local topocentric; this is the most common for amateur scopes.
equJ2000	2	J2000 equator/equinox, ICRS reference frame
equJ2050	3	J2050 equator/equinox, ICRS reference frame
equOther	0	Custom or unknown equinox and/or reference frame
equB1950	4	B1950 equinox, FK4 reference frame