Default Park/Unpark Positions

Unpark from: the scope position from which to unpark if the mount needs to be initialized. The mount will only be initialized when Right Ascension = 0 and Declination = 90°. It is highly recommended to leave this setting as "Last Parked".

Note: If you do not wish to unpark the mount when first connecting, then select "Don't Unpark".

Park To: the position to which the mount will be parked when an ASCOM Park call is received. Astro-Physics mounts have five pre-defined Park positions. Please consult the mount's manual for descriptions and illustrations of the park positions.

In addition to the five standard park positions you can define one custom park position at any valid Alt/Az coordinate. Remember that Astro-Physics mounts do NOT require parking at the end of a session!

IMPORTANT: If you have "Unpark From" set to anything other than "Last Parked", when you unpark the mount from an ASCOM client application a popup will come up to confirm that the mount is actually in that position. This is usually undesirable because human intervention (you, most likely!) will be required to continue. This is a safety precaution.

For instance, here is what could happen if the  popup did not warn you -- say you parked to "Park 1" and had mistakenly had the driver set to unpark from "Park 3". Then, the mount would be initialized to the wrong position the next time it is initialized. That is, unless you physically moved the mount to Park 3 first.

The popup is warning you to make sure the mount is in the correct position. But, "Unpark from Last Parked position" uses the park position stored in the mount's non-volatile ram the last time it was parked or shut off. No popup is needed in this case, so ASCOM clients will continue even when unattended. So, it is highly recommended to configure "unpark From" to Last Parked.

ParkUnparkSpotlight

The Defined AP Park Positions - Pictorial Summary

Park-cheater

Astro-Physics AP V2 Driver v5.60.xx