Accurate time for your PC

[JohnH]

I find this

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/atomic-clock/

a useful way to keep my Laptop clock accurate (and hence my mounts clock), this is needed for good goto just as much as leveliing you mount and polar alignment as a 1 sec time error will mean a 15 arcsec position error on the equator anyway....

[33South]

With XP this can be done automatically whenever you connect to the internet, unless you turn off the facility or the pc is a member of a domain.

Open the Control Panel, select the date/time app then goto the internet tab - theres the option to turn the time-synch on or off.
You can also change the time server if you want to.

[JohnH]

As you say this is not possible with the CP app if you are a member of a domain and a personal or network firewall may prevent clock synchronization.
in fact most corporate and organizational firewalls will block time synchronization (ours sure does), as do some personal firewalls.

Home users should read the firewall documentation for information about unblocking network time protocol (NTP). You should be able to synchronize your clock if you switch to Windows Firewall.

OR you can use an alternate....

[Dennis]

The Norton Internet Security 2006 (software) firewall blocks the XP clock synchronise function, so I simply turn it off, synchronise, then turn it back on again. I connect via a Router with a (hardware) firewall so believe the exposure risk is minimal.

Cheers

Dennis

[g__day]

Where's this internet tab under Windows XP?

[RB]

Control Panel | Date and Time | Internet (last tab)

[Dennis]

Here is a picture - worth 1000 words!

Cheers

Dennis

PS - Just double click the clock in the bottom right hand corner of the Task Bar to open the Time panel

[asimov]

You guys are just full of 'the good oil' :thumbsup: cheers on the howto for internet time sync. with XP :D

[RAJAH235]

Asilate, You'll never be able to use the excuse of..."I'm sorry, but I didn't know what time it was, any more"... :P :poke:..:D L.

[33South]

:lol:


I must admit I dont actualy use it either.:D

With W2K I was running Dimension4 timesynch and continued using that before I learnt about the inbuilt function of XP.

Free from http://www.thinkman.com/

[g__day]

Ahah, of course I was at work when I looked for this, under a network domain.... at home its visible.

So question 2 - How do you tell a CG5 goto mount to use your PCs now accurate to the second time?

[Dennis]

Not sure about the CG5, but when I connect my Tak EM200 or Vixen SS2K to the Notebook using The Sky Pro V6, I simply tell it to "Use the computer clock" which has previously been synced with the time server.

Same deal should work for the CG5 if The Sky recognises it and can connect to it?

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Do you recognise your 'scope here? This is the Telescope Set Up dialog in The Sky Pro 6.

Cheers

Dennis

[g__day]

Dennis,

That looks correct. I must say Meade seems to have totally proprietary, but richer software, whereas Celestron is limited.

[DjJazzy1967]

Hi All,
I have found that it is possible for Norton Personal Firewall and internet connection users (and possibly Network users) to use the Windows Internet Time Synchronization while the firewall is enabled.

Open 'Norton Personal Firewall' (double click the green world), click on 'Personal Firewall', and then click 'Configure' (bottom right). At the top click 'Home Networking', click on 'Trusted' then click 'Add'. In the box add the entries time.windows.com and time.nist.gov and then click 'OK'. You can add these entries separately or together leaving a space between each entry.

[Dennis]

Thanks for that Dj - I just added the first one, time.windows.com and the system time synchronised just fine.

Cheers

Dennis