GMT, DST, location, Synscan hand controller settings

[JohnT]

This may be a dumb question, but since I have been trying to align my scope for a few nights now, I thought I would ask:  The Synscan hand controller asks for your location in the world and the time of day.  I would have assumed that if you properly entered your lat/long and your local time, that the program would be smart enough to figure out if you are GMT-5, or even on Daylight savings... and not need to ask for that info too.  Since it does - my question is, if I am on DST, in New York Time zone, then technically I should enter DST = Yes, and GMT-4, correct?  Or.... if I put in GMT-5 (which is what I thought it was originally) and DST, does the hand controller do the calculation for me?  (and if it does that, why can't it do the calculation based on lat/long).   

 

LOL, the first couple times I entered data, I got the longitude wrong (east vs. west) then I got the GMT +/- wrong... needless to say, asking it to find something as simple as Vega had the scope pointing at the lawn.   I have other questions about the hand controller operation, and if there is a proper forum for thess questions, different from this one, please let me know.

[RaDec]

No such thing as a dumb question! Usually dumb answers, so here’s mine😂

As far as I remember (assuming the handset is non GPS Skywatcher) you should set the time zone to the winter setting (ie UT minus whatever) and then set the DST to whatever applies - ‘yes’ at the moment. Remember to re-set to ‘no’ when the clocks go back. The handset should then sort it from there. 
Hope this a) helps and b) is correct

[JohnT]

thanks.  Will try that.  Hopefully it gets me a bit closer to the alignment stars