Instruction manual

INDEX
AutoStar #497 HANDBOX
29
AUTOSTAR #497 MENU OPTIONS
29
you observe will remain centered in the eyepiece.
If “Terrestrial” is selected, the tracking motor is
turned off..
Site provides access to several options including:
• Select: Displays the currently selected
observing site. Use the Scroll keys to cycle
through all available sites (see Add below).
Press ENTER when the site you wish to select
displays. Use this option when you move to a
different geographic location.
• Add: Allows you to add new observing sites to
the database (up to six sites may be stored).
Scroll through the list of Countries/States.
Press ENTER when the site you wish to add
displays. Then choose the desired city in the
same manner.
• Delete: Deletes a stored site from
the database.
• Edit: Edits a selected site, including: the name,
latitude, longitude, and time zone. Time Zone
refers to the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) time
zone shift. Users West of Greenwich, England
use “-” hours, East of Greenwich use “+” hours.
For the United States, look up the time zone
shift in the table at left.
AutoStar compensates for daylight savings
time, if selected. See Setup Menu: Daylight
Saving, page 28.
Owner Info accesses the owner information menu,
including:
• Name: Users may enter both their fi rst and last
names using the Up and Down Arrow keys to
cycle through the alphabet. Use the Right and
Left Arrow keys to move through the text. Press
ENTER when the entry is complete.
• Address: Use the Up and Down Arrow keys
to enter your street address, city, state, and
zip code. Press ENTER when the entry is
complete.
Download transfers information from another AutoStar
during cloning (see below). During the operation, the
warning “Downloading Do Not Turn Off” appears.
rates.
• Reverse L/R reverses the functions of the Left
and Right Arrow keys (i.e., the Right key moves
the telescope to the left).
• Reverse UP/DOWN reverses the functions of
the Up and Down Arrow keys (i.e., the Up key
moves the telescope down).
• Quiet Slew sets the maximum slew rate to 1.5°
for quieter operation.
• Max Elevation allows you to enter a value in
degrees that sets a limit as to how far the optical
tube can swing upward during a programmed
slew. (Note that it does not prevent you from
performing a manual slew past this limit.) This
is useful when you have a camera or other
peripheral attached to the telescope—you can
prevent it from striking the telescope base.
• Min AOS (Acquisition of Signal) allows you
enter a value in degrees. This value represents
the altitude at which your telescope begins
to slew when acquiring a satellite track. This
is useful when you are observing satellites,
but a tall tree or building is obstructing the
telescope. For example, you might begin to
track the satellite at 15° altitude, instead of 5°.
See Observing Satellites, page 32, for more
information about satellites.
• Calibrate Motor if the telescope motors appear
to have a problem, use this option to retest
the motors before performing a Reset. This
option is also used if an AutoStar unit is moved
between telescopes, to match AutoStar to the
new telescope. To calibrate the motors, select
this option and press ENTER.
• High Precision if turned on, when looking for
a faint celestial object (i.e., a nebula or galaxy),
AutoStar fi rst slews to a nearby bright star and
displays “ENTER to Sync”. Center the star in
the eyepiece, then press ENTER. At that point
the telescope has a high precision alignment
to that part of the sky and it then slews to the
object that was originally requested.
Targets switches between Astronomical targets and
Terrestrial targets. If “Astronomical” is selected, the
telescope tracking motor is activated and any object