Meade ETX-70AT Junior Instruction Manual page 56

ImportANt Note:
While performing the
automatic tracking pro-
cedure, only use the
Arrow keys to move
the telescope. Once
the telescope has been
set in the Alt/Az home
position, do not loosen
the telescope locks (6
and 9, Fig. 1), or move
the base manually, or
alignment will be lost.
Time Zone shift
Universal-Time 0 Hours
Central European
Time +1 Hour
Eastern European
Time +2 Hours
table 1: Time Zone Shift.
20 Autostar Menus
• Train drive: Trains the altitude and azimuth motors to locate objects with more preci-
sion.
If you are experiencing any problems with pointing accuracy, follow the procedure
described in "APPENDIX C: TRAINING THE DRIVE," page 31, to insure accurate pointing
and tracking.
• Tracking Rate: Changes the speed at which the telescope tracks targets in the sky.
a. sidereal: The default setting for Autostar; sidereal rate is the standard rate at which
stars move from East to West across the sky due to the rotation of the Earth.
b. lunar: Choose this option to properly track the Moon over long observing sessions.
c. Custom: Allows entry of user-defined tracking 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).
• Calibrate Motor: If the telescope motors appear to have a problem, use this option to
retest the motors before doing a Reset. This option is also used if an Autostar unit is
moved between telescopes to match Autostar to the telescope.
• High precision: If High Precision is turned on, when looking for a faint celestial object
(i.e., a nebula or galaxy), Autostar first 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 tar-
gets are selected, the telescope tracking motor is activated and objects you're observing will
remain centered in the eyepiece. If Terrestrial targets are selected, the tracking motor is turned
off.
To track an object automatically, set the telescope in the Alt/Az home position (see „EASY
TWO-STAR ALIGNMENT PROCEDURE, step #8", page 14), locate an object you wish to
observe using Autostar's Arrow keys (see page 11), and center the object in the eyepiece.
Then scroll to the „Targets: Astronomical" menu display and press ENTER. Autostar then auto-
matically slews (moves) the telescope to keep the object centered in the eyepiece.
site provides access to several options including:
• select: Displays the currently selected observing site and
other sites you have entered into a user-defined database (see „Add" below)
the Scroll keys to cycle through all available sites in this database. Press ENTER when the
site you wish to select displays. Use this option when you move to a different geographic
location.
Note: Only the site that is entered during Initialization (see page 16) will be dis-
played until other sites are entered with the „Add" option.
• Add: Allows you to add a new observing site 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 Table 1.
Note: Autostar compensates for daylight savings time, if selected. See "Setup
Menu: Daylight Saving," page 19.
owner Info accesses the owner information menu, including:
• Name: Users may enter both their first 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.
statistics provides basic statistical data about Autostar, including:
• Characters Free: Shows how much room is available in user-defined object memory.
• Version: Shows the current version of the Autostar software.
Reset completely resets Autostar. Autostar requires initialization again after a Reset before
proceeding with observations. See "INITIALIZING AUTOSTAR," page 12. You also need to
perform "TRAINING THE DRIVE," page 31.
and also allows you to select
. Use