Meade Autostar Instruction Manual

How to Create Your Own Guided Tour

When a Guided Tour is selected, Autostar slews your telescope to a predetermined list of objects and displays information about each object, such as type of object, constellation location, R.A. and Dec coordinates, and so forth. Autostar contains a few Guided Tours which are programmed at the factory. But it is also possible for an observer to create a custom Guided Tour.

A tour is basically an ASCII text file that contains a list of directions and descriptions. Each line of a tour is either a comment line, a command line, or a description.

What you will need:

• A PC with text editor or word processing software installed (the tour must be saved as a "text only" or as a "MS-DOS text" file).

• The Meade #505 Cable Connector Kit to download tour information to the Autostar handbox.

Tour Modes

The objects chosen for a tour list are selected from Autostar's database or by entering the object's RA and Dec coordinates. The tour is presented in one of two modes:

Automatic Mode: The title of an object appears on first line and descriptive text scrolls on line 2. Interactive Mode: Tour name appears on the first line of the Autostar display and the name of

the object displays on line 2. To display descriptive text in this mode, the user must press ENTER.

Comment Line

Information in the Tour program that is not displayed, such as authorship, revision history, copyrights, etc. All comments begin with a "/" character in column 1 of the line. For example:

Command Line

This line contains programming commands, including: RA and DEC coordinates, a title string, a description string, and a keyword.

RA: Enter the Right Ascension of an object in the following format: HH:MM:SS. Eg., 18:51:05 Dec: Enter the Declination of an object in the following format: DDdMMmSSs. Eg., – 06d16m00s Title String: Text within a title string is displayed as the title of the object. Atitle string can con-

tain up to 16 characters and must be surrounded by quotation marks. For example. "M64" or "My Favorite Star."

In Interactive Mode, the title string appears on line 2 until it is selected with the ENTER key. In Automatic Mode, or after Interactive Mode selection, the title string appears on line 1 while

the description scrolls across line 2. Keywords: Action to be performed during a tour. Autostar recognizes the following keywords: TITLE TEXT USER NGC

IC SAO MESSIER CALDWELL PLANET MOON SATELLITE ASTEROID COMET LUNAR ECLIPSE METEOR SHOWER DEEP SKY CONSTELLATION STAR LANDMARK DEFINE PICK ONE/PICK END AUTO SLEW ON/OFF #END

Description String: Description of an object. Must be surrounded by quotation marks. If the description is longer than one line, each line must end with a quotation mark and a hard return. Begin the next description line with a quotation mark.

If quotation marks are to be displayed in the on-screen description, use two quote marks at the beginning and end of the desired phrase. For example: "The Orion Nebula is considered ""awesome"" by many who view it."

Writing a Tour

Using the list of commands listed above, a custom tour can be created. Placing the word AUTO SELECT before any of the command lines activates Automatic Mode and, when selected, Autostar automatically searches and finds the designated object.

The following is a list of command lines, complete with keywords and necessary strings: TITLE

Title must be the first keyword in your tour after any comment lines and must be 15 characters or less. Autostar displays this title when "Guided Tour" is selected from the menus.

For example: TITLE "A Star's Life" TEXT "title string" "description string"

This command allows you to display a text title and description. USER ra dec "title string" "description string"

This command line allows you to access a specific object with your own description. Enter USER, then the RA and DEC of a desired object, and its title and description. Use the format described in the Command Line section.

The following commands specify objects that are already in the Autostar database. If these commands follow the command AUTO SELECT, the object's title displays on line 1 and its description scrolls across line 2.

Do not add a description string after the following command lines; these commands access objects with existing description in the Autostar database.

NGC xxxx Enter NGC followed by the desired New General Catalog number and Autostar provides the user with a description of the object from its database. For example: NGC 4256

IC xxxx Enter IC followed by the desired Index Catalog number and Autostar provides the user with a description of the object from its database. For example: IC 1217

SAO xxxxxx Enter SAO followed by the desired SAO number and Autostar provides the user with a description of the object from its database. For example: SAO 30200

Messier xxx Enter MESSIER followed by the desired Messier number and Autostar provides the user with a description of the object from its database. For example: M 101

CALDWELL xxx Enter CALDWELL followed by the Caldwell number and Autostar provides the user with a description of the object from its database. For example: CALDWELL 17

PLANET "name" Enter PLANET and then the name of the desired planet in quotes. Autostar provides the user with a description of the selected planet from its database. For example: PLANET "Pluto"

MOON This command accesses information about the Moon from the Autostar database.

SATELLITE "name" Enter SATELLITE and then the name of the desired satellite in quotes. Autostar displays information about the satellite from its database. For example: SATELLITE: "Intl Space Stn"

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