Meade LXD55 Series Instruction Manual Download

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USEFUL AUTOSTAR PROCEDURES

Before trying out the examples in this section, familiarize yourself with the basic oper-
ations of Autostar described earlier in this manual. The following examples assume
that you have a basic knowledge of Autostar and understand how to scroll to a desired
menu or menu option, and how to enter numbers and text. It also assumes that you
have initialized and aligned your telescope.

Adding Observing Sites

If you plan to observe using Autostar at different geographic locations, you can store
up to six observation sites in Autostar's memory to help simplify your telescope setup.
Perform these procedures using the Site options (Add, Select, Delete, Edit) of the
Setup menu.

To Add a Site to the user-defined site list:

In this example, you will choose a city and add it to the database list. You will then
select the site to enable it.

Navigate to the "Setup: Site" menu. Press ENTER,

2. Scroll through the options until "Site: Add" displays. Press ENTER.

3. Scroll through the list of countries/states. Press ENTER when the country/state

you wish to add displays.

4. Scroll through the list of cities. Press ENTER when the city you wish to add dis-

plays. The Site is now added to the database. You may add 5 sites using this
method (the sixth site is the site you added during the manual initialization
process).

5. To choose a site, navigate to "Setup: Select." Press ENTER. Scroll through the

list of sites. When the desired site displays, press ENTER.

To Edit a Site

In this procedure, you will enter a location that is not available in the Autostar data-
base by editing data of a nearby site. You will edit the location's name, latitude. lon-
gitude and the time zone shift. You will then select the site to enable it.

You will need to know the latitude and longitude of your location to perform this pro-
cedure.

1. Using the Add option, choose a site on the list that is closest to your observing

site and press ENTER so that the site is added to your observing sites list.
Choosing a site already on the list (as opposed to using the "Custom" feature)
makes it easier to edit, as the "Time Zone" value may not need to be changed.

2. Scroll to "Site: Edit" and press ENTER. "Edit: Name" displays. Press ENTER.

3. The name of the site you have just entered to your list displays; if it does not,

scroll to the site.

4. Using the Arrow keys, change the name of the site so that it now reads the name

of your observing location. Press ENTER. "Edit: Name" displays again.

5. Press the Scroll Down key and "Edit: Latitude" displays. Press ENTER.

6. Using the Number Keys, enter the latitude of your observing site and then press

ENTER. "Edit: Latitude" displays again.

7. Press the Scroll Down key and "Edit: Longitude" displays. Press ENTER.

Using the Number Keys, enter the longitude of your observing site and then press
ENTER. "Edit: Longitude" displays again.

9. Press the Scroll Down key and "Edit: Time Zone" displays. Press ENTER. (If the

site you chose from the list in step 1 has the same Time Zone as the site you are
editing, just press ENTER again to go on to the next step.) "Time Zone" refers to
the Greenwich Time Zone shift. Users West of Greenwich, use "-" hours (one
hour per time zone) and users East of Greenwich use "+" hours. For the United
States, look up the shift in

TABLE 1,

at the left.

10. After entering the shift, press ENTER. "Edit Time Zone" displays.

Time Zone

Shift

Atlantic

-4 Hours

Eastern

-5 Hours

Central

-6 Hours

Mountain