Meade 4504 instruction manual How Starfinders Menus Work, Starfinder Navigation Exercise

OBJECT

Select from over 1400 database objects and

press GO TO to move the telescope automatically to the object and place it in the telescopic field of view.

SETUP

Quick, easy alignment permits all telescope operations with only a 2-minute setup.

Select Item:

Setup

UTILITIES Calculate eyepiece magnifications; set the timer for an observing session; or survey user landmarks in 30-second intervals.

Select Item:

Utilities

GLOSSARY

Discover the world of astronomy by alphabetically accessing astronomical terms.

Select Item:

Object

The Universe of

Starfinder

Select Item:

Glossary

Select Item:

Event

EVENT

Access the time of an astronomical event, such as the rising or setting times of the Moon.

Select Item: Guided Tour

GUIDED TOUR Journey through the universe as Starfinder escorts you to the best celestial objects at your location.

Fig. 18: The Starfinder universe.

How Starfinder's Menus Work

It is important to understand that Starfinder's menu selections are set in a loop. This means that pressing the Scroll Down key cycles down through all the available options within a given category and then returns to the first option. The Scroll Up key cycles up through the options in the opposite order. Note that this capability is a quick way to get to an option that is near the bottom of the list. The following example demonstrates this capability.

To navigate to the "Select Item: Setup" menu option when the "Select Item: Object" menu is displayed:

1. Press the Scroll Down key four times or the Scroll Up key once.

The screen in Fig. 19 displays two lines of information. The top line shows the current menu level. The second line displays an option which may be selected within that menu level. Some options are choices that select the next menu level down. The Scroll keys move up and down within the list of available options, showing one option at a time.

Select Item

Object

Select Item

Solar System

Fig. 19: Starfinder levels.

When the desired option is displayed on the second line, press the ENTER key to choose that option and move down one menu level.

To leave a level (e.g., the wrong menu option is chosen), press the MODE key.

IMPORTANT NOTE: No matter how many menu levels of Starfinder are traveled, each press of the MODE key moves up a level, until the top menu level, "Select Item," is reached. Once in the Select Item level, press MODE to return to the topmost available screen: "Select Item: Object."

Starfinder Navigation Exercise

To demonstrate how the Starfinder menu structure works, the following exercise cal- culates the Sunset time so an evening observing session can be planned.

page 26