prompts you to turn off the telescope's power, Autostar II is unable to be returned to operation without turning the power off and then back on.

Setup Menu

There are numerous other features available within the Setup menu, including:

Align: Let's you choose a method of alignment.

Align on Home: If Calibrate Home has been performed, power up your telescope and select this menu to return the previously calibrated home position. In other words, the telescope is fully aligned according to the setting that were stored in Autostar II's memory during the Calibrate Home procedure. See CALIBRATE HOME, below, for more information.

Telescope: Accesses several options, including:

￿Telescope Model: Allows you to select the type of OTA mounted on Max.

￿Collimate: Allows you use the Arrow keys to collimate the telescope. See pages 28 - 29 for more details.

￿Align OTA: Allows you to align the OTA properly if you are not using an MAX- ACF model or if you have changed your MAX-ACF collimation or mounting sig- nificantly from the factory defaults. When you select this menu, Autostar will ask you to center two stars in the telescope that are on opposite sides of the sky.

Once you have centered them, the telescope will slew back to the first star. You will then be asked to center the star using the OTA align bolt. See page 30 for more information.

￿Max Past Meridian: Allows you to set how far the OTA axis can tilt past the meridian. 2° is the default setting.

￿Focal Length: Displays the focal length of the selected telescope.

￿Max Slew Rate: Sets the upper limit for the slew rate. 2.4° degrees per second is the fastest setting.

￿Park Position: After aligning your telescope, select this menu and power down the telescope. The alignment settings—North, time, alignment stars—are stored in Autostar II's memory and are remembered after you power off the telescope. When you power on the telescope, "Automatic Alignment" displays after the start up routine. Press MODE (do not press ENTER). The telescope remembers its alignment and you can continue viewing or performing other operations without aligning the telescope again.

Park Position provides two options. Use Current Position uses the last position set by the user. Default Position places scope in the home position.

￿Calibrate Home: For permanently mounted telescopes only. After aligning your telescope, select this menu and the alignment settings—North, time, alignment stars—are stored in Autostar II's memory and are remembered after you power off the telescope. You can enable Autostar II to retrieve and automatically align your telescope using these settings the next time you power up by choosing the Align on Home menu. This menu helps improve auto alignment.

￿Anti-Backlash:This option allows you to change the backlash along either the R.A. and the Dec. axes by entering a number from 0% to 199%. This sets the back- lash in the way the Arrow keys move the telescope along an axis. If you enter a value near 199%, telescope responds more quickly as you hold down an Arrow key. If you enter a value near 0%, it takes longer for the tube to respond as you hold down an Arrow key. Experiment with this option: Try changing the values until the motion of the telescope (while holding down an Arrow key) feels comfortable to you.

￿Train Drive: All telescopes have a certain amount of "backlash" (looseness in the interplay of gears). This menu allows you to compensate for the backlash in the the R.A. and Dec motors—which helps locate objects with more precision.

￿Tracking Rate: Changes the speed at which the telescope tracks targets

38

Looking at or near the Sun will cause irreversible damage to your eye. Do not point this telescope at or near the

 

Sun. Do not look through the telescope as it is moving.

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Image 38
Meade MAX-ACF instruction manual Setup Menu