Meade Telescope, LXD 75 instruction manual Menus, Object Menu

Want to learn more about

observing satellites?

See page 34.

Want to learn more about

Landmarks?

See page 34.

MENUS

Object Menu

Almost all observing with Autostar is performed using the Object menu category. (Note: Exceptions include Guided Tour and Landmark Survey.) See GO TO SATURN, page 21, for an example of observing using the Object menu. Also see USING THE GUIDED TOUR, page 22.

Autostar contains many libraries of viewable objects, such as stars, planets, comets, nebulae and so forth. When one of these objects is selected from a library, Autostar moves your telescope (if properly aligned) and points it at the selected object.

The Object Menu options include:

Solar System is a library of the eight planets (Earth is not included) in order out from the Sun, followed by the Moon, asteroids, and comets.

Constellation is a library of all 88 Northern and Southern Hemisphere constellations. When this menu option is chosen and a constellation name appears on the first line of the screen, press GO TO once to change the second line to the name of the bright- est star in the constellation. Press GO TO a second time to slew the telescope to that star. Use the Scroll keys to cycle through the list of stars in the constellation, from brightest to dimmest.

Deep Sky is a library of objects outside our Solar System such as nebulae, star clus- ters, galaxies, and quasars.

Star is a library of stars listed in different categories such as named, double, variable, or nearby.

Satellite is a library of Earth-orbiting objects such as the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, and geo- synchronous orbit satellites.

User Objects allows the user to define and store in memory deep-sky objects of spe- cific interest that are not currently in the Autostar libraries. See Using Autostar to Find Objects Not in the Libraries, page 33 for more information.

Landmarks stores the location of terrestrial points of interest in the permanent Autostar database.

Important Note: To use the Landmark function, the telescope must be located and aligned exactly as when the landmark was added to the data- base.

■Select: To select a Landmark already in the database (see ADD below), choose the "Select" option and scroll through the list. Press ENTER to select a Landmark, then press GO TO and the telescope slews to the object.

■Add: To add a Landmark, choose the "Add" option. Enter a name for the Landmark. Locate and center the Landmark in the eyepiece, then press ENTER.

Identify is an exciting feature for an observer who wants to scan the night sky and start exploring. After the telescope has been properly aligned, use the Autostar Arrow keys to move about in the sky. Then follow this procedure:

Important Note: Only use the Arrow keys to move the telescope during the Identify procedure. Do not loosen the telescope locks or move the base or alignment is lost.

1.When a desired object is visible in the eyepiece, keep pressing MODE until the “Select Item: Object” menu is displayed. Press ENTER to select this menu.

2.Scroll through the Object menu options until the “Object: Identify” screen appears.

3.Press ENTER. Autostar searches the libraries for the identity of the object being observed.

4.If the telescope is not directly on an Autostar library object, the nearest library object is located and displayed on the screen. Press GO TO and the telescope slews to that object.

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