Meade Autostar Quick start guide

M e a d e I n s t r u m e n t s
A u t o s t a r
S u i t e _
Desktop Observing
For Windows_
Version 3.12
7 January 2004

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A KNOWLEDGMENTS
Images have been provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Santa Barbara Instrument Group, Astrolink, Inc., SS Observatories and other private sources.
The SKY ATALOG 2000.0 database is published by Sky Publishing orp..
The NG 2000.0 catalog is published by Sky Publishing orp..
Packaging design by Hee Moon Design and Assoc.

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Table of Con en s
Introduction................................................................................................................................................... 5
A No e on Accuracy..................................................................................................................................... 5
Sys em Requiremen s .................................................................................................................................. 5
1. Installation.............................................................................................................................................. 5
Quick S ar .................................................................................................................................................. 6
2. File .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Open............................................................................................................................................................ 7
8 Bit versus.12 or 16 Bit Images.......................................................................................................................8
Close............................................................................................................................................................ 9
Save............................................................................................................................................................. 9
Save As........................................................................................................................................................ 9
Prin ............................................................................................................................................................ 9
Prin er Se up............................................................................................................................................... 9
Page Se up..................................................................................................................................................10
Se Cus om Ca alogs...................................................................................................................................10
Compile......................................................................................................................................................11
Build Tables ...............................................................................................................................................11
Exi .............................................................................................................................................................11
3. Time....................................................................................................................................................... 13
Time Display ..............................................................................................................................................13
Se Time & Da e .........................................................................................................................................14
Gregorian ..................................................................................................................................................14
Julian........................................................................................................................................................14
Se Timezone ..............................................................................................................................................14
Se Loca ion................................................................................................................................................14
Save Parame ers.........................................................................................................................................15
4. Ephemeris ............................................................................................................................................. 17
Moon Calendar...........................................................................................................................................17
Eclipse Calendars .......................................................................................................................................17
Show Curren Values..................................................................................................................................17
5. Starmap................................................................................................................................................. 19
Previous View.............................................................................................................................................19
Redraw.......................................................................................................................................................19
Anima e S armap .......................................................................................................................................19
Viewpoin ...................................................................................................................................................20

Objec Selec ion..........................................................................................................................................21
Lock Az/El..................................................................................................................................................22
Zeni h Up ...................................................................................................................................................22
Magni udes.................................................................................................................................................22
Hubble S ars...............................................................................................................................................22
Inver Screen Colors...................................................................................................................................23
Mirror ........................................................................................................................................................23
Zoom ..........................................................................................................................................................23
Op ions.......................................................................................................................................................23
Projec ions..................................................................................................................................................24
Precision.....................................................................................................................................................24
Rese Parame ers........................................................................................................................................25
6. Starmap Utilities................................................................................................................................... 27
Cen er Objec .............................................................................................................................................27
Se Dis ance Ref...........................................................................................................................................27
Objec Descrip ion......................................................................................................................................27
Add o User Da a........................................................................................................................................27
Slew Telescope............................................................................................................................................27
Sync Telescope............................................................................................................................................27
View Log ....................................................................................................................................................28
Show Image................................................................................................................................................28
Crea e Tour................................................................................................................................................28
Add To Tour...............................................................................................................................................29
7. Telescope............................................................................................................................................... 31
Pro ocol ......................................................................................................................................................31
None.........................................................................................................................................................31
Autostar Via omm Port...............................................................................................................................31
Via Modem ................................................................................................................................................31
Via Network...............................................................................................................................................31
A Single Machine Networks/Port Sharing ........................................................................................................32
Se Field Sizes.............................................................................................................................................32
Remo e Handbox........................................................................................................................................33
A Talking Telescope/Port Sharing ..................................................................................................................34
Con rol Panel .............................................................................................................................................34
Scope Se ings.............................................................................................................................................35
Au o Track .................................................................................................................................................35
Communica ions.........................................................................................................................................35
S ar Ne work Server..................................................................................................................................35
Comm Por Se up.......................................................................................................................................36

Tes Comm Por .........................................................................................................................................37
Dome Con rol.............................................................................................................................................37
. Image..................................................................................................................................................... 39
LPI .............................................................................................................................................................39
Pic or..........................................................................................................................................................39
Pic or Guiding............................................................................................................................................40
9. Options.................................................................................................................................................. 43
Nigh Vision................................................................................................................................................43
Grayscale Pale e and S andard Pale e......................................................................................................43
Appendix A .................................................................................................................................................. 45
Image Processing Basics .............................................................................................................................45
Appendix B .................................................................................................................................................. 47
Cons an s....................................................................................................................................................47
Bibliography................................................................................................................................................ 49
Glossary ....................................................................................................................................................... 51
Index............................................................................................................................................................ 55

Chapter 2 File 5
Introduction
Welcome to Autostar Suite, the Desktop Observatory. Now you can perform many of the same computer assisted
observing tasks as professional astronomer would do on a large institutional observatories. With Autostar Suite you
can: • View the sky as it appears from anywhere on Earth.
• See over 45,000 stars in their B-V colors.
• View scaled representations of over 13,000 clusters, nebulas, galaxies and other deep sky objects.
• Accurately display and animate all of the planets, 7700 asteroids and 650 comets.
• Using the high precision option, determine the position of the solar system object to an accuracy better than 1
second of arc.
• Zoom-in to a field-of-view less than 1 second of arc.
• Measure angular distance between stellar objects.
• Enhance high resolution D images using advanced image processing techniques.
• Determine stellar magnitudes directly from D images, and a number of other powerful features.
• ontrol your telescope with your computer either from a direct connection, or remotely via a network.
• Monitor your telescope’s position on your computer as you observe
• ontrol solid state astronomical imagers.
• Analyze your observations
• Process image in color or black and white.
A Note on Accuracy
Autostar Suite was designed to be extremely powerful and accurate. Many programs designed for the P have taken
shortcuts to appear faster, but at the expense of accuracy! Not Autostar Suite! By carefully coding each section of the
program using 64 bit floating point numbers, Autostar Suite takes full advantage of your Math oprocessor to provide
fast and accurate performance. This gives you the power and accuracy that rivals main-frame computer performance.
The high precision does come with some cost in performance. Even though great care was taken to provide the most
efficient code possible, Autostar Suite may be slower at certain functions, such as starmap generation, than programs
that calculate positions only to a precision barely suitable for display purposes.
All calculations are performed using the most rigorous forms of the algorithms. The resulting values are comparable
to those found in the Astronomical Almanac. Any resulting discrepancies are a result of the original values of the
input data, not from programming short cuts. For example, the positions of the asteroids and comets, are first
calculated to a high level of accuracy using Newton's method to solve Kepler's equation for the solution of an elliptical
orbit. Then the coordinates are corrected for the time it takes for the light from the object to reach the Earth and for
planetary aberration. This assures that the resulting values are correct for that exact instant of time. Finally, the
coordinates are corrected for the precession and nutation of the Earth. If you have chosen the Topocen ric precision
option, the values are then corrected to show the position from your selected viewing site's latitude, longitude and
elevation. Many other programs only use approximate formulae which may be valid only for a small time span.
System Requirements
The minimum system required to run Autostar Suite are as follows:
• 64 Meg Ram.
• Hard Disk with 12 Megabytes of free space.
• Super VGA adapter and compatible monitor.
• Windows 98SE or greater
• Pentium PU IBM-P /AT or faster.
• A Microsoft compatible mouse.
1. Installation
Insert the Setup disk into the cdrom drive. Normally, after a moment or two the following display will appear on the
your monitor:

Chapter 2 File 6
To install the entire Autostar Suite, simply move the cursor over the “Install Autostar Suite” button and click the left
mouse button. You will prompted through the balance of the installation. In addition to the Autostar Suite, the D-
ROM also contains this manual and manuals for the Autostar Image Processing module and the LPI camera. To view
manuals, click on the “Manuals Screen”. To view the Meade product catalog, click on the “Meade General atalog”
button. Finally, to access Meade’s website for the latest updates and product information, click anywhere on the
Meade logo.
If the window above does not automatically appear after a few seconds, you can select the Run option from the
Program Manager window. Then type:
D:SETUP then press Enter.
Where “D:” is the drive letter for your DROM reader. The Setup program will prompt you for the desired drive and
path in which to install the program and data files. Use may also choose the star database that you would like to
install. Then it will begin uncompressing the files from the distribution disks and copying them to the appropriate
locations on the Hard disk. Make sure you have at least 12 Megabytes of free space on the destination drive if you
have selected the magnitude 8.0 star database and approximately 5 Megabytes if your using the magnitude 6.0 data.
If you change your mind and would like to install a different database option, just run the Setup program again, but
select only those features that you would like to change.
Once the installation is complete, Autostar Suite will be ready to help you begin your own exploration of the osmos.
Quick Start
To get a quick overview of some of Autostar Suite features, follow the steps below:
To Se Loca ion:
1. Select the Time menu, by clicking on the name or typing Al +T.
2. Then select the Set Location entry. The Se Loca ion Dialog Box will now be displayed.
3. Select either Ci ies or Observa ories, then select your desired location.
4. heck the Timezone and Daylight Savings status by clicking on the Se Timezone button. The Se Timezone
dialog box will be displayed.
5. lick on the OK button in the Se Timezone dialog box to return to the Se Loca ion dialog box.