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
Page 1: ...Meade Instruments Autostar Suite_ Desktop Observing For Windows_ Version 3 12 7 January 2004...
Page 2: ...r databases may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying recording or information storage and retrieval systems for any purpose other th...
Page 3: ...rized non U S source NO OTHER WARRANTIES Meade Instruments and its suppliers disclaim all other warranties either expressed or implied including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantabilit...
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Page 5: ...Save As 9 Print 9 Printer Setup 9 Page Setup 10 Set Custom Catalogs 10 Compile 11 Build Tables 11 Exit 11 3 Time 13 Time Display 13 Set Time Date 14 Gregorian 14 Julian 14 Set Timezone 14 Set Locatio...
Page 6: ...t Description 27 Add to User Data 27 Slew Telescope 27 Sync Telescope 27 View Log 28 Show Image 28 Create Tour 28 Add To Tour 29 7 Telescope 31 Protocol 31 None 31 Autostar Via Comm Port 31 Via Modem...
Page 7: ...ol 37 8 Image 39 LPI 39 Pictor 39 Pictor Guiding 40 9 Options 43 Night Vision 43 Grayscale Palette and Standard Palette 43 Appendix A 45 Image Processing Basics 45 Appendix B 47 Constants 47 Bibliogra...
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Page 9: ...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 A...
Page 10: ...n 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 destina...
Page 11: ...ect Description dialog box will be displayed Here you will find information such as the objects actual location magnitude B V color and a number of other features Click on OK when you re done 7 Open t...
Page 12: ...6 gray levels which is the maximum number of simultaneous colors that Windows can display at one time To prevent the loss of important data Autostar Suite automatically senses the larger data format a...
Page 13: ...t the desired format Select the directory and filename from the list boxes OR Enter the desired filename in the Edit box If the filename is specified without an extension a default extension will be a...
Page 14: ...orate it into your star map displays Autostar Suite allows up to 8 custom catalogs and on minor planet cometary catalog to be used in any starmap To change edit the custom catalog you can simply type...
Page 15: ...T Asteroids ASTEROID DAT Each of the above files are in a simple ASCII format each line is delimited with a CR and LF character You may modify these files to update any of the information for the part...
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Page 17: ...st time display is that of the Local Zonal Time for the currently selected location If Autostar Suite is not connected to an observatory this value is derived from the internal clock of the PC The cur...
Page 18: ...ent Dynamical Time by selecting the Set As Dynamical Time button Gregorian The Gregorian time and date format is the format that is normally used throughout the world It was established at noon on Oct...
Page 19: ...ile This file is located in your current Windows directory This file contains information so that the next time you run Autostar Suite it will begin with your desired values Note Other Autostar Suite...
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Page 21: ...ontact Meade Instruments to obtain an updated database Normally the new data is published every six months Moon Calendar The Moon Calendar command displays the phases of the moon in a convenient calen...
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Page 23: ...ave some remnants over the starmap image The Redraw function clears the map and renders a new map using all of the current parameters Animate Starmap The Animate Starmap command allows you to redraw t...
Page 24: ...w command a dialog box allows you to set the current R A and Dec values for the center of the Starmap display Once you have set the R A and DEC fields selecting OK will redraw the star map with the re...
Page 25: ...tion dialog box The Object Selection feature allows you to select an object from one of Autostar Suite s catalogs or from one of the object databases There are four major catalogs 1 Messier 2 NGC New...
Page 26: ...orientation in which a ground based observer sees the sky or as it appear through an Alt Az Mounted telescope When uncheck the Starmap will be drawn with the celestial pole towards the top of the dis...
Page 27: ...cked the display will appear more like many printed star charts Mirror The Starmap Mirror function flips the display in either the Horizontal or Vertical direction This allows the map to be drawn to m...
Page 28: ...eed of the planets comets and asteroids the Precision menu allows you to choose the precision that best suits your requirements The lowest precision gives the fastest rendering time If you are interes...
Page 29: ...ndard reference of J2000 0 The Astronomical Almanac show the positions of the planets in the Apparent Geocentric mode For the current TRUE positions of the objects use the Apparent Topocentric mode Re...
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Page 31: ...feature Object Description When Object Description attempts to find the object near the current mouse coordinates and if found displays information describing the object If there are a number of obje...
Page 32: ...r you have saved and printed your observations the Clear All button will erase the observation records so you can star a new session Show Image If the Show Image button is active it means that a refer...
Page 33: ...d by the program There are two check boxes below the description Ckecking Auto Select will cause the tour to automatically display the object detail to the user Checking Auto Slew causes the telescope...
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Page 35: ...elescope is moved such as a camera extending to far from the back of the telescope As a result it is possible to move the telescope into positions that may cause serious damage to the equipment or per...
Page 36: ...achieve this benefit is to run the Network Communications Module on you computer and then use the Autostar Via Network protocol to access your telescope Conceptually you are running a single computer...
Page 37: ...tom of the display are the connection and speech controls Once the dialog is open you must connect to the Autostar before you can use the Remote Handbox Similar to the discussion above there are two m...
Page 38: ...ely you can use you mouse on the virtual keys on the screen A Talking Telescope Port Sharing If you check the Speech Enable box everything displayed on your Autostar Handbox will be spoken by your PC...
Page 39: ...tomatically change its display to keep the location to which the telescope is pointing on the display It is a handy feature when you are using the handbox to control the telescope To see what is in th...
Page 40: ...nections will be accepted without prompting for a password This is dangerous is you are sharing the scope over a real network Meade recommends that you use a long password with both letters and number...
Page 41: ...inished you can close this dialog Enter you test command in the top window and then click Send Command to transmit the string Any responses will be shown in the window below When completed click OK Do...
Page 42: ...a running log of telescope pointing air mass and auxiliary instrumentation in the Log File The name and location of this file can be set from the main window For complete information configuration and...
Page 43: ...Autostar Suite LPI Selecting this command brings up the LPI imaging module When clicked a dialog like the one below appears For complete details on the LPI Imaging Module see its separate operating M...
Page 44: ...ine of Meade Pictor CCD Cameras For complete operating instructions on this software see the Pictorview Reference Manual Pictor Guiding Selecting this command brings up the Pictor 200 Serial Autoguide...
Page 45: ...Chapter 7 Imaging 41 For detailed instruction on operating the Pictor Autoguider see the Auto Guider manual...
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Page 47: ...ray scale images If you are running in a standard VGA display mode these commands will be enabled Since these commands are not required in other display modes they will appear disabled The standard VG...
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Page 49: ...n a range of pixel values Try the following example which illustrates masking 1 Load the VGR_IO_C BMP image 2 Copy the image into Buffer B 3 Select the Image Scale dialog box 4 Select Linear scaling i...
Page 50: ...Finally the center pixel value is replaced with the new result This process is then repeated for every pixel in the image There are many different kernels that you can create that give various result...
Page 51: ...Orbital Velocity 30 km sec of the Earth Mass of the Sun 1 9891 x 1030 kg Radius of the Sun 6 96 x 105 km Luminosity of the Sun 3 90 x 1026 W Effective Temperature 5780_ K of the Sun Mass of the Moon 7...
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Page 53: ...c Richmond Virginia 1986 Martin Harwit National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Concepts Springer Verlag New York 1988 Alan Hirshfeld and Roger W Sinnot Ed Sky Catalogue 200...
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Page 55: ...urs on approximately September 23 azimuth the angle along the celestial horizon intersecting the vertical circle meridian containing the object it s measured from the South with positive to the West T...
Page 56: ...r mirror to the focal point focus the point in an optical system where all the image components are brought together geocentric coordinate system whose reference point is the center of the Earth great...
Page 57: ...the equinoxes along the ecliptic caused by the precession of the Earth s axis right ascension RA the RA is the distance measured EASTWARD from the vernal equinox and is measured in hours mins sec seco...
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Page 59: ...t 24 astrometric 24 geocentric 23 geometric 24 selecting 23 topocentric 23 Print command 11 printer setup 11 Projections azimuthal equidistant 23 spherical 23 Reset Parameters 24 Scaling linear 43 Set...
Page 60: ...etting 14 time display 13 universal UT 13 Timezone setting 14 Topocentric 23 Universal Time 13 User Files adding new entries 25 editing 11 setting defaults 11 VGA setting a 16 level gray scale 41 View...
