33
AutoStar II Operation
rate. 8° 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 RA and the DEC
axes by entering a number from 0% to 199%.
This sets the backlash 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 RA and DEC motors—
which helps locate objects with more precision.
•
Calibrate Sensors:
This menu allows you to
improve your telescope’s pointing accuracy to
alignment stars. It calibrates to correct slight
mechanical misalignment due to transport,
vibration, or aging. It is recommended that
calibration be performed once on a new
telescope after the user initially assembles it.
When this menu is selected, the telescope slews
to Polaris. AutoStar II then prompts you to center
Polaris and to press ENTER. AutoStar II uses the
position of Polaris to fi ne tune the position of
North and also detects level for the base of the
telescope.
•
Tracking Rate:
Changes the speed at which the
telescope tracks targets in the sky.
a. Sidereal: The default setting for Autostar II;
sidereal rate is the standard rate at which stars
move from East to West across the sky due to
the rotation of the Earth.
b. Lunar: Choose this option to properly track the
Moon over long observing sessions.
c. Solar: Choose this option when observing the
Sun.
WARNING: NEVER USE A MEADE LX600
TELESCOPE TO LOOK AT THE SUN unless
it is equipped with a properly installed,
safe solar fi lter!
Looking at or near the sun
without appropriate fi lters will cause instant and
irreversible eye damage. Damage to the StarLock
optical/sensor systems and viewfi nder optics will
occur if pointed at the Sun.
d. Custom: Allows entry of user-defi ned tracking
rates.
Note:
Custom Tracking Rate allows you to enter
values from -999.999 to 999.999. The lower
the number, the slower the rate; the higher the
number the faster the rate. If you enter -999, the
telescope will move so slow as to appear to be
stopped. If you enter 999, the telescope will be
moving at approximately twice the tracking rate.
•
Guiding Rate:
Allows you to change the base
slew speed, 1x. Enter a percentage of the speed
(less than 100%) and press ENTER. This function
may be useful in guiding the telescope during
CCD and long-exposure photography.
See SLEW
SPEEDS, page 20, for more information.
•
DEC Guiding:
Allows a user using an autoguider
to disengage autoguider inputs. Allows you to
