Meade LNT Instruction Manual download pdf (Page 33)

How to Create Your Own Guided Tour

When a Guided Tour is selected, AutoStar slews your telescope to a predetermined list of objects

and displays information about each object, such as type of object, constellation location, R.A. and

Dec coordinates, and so forth. AutoStar contains a few Guided Tours which are programmed at

the factory. But it is also possible for an observer to create a custom Guided Tour.

A tour is basically an ASCII text file that contains a list of directions and descriptions. Each line

of a tour is either a comment line

, a command line, or a description.

What y

ou will need:

• A PC with text editor or word processing software installed (the tour must be saved as a

"te

xt only" or as a "MS-DOS text" file).

• The Meade #505 Cable Connector Kit to download tour information to the AutoStar handbox.

Tour Modes

The objects chosen for a tour list are selected from AutoStar's database or by entering the

object's RA and Dec coordinates. The tour is presented in one of two modes:

Automatic Mode: The title of an object appears on first line and descriptive text scrolls on line 2.

Interactive Mode: Tour name appears on the first line of the AutoStar display and the name of

the object displays on line 2. To display descriptive text in this mode, the user must press

ENTER.

Comment Line

Information in the Tour program that is not displayed, such as authorship, revision history,

copyrights, etc. All comments begin with a "/" character in column 1 of the line. For example:

/ Extreme Objects

Command Line

This line contains programming commands, including: RA and DEC coordinates, a title string,

a description string, and a keyword.

RA: Enter the Right Ascension of an object in the following format: HH:MM:SS. Eg., 18:51:05

Dec: Enter the Declination of an object in the following format: DDdMMmSSs. Eg., – 06d16m00s

Title String: Text within a title string is displayed as the title of the object. A title string can

contain up to 16 characters and must be surrounded by quotation marks. For example. "M64"

or "My F

avorite Star."

In Interactive Mode, the title string appears on line 2 until it is selected with the ENTER key.

In Automatic Mode, or after Interactive Mode selection, the title string appears on line 1 while

the description scrolls across line 2.

Keywords: Action to be performed during a tour. AutoStar recognizes the following keywords:

TITLE TEXT USER NGC

IC SAO MESSIER CALDWELL

PLANET MOON SATELLITE ASTEROID

COMET LUNAR ECLIPSE METEOR SHOWER DEEP SKY

CONSTELLATION STAR LANDMARK DEFINE

PICK ONE/PICK END AUTO SLEW ON/OFF #END

Description String: Description of an object. Must be surrounded by quotation marks. If the

description is longer than one line, each line must end with a quotation mark and a hard return.

Begin the next description line with a quotation mark.

If quotation marks are to be displayed in the on-screen description, use two quote marks at the

beginning and end of the desired phrase. For example: "The Orion Nebula is considered "

"awesome"" by many who view it."

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