Meade ETX-90 User Manual - Page 25

Entering Data into AutoStar • To enter numbers and text: a) Use the Number keys, or b) Use the Arrow keys to scroll through numbers 0 - 9 and the alphabet. The Down Arrow key begins with the letter "A"; the Up Arrow key begins with digit "9". • To move the cursor across the display: Use the Right or Left Arrow key (Pg. 20, Fig. 10, 5) to move the cursor from one number to the next in the display • Press ENTER when the desired information has been entered. Navigating AutoStar AutoStar's menus are organized for quick and easy navigation: • Press ENTER to go deeper into AutoStar's menu levels. • Press MODE (Pg. 20, Fig. 10, 3) to move back toward the top menu level. • Press the Scroll keys to move up and down through the options or lists. • Press the Arrow keys to move the cursor across the display. • Press the Help (?) key to access on-line help. When multiple choices are available within a menu option, the option that is currently selected is usually displayed first and highlighted by a right pointing arrow (>). Guided Tour Menu When Guided Tours is selected, ETX90 shows you a list of theme tours that will help you explore the night sky. These tours are pre programmed presentations of objects that are visible for the user's particular location, time and date. The most popular tour is "Tonight's Best" that guides the user to the best objects that are currently up in the night sky. This tour is the easiest way to get started exploring the cosmos with your new ETX90 telescope. Each tour will select the objects, present information about the object and, if you press "GoTo", put that object in the eyepiece of the telescope for you to view. The telescope comes pre-loaded with: • "Tonight's Best", a selection of the most interesting objects visible on any night. • "A Star's Life", tours how stars are formed, created, changes through their lives and finally die using examples that are visible tonight. • "How Far is Far", tour showing the phenomenal distances you can see with your ETX90. AutoStar Suite also allows you to create your own guided tours of the skies, including your own objects and titles (for complete instructions on how to use the authoring tools please refer to the reference manual included on the AutoStar Suite DVD). Object Menu Almost all observing with ETX90 is performed using the Object menu category. (NOTE: Exceptions include Guided Tour and Landmarks). Many ETX90 menu categories contain databases. An ETX90 database is a list of objects, such as stars, planets, comets, nebulae and so forth. When one of these objects is selected from a database by pressing "ENTER" and then "GO TO", ETX90 moves your telescope (when properly aligned) and points it at the selected object. The Object Menu options include: Solar System is a database of the eight planets (Earth is not included) in ascending orbits from the Sun, followed by the Moon, asteroids, and comets. Constellation is a database 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 brightest 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 database of objects outside our Solar System such as nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, and quasars grouped in various catalogs like Messier, Caldwell and NGC. AUTOSTAR OPERATION 25