APPENDIX C: CREATE
YOUR OWN GUIDED TOUR
Creating your own Guided Tour can be an extremely useful tool. You can preprogram a
script of objects you wish to view and study on any given night. You can also create a
viewing script for students or for a friend.
More commands will be added from time-to-time to the list below. Periodically visit
Meade’s website (www.meade.com) for future additions.
When a Guided Tour is selected, AutoStar II 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 II 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 you will need:
A PC with text editor or word processing software installed (the tour must be
saved as a “text only” or as a “MS-DOS text” file).
The optional Meade LX200 Interface Cable to download tour information to the
AutoStar II handbox.
Tour Modes
The objects chosen for a tour list are selected from AutoStar II’s database or by
entering the object’s R.A. 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 II 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
/ (c) 2002 Meade Instruments Corporation
Command Line
This line contains programming commands, including: R.A. and Dec. coordinates, a
title string, a description string, and a keyword.
R.A.: 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 Favorite 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 II recognizes the
following keywords:
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