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”.
Writing a Tour
Using the list of commands listed above, a custom tour can be created. Placing the
word AUTO SELECT before any of the command lines activates Automatic Mode and,
when selected, AutoStar II automatically searches and finds the designated object.
The following is a list of command lines, complete with keywords and necessary
strings:
TITLE
Title must be the first keyword in your tour after any comment lines and must be 15
characters or less. AutoStar II displays this title when “Guided Tour” is selected from
the menus.
For example:
TITLE “A Star’s Life”
TEXT “title string” “description string”
This command allows you to display a text title and description.
USER ra dec “title string” “description string”
This command line allows you to access a specific object with your own description.
Enter USER, then the R.A. and Dec. of a desired object, and its title and description.
Use the format described in the Command Line section.
The following commands specify objects that are already in the AutoStar II database.
If these commands follow the command AUTO SELECT, the object’s title displays on
line 1 and its description scrolls across line 2.
Do not add a description string after the following command lines; these commands
access objects with existing description in the AutoStar II database.
NGC xxxx
Enter NGC followed by the desired New General Catalog number and AutoStar II
provides the user with a description of the object from its database.
For example:
NGC
4256
IC xxxx
Enter IC followed by the desired Index Catalog number and AutoStar II provides the
user with a description of the object from its database.
For example:
IC 1217
SAO xxxxxx
Enter SAO followed by the desired SAO number and AutoStar II provides the user with
a description of the object from its database.
For example:
SAO 30200
Messier xxx
Enter MESSIER followed by the desired Messier number and AutoStar II provides the
user with a description of the object from its database.
For example:
M 101
CALDWELL xxx
Enter CALDWELL followed by the Caldwell number and AutoStar II provides the user
with a description of the object from its database.
For example:
CALDWELL 17
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