Astronomy: Tips for Meade's Autostar, LXD75 and LX200      back

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Here are some helping hints for Meade's Autostar used on LXD75 and LX200 mountings. They will make life easier.

[Serial Cable for Autostar]   /    [Dataformat for User-Objects]

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Serial Cable for Autostar       
Here is the shematic of the serial cable for connecting the autostar handbox to a PC RS232 (Nowadays you may need a USB to RS232 converter).

The modular plug is of type RJ10 or [Western Plug (4/4)]. This plug is also used for connecting the telephone receiver to the telephone.

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Dataformat for User-Objcts    

Fortunately there is an undocumented feature in Meade Autostar Update Software (ASU). You may write an own software to generate user objects in a file or write directly the objects information into that file. The easy import procedure:
- Lunch Autostar Update Program
- choose "File" -> "Import" -> choose the mentioned file from above. Do not forget to choose "user objects".
- Take this imported data to the right window and click "send" to transmit them to the Autostar.
That's it.

Here is the format of such a file beginning at the first line:
[Name]|R.A.|Dec|[Size]|[Brightness].
The parameters in brackets [] ar optional. The separator | must always be used. The "Name" parameter must not exeed 15 characters

Here an example for the next quasar:

3C273|12:29:06|+02:03:08|0|13

on the next line there is a second objects.

Isn't it easy?

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Use it at your own risk.

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14.11.2006  /  http://www.star-shine.ch   /  (c) by Thomas Knoblauch  /  Kontakt & Copyright