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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 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 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
/ (c) 2000 Meade Instruments Corporation
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 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 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."