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satellites are in low orbit, travelling at approximately
17,500 mph. When visible, they move quickly across
the sky and are only in the fi eld of view for a few minutes,
requiring AudioStar to slew the telescope rapidly. Best
viewing is near Sunrise or Sunset when the sky is
still dark. Viewing in the middle of the night can be
problematic because the satellite may pass overhead,
but not be visible as it is in the Earth’s shadow.
Landmarks
This menu option allows you to defi ne and store
terrestrial objects in the Landmark database. First,
a landmark needs to be stored in memory using the
“Landmark: Add” option. To view a landmark, use the
“Landmark: Select” option. Landmarks may also be
viewed using the “Landmark Survey” option in the
Utilities menu.
To Add a landmark to the database:
In this procedure, you will store the location of terrestrial
landmarks in AudioStar’s memory.
1. Set the telescope in the home position, if
necessary. Note for future reference where the
telescope is located and if you have aligned the
telescope, which alignment method is used.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To use the Landmark
function, the telescope must be located and
aligned exactly as when the landmark) was
added to the database.
2. Display the “Setup: Targets” menu option.
Choose “Terrestrial” and press ENTER – “Setup:
Targets” displays again. Choosing this option
turns off tracking for astronomical objects and
is not useful for the viewing of terrestrial objects
such as those in the Landmark database. Be
sure to change this option back to “Astronomical”
when you wish to view celestial objects again.
3. Press MODE once. “Select Item:
Setup” displays.
4. Press the Scroll Down key once and “Select
Item: Object” displays. Press Enter. “Object:
Solar System” displays.
5. Press the Scroll Up key twice and “Object:
Landmarks” displays. Press ENTER.
5. Use the Scroll keys to display data about the
pass: aos—acquisition of signal and los—loss
of signal. If you subtract the aos from the los,
you can calculate how long the satellite will be
visible. Location information also displays.
6. “Alarm” displays after the location information.
Press ENTER and AudioStar automatically
sets the alarm to sound a minute before the
satellite’s scheduled appearance. You may
return to regular observations until the alarm
goes off.
7. When the alarm goes off, return to the Satellite
menu and press a Scroll key until the desired
satellite is on the top line of the display.
8. Press GoTo. AudioStar slews the telescope to
where the satellite should appear. The motor
drive stops and a countdown is displayed.
Note: If the scheduled appearance position of
the satellite is obstructed (i.e., by a building,
tree, or hill), press ENTER and AudioStar starts
to move the telescope along the expected
satellite track. When the track clears the
obstruction, press ENTER again to pause the
telescope, then continue with this procedure.
9. With about 20 seconds left on the countdown
timer, start watching through the telescope
Viewfi nder (Page 8, Fig. 1, 1) for the satellite to
enter the fi eld of view.
10. When the satellite enters the viewfi nder fi eld
of view, press ENTER. The telescope starts to
track with the satellite.
11. Use the AudioStar Arrow keys to center the
object in the viewfi nder, then look through the
eyepiece to view the object.
Satellite orbits change and new satellites (including
the Space Shuttle) are launched. Visit the Meade web
site (www.meade.com) approximately once a month
to get updated information and instructions on how to
download this data to AudioStar. If orbital parameters
are more than one month old, the satellite pass
may not happen at the time predicted by AudioStar.
Downloading requires the optional #505 AstroFinder™
Software and Cable Connector Kit. See OPTIONAL
ACCESSORIES, Page 52.
NOTE: Satellite observing is an exciting challenge. Most
AudioStar #497 HANDBOX
AudioStar Operation
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