User manual MEADE ETX BACKPACK OBSERVATORY

[. . . ] Instruction Manual ETX-80AT-BB Backpack Observatory MEADE. COM CONTENTS WARNING! Never use a Meade® Telescope to look at the Sun!Looking at or near the Sun will cause instant and irreversible damage to your eye. Eye damage is often painless, so there is no warning to the observer that damage has occurred until it is too late. Do not point the telescope or its viewfinder at or near the Sun. [. . . ] Autostar calculates the Sunset time based on the current date, time, and location. Autostar then displays the results of the calculation. Press MODE once to start moving back up through the Autostar levels. Press MODE again to move up another level. This is the top level, "Select Item. " Press MODE again to return to the starting point of "Select Item: Object. " Entering Numbers and Text into Autostar To enter numbers and text: TIP: When multiple choices are available within a menu option, the option that is currently selected is usually displayed first and highlighted by a right pointing arrow (>). { Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to scroll through numbers 0 - 9 and the alphabet. The Down Arrow key begins with the letter "A;" the Up Arrow key begins with digit "9. " Use the Right or Left Arrow key (5, Fig. 5) to move the cursor from one number to the next in the display Press ENTER when the desired information has been entered. To move the cursor across the display: { { Navigating Autostar Autostar's menus are organized for quick and easy navigation: { { { { { Press ENTER to go deeper into Autostar's menu levels. 5) to move back toward the top menu level. Press the Scroll keys to move up and down through the options or lists Press the Arrow keys to move the cursor across the display. Press the Help (?) key to access on-line help. Adjusting the Speed of a Scrolling Message { Press and hold the Scroll Up key to increase the scrolling speed when a message is scrolling across the display. Press and hold the Scroll Down key to decrease the scrolling speed when a message is scrolling across the display. { 23 Object Menu Almost all observing with Autostar is performed using the Object menu category. (NOTE: Exceptions include Guided Tour and Landmark Survey. ) See GO TO SATURN, page 19, for an example of observing using the Object menu. Many Autostar menu categories contain databases. An Autostar database is a list of viewable objects, such as stars, planets, comets, nebulae, and so forth. When one of these objects is selected from a database, Autostar moves your telescope (if properly aligned) and points it at the selected object. The Object Menu options include: Solar System is a database of the eight planets (Earth is not included) in order out from the Sun, followed by the Moon, asteroids, and comets. Constellation is a database of all 88 Northern and Southern Hemisphere constellations. When this menu option is chosen and a constellation name appears on the first line of the screen, press GO TO once to change the second line to the name of the brightest star in the constellation. Press GO TO a second time to slew the telescope to that star. Use the Scroll keys to cycle through the list of stars in the constellation, from brightest to dimmest. Deep Sky is a database of objects outside our Solar System such as nebulae, star clusters, galaxies, and quasars. Star is a database of stars listed in different categories such as named, double, variable, or nearby. [. . . ] 33: Saturn has the most extensive ring structure in our Solar System. Open Clusters are loose groupings of young stars, all recently formed from the same diffuse nebula. The Pleiades is an open cluster 410 light years away (Fig. Through the ETX-80ATBB, numerous stars are visible. Constellations are large, imaginary patterns of stars believed by ancient civilizations to be the celestial equivalent of objects, animals, people, or gods. [. . . ]