Technical data

Chapter 7 Telescope 32
When you select a network connection, the following dialog will appear:
You will need to enter the network or IP address of the computer running the Network Communications module and its
IP port number. By default Autostar Suite uses port 5401. Unless your network administrator requires you to change
this value, Meade recommends you leave this setting unchanged.
When network communiations is established, you will usually be prompted for a password to access the telescope.
Whenever you put a telescope on a network, you must consider that some careless or malicious user may access your
scope. A strong password is the best way to insure only trusted users can control the scope.
Enter the telescope password and click on OK. After a moment you will able to control the remote telescope from
within the Autostar Suite.
A Single Machine Networks/Port Sharing
One of the benefits of network scope control is that it allows several modules to share a single serial connection to you
telescope. Thus with only a single serial cable, the Remote Handbox, Starmap, LPI and Dome control modules can all
access the telescope at once. The simplest way to achieve this benefit is to run the Network Communications Module
on you computer and then use the Autostar Via Network protocol to access your telescope. Conceptually, you are
running a single computer network.
Operationally, you first start the Autostar Network Server module, then select the Autostar Via Network protocol.
When prompted for the Network Address, enter you Computer’s name. You can find your computer’s name by
pointing the the “My Computer” icon on your screen and clicking the right mouse button. When the dialog appear,
click on “Properites”. Then select the tab that says “Computer Name” to find out your computer name.
Set Field Sizes
The Set Field Sizes command displays the current sizes of the fields of view of both the guide scope and main
telescope. The fields may be either rectangular or circular; the sizes are degrees, minutes and seconds of arc. The
displayed values would be updated as soon as the communication to the observatory was established. You may change
these values as you wish to reflect your own equipment. The values are saved between sessions so that you can plan
your observing run without being connected to the telescope.
The field sizes can be displayed as an overlay on the starmap by selecting the Telescope Fields entry in the Starmap,
Options dialog box