A new version of Autostar firmware has been posted at: http://www.meade.com/support/auto.html.

• Improved pointing on Alignment Stars after Cal Sensors.
• Park position now shortest distance on ETX scopes.
• Park position fixed after automatic alignment.
• Smart Drive is now normalized.

You can also download in PDF format Operating Instructions for New #497 AutoStar Software.

Meade Lunar Planetary Imager (LPI) can be used on any telescope for making images. It is VGA resolution (640x480) color CMOS chip is capable of creating high-quality lunar and planetary images, as well as daytime terrestrial images. And with the capability to make long exposures, you can digitally capture bright deep sky objects with the LPI system that only costs a fraction of a typical astronomical CCD imager system.

With an effective magnification similar to a 6mm eyepiece, the Meade LPI produces images that are inherently high magnification with no additional adapters, making it the perfect tool for imaging the Moon, planets, and small, bright deep sky objects. Using a barlow lens with the LPI will increase the magnification even more, and installing the LPI is just as easy as sliding in an eyepiece.

Designed to be the ultimate platform for remote digital astronomy with your Meade Autostar Suite contains tools for dome controls, weather sensors, and other functions required for this purpose.

Connecting to the telescope and dome can be done with a single network connection. You can then communicate via an IP address, using Auto Star Net Scope to control the entire observatory over the Internet! This solves the biggest problem in setting up for remote access to your telescope, and that is the problem of distance from the scope itself. You can be in your living room to control the scope in your backyard, or just as easily, control a friend's system in another country.

In addition to these functions, Auto Star Suite offers still more, like building custom tours for the Autostar Controller, keeping observing logs, camera controls for the LPI and Meade's Pictor CCD systems for imaging and autoguiding, and image processing with a blink comparitor to aid in discovery work. And to keep your Autostar current, Autostar Update will upload the latest comets, minor planets, satellites, tours, and firmware over the Internet.

Features of Meade Lunar Planetary Imager (LPI):

• Easy to use with real-time display of object on PC Screen, just center, focus and shoot
• Magic Eye software-assisted focusing
• Automatic and manual exposure control from .001 to 15 seconds (up to 450x longer than web cam)
• Automatically takes multiple exposures, selects best images and aligns multiple images and combines them into one superior image
• Works as an autoguider for long-exposure astro images

Features of Meade Autostar Suite Software:

• Sophisticated planetarium program with over 19 million objects
• Select objects from the planetarium display and have your telescope automatically slew to those objects
• Control all Autostar functions from your PC
• Talking Telescope software translates Autostar text to synthesized speech through PC speakers
• Create observing lists and download to Autostar
• Remote telescope control over the internet
• Autostar Update Tool keeps your Autostar current by downloading the latest Autostar system firmware updates; comet, asteroid and satellite date from the internet.
• Includes cables to connect your Autostar equipped telescope to your PC

Package Contents:

• Meade Autostar Suite and Lunar Planetary Imager (LPI) Package