 IMPORTANT NOTICE! Never use a telescope or spotting scope to look at the Sun! Observing the Sun, even for the shortest fraction of a second, will cause irreversible damage to your eye as well as physical damage to the telescope or spotting scope itself. |
[ toc ]
A. Liquid Crystal Display
The large Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) has two rows of 16 characters for
displaying Magellan function menus, telescope position and object information.
The LCD has red LED's to back light the display and can be adjusted to 16
levels of brightness.
[ toc ]
B. Keys
Magellan II has a 19-key back lighted membrane switch panel to provide expanded
function and user ease of operation. The keypad permits direct entry of the
number, telescope motor slewing, speed selection/display and one key catalog
selection. The keypad is backlighted and can be dimmed along with the LCD
display in 16 levels of brightness.
[ toc ]
1. Enter
Pressing and releasing the ENTER key activates the menu function indicated
by the LCD arrow positioned to the left of the menu item. Menu items followed
by three dots (i.e. HELP...) mark expanding menus.
Several menu items require information to be edited. Holding the ENTER key
down for a moment will cause a blinking cursor to appear at the edit point.
Each press of a number key will move the cursor one character to the right
until the last character is reached. Once the last character of the field
is reached, pressing ENTER again will end editing if the field is properly
formatted. Otherwise, the cursor repositions itself at the beginning of
the field to allow for corrections.
[ toc ]
2. Mode
Pressing the MODE key cycles the display through the four operating modes.
During editing, pressing MODE will terminate an edit and restore the original
value.
[ toc ]
3. Find
Pressing this key while in the object find mode will cause the telescope
to slew at 32x speed to the object selected. This key is only active when
the object is within 2° of the present telescope position. The intention
of this function is to make the final adjustment to telescope position after
the larger moves have been done manually.
[ toc ]
4. Direction (N, S, E, W)
Pressing these keys will cause the telescope to slew in the direction selected
at the speed indicated by the speed LED's on the right side of the handbox.
These keys are also used in some editing functions to move the cursor to
a particular character in a sequence without changing characters skipped.
[ toc ]
5. Numeric and Function
These 10 keys have dual purposes based on the mode of the Magellan handbox.
For modes where data is being entered, like selection of a catalog object
number, these keys are used for numeric input as indicated by the number
on the key. Pressing the numeric key will enter the number into the character
indicated by the cursor and move to the next logical character in the sequence.
After the last number is entered, the ENTER key is pressed indicating the
acceptance of the input as a whole.
When not in an editing mode these keys are assigned certain specific functions,
keys 0, 1, 4 and 7 are used to change the slew rate of the telescope. They
are marked with a speed value from 2x to 32x and when pressed will alter
the subsequent telescope slew rates as selected by the user. Pressing these
keys will also alter the speed display LED's associated with each key along
the right side of the handbox.
Keys 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9 are used as catalog selection keys when not in an
editing mode. The CNGC Catalog can be selected by pressing the CNGC key
(3). The Star Catalog and Planets can be selected by pressing the STAR key
(6). The Messier Object Catalog is selected using the M key (9). The IC
Catalog is selected by pressing the 2 key. The User Catalog is selected
by pressing the 5 key.
[ toc ]
6. Prev and Next
Pressing the PREV key moves the display LCD arrow up the list of menu items,
while pressing the NEXT key moves the display LCD arrow down the list of
menu items. In the BRIGHTNESS mode, these keys adjust the intensity of the LCD and keypad
backlighting.
[ toc ]
C. Communication Ports
Communication ports are found on the bottom of the handbox case. These ports are
designed to accept cables using the standard high reliability telephone
technology plugs. A positive snap action design prevents the cable from
disconnecting during usage.
[ toc ]
1. Telescope Port
The telescope port accepts a 4-pin plug from the telescope control panel.
This coiled cable carries two signals and power to the Magellan Handbox
from the telescope. This connector should only be connected or disconnected
while the telescope power is off.
[ toc ]
2. RS-232 Port
The RS-232 port is used to connect a personal computer to the Magellan System
for added features. Magellan communicates telescope position information
via this interface to software like Epoch 2000, which can then display star maps
of the telescope field of view and perform other helpful functions.
Next Page
Related Topics: