Meade 497 Autostar Computer Controller for ETX Telescopes

Observe 30,000 celestial objects at the push of a button! Simply pressing the GO TO button slews the scope to the object and places it in the field of view. You'll see: galaxies, diffuse & planetary nebulae, star clusters (the best objects from the IC, NGC and Caldwell catalogs, as well as all 110 Messier objects); 900 stars (double stars, variable stars, SAO stars); the 8 major planets from Mercury to Pluto; 26 of the brightest asteroids; 15 periodic comets; 50 earth-orbiting satellites; plus user-defined objects and the centroids of all 88 constellations. Automatic GO TO function to any object of known R.A. and Dec. coordinates. Digital readouts of telescope position (continuously in R.A. and Dec.), menu options, glossary and utility functions. Precise sidereal-rate tracking in either altazimuth or equatorial modes. For altazimuth tracking, set the telescope on its drive base and perform a quick, easy alignment. 9-Speed dual-axis operation of the telescope on both axes, simultaneously, at any speed from 2x sidereal to 5°/sec. RS-232 serial port for operation of the telescope through a personal computer using Meade Epoch 2000 sky software or for Autostar updates from Meade's website. Computer operation and downloads require the addition of the #505 Autostar Connector Cable Kit, sold separately. Plus over 20 other menu options, including guided tours, major event menus, user-defined terrestrial objects and much more. more

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Recent Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Oct-01-2005; Awesome addition to a Meade DS mount!; This was by far the best purchase of any astro equipment ever!The Autostar is worth every penny and then some. Sure, it frustrated me at the beginning until I got it down to a T and its been GREAT since then. I added it to my Meade...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Nov-14-2003; Who wood have thought that there wood b sumthing fun+edu.?; easy to use and great for educational purposes June 14, 2000 The Autostar is so decadent! I almost feel guilty for using it. But it is so easy to use and enhances the ETX-90EC scope so much that I use it all the time. Set-up and locating...; read full review | report as inappropriate

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-16-2003; Not as difficult as it's made out to be; I first grew acquainted with Autostar about 6 months ago (albeit the 494 model) on the ETX-70 AT, and had some accuracy issues the first few times I used it. They were easily fixed, though, with a good drive training (on a power pole...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Nov-15-2002; Not Optional for Beginners; We just purchased the Meade 90 ETX telescope and decided to get the computer controller too - and man are we glad that we did. We're novices with the telescope, so finding specific objects in the night sky is a challenge.With the...; read full review | report as inappropriate

Selected Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Oct-01-2005; Awesome addition to a Meade DS mount!; This was by far the best purchase of any astro equipment ever!The Autostar is worth every penny and then some. Sure, it frustrated me at the beginning until I got it down to a T and its been GREAT since then. I added it to my Meade...; read full review | report as inappropriate

3/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jan-02-2002; This is a SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT, people!; Definitely NOT for the plain John Doe. You will not be able to align this correctly on the first, second, or third try. You will be frustrated and angry. Try not to kick the telescope, ... If you're thinking about hosting an astronomy...; read full review | report as inappropriate

2/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jun-19-2001; Autostar for Dummies? Where is it? I'll buy.; I'm a rank astronomy novice. I read the Autostar manual word for word twice before I dared to hook it to my ETX-90 scope. So far the Autostar is far far too complicated for this CPA, MBA to understand. The computer seems very slow to...; read full review | report as inappropriate