Meade 497 Autostar Computer Controller for ETX Telescopes

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 it s been GREAT since then. I added it to my Meade LXD-75 mount and it's accurately provides GOTO functionality for my 8'' 62'' long reflector telescope! Once I downloaded the latest firmware to ...

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 the reference stars is fairly easy, and it is so much fun to take the tour of the sky. I've used this several times ...

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 about a mile and a half away) and careful motor calibration. That was in May, and except for when the batteries are low, I haven't really had ...

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 autostart, after taking about 15 minutes to go through the alignment process, we can just tell the Autostar what we want to find and it moves the telescope to ...

There are two schools of thought on the use of go-to telescopes. One school believing that it takes away all the skill and fun from astronomy. however, I'm a believer in the other viewpoint. I think go-to capability opens up astronomy to the masses and brings the universe just that little bit closer to everyone. I purchased the Autostar for my ETX about a year ago and it has had extensive ...