Previous page  Page 32   Next page    Table of Contents 


   The Telescope menu is useful if you have an LX-200,  Ultima 2000,
or Sky Commander connected via serial port to your computer,  or if
you are using the Mel Bartels stepper motor system.  This menu is
described in the Telescope Control chapter,  on page 39.

   The "Level" option brings up a dialog box with 20 buttons. Click on
one, and Guide will switch to that zoom level. You can also get to this
option by clicking on the Level shown in the legend area,  or by hitting
the 1 to 9 key to get levels 1-9,  0 to get level 10,  Alt-1...9 to get
to levels 11-19;  and there are toolbar and mouse options to change
levels as well, as described on page 4.

   The Language submenu lists (at present) twelve languages:  English,  
French,  German,  Spanish, Italian,  Dutch,  Japanese,  Czech,  Russian,
Chinese,  Hungarian,  and Polish.  Click on one,  and Guide will switch
to that language.

   In some cases,  the translation is not yet complete.  Much text has
been translated,  but some remains.  (You may find updated versions and
additional languages on the Web site from time to time.)
                                                             
   The software allows for the easy addition of further languages. If
you're interested in adding your own language,  please let me know.

   The Margins menu is described on page 43.
                                                               
   Clicking on the "Formats" option brings up a dialog box that
provides almost complete control over how coordinates and certain other
data are shown in Guide. Choose among hours/degrees,  decimal minutes,
or decimal seconds for RA/dec;  decide if leading zeroes should be
shown in positions;  and if declinations should begin with "+/-" or
"N/S". Also,  you select the epoch in which positions are to be shown.
In this "Format" dialog,  one also controls how latitude/longitude
values are shown, and switches between metric and "traditional" units
(inches,  miles,  etc.) There's also an option to reset the time/date
format,  so that you can have dates displayed year-first,  or with
two-digit years,  or in Julian Day format,  and so on.  The choices you
make here will be used throughout Guide.
                                                    
   The "TLE=" option lets you select a new file of orbital elements
for artificial satellites.  Artificial satellite elements are almost
always provided in files called "Two-Line Elements",  or "TLEs";
these files usually have a .TLE extension.

   You will need to get updated files quite often.  Satellite motion
is not entirely predictable;  satellites maneuver (using thruster
rockets), new satellites are launched,  and the way in which
atmospheric drag works can't be predicted very far in advance.  The
model used for satellite motion was provided by the US Government,
and is mediocre;  the really good motion models are classified.

 Previous page  Page 32   Next page    Table of Contents