Step 2. Login. There are several accounts. The default is set to "TA", and the password is the normal department-wide one. (The TA2 account is for when the password on the main account has expired, and been reset to something no one told you about.)

Step 3. Open the dome, remove and dust covers.

Step 4. Double click on the "TheSky6" icon to start-up the TheSky software package--note that this takes about 15 seconds to start! A star map of the current sky overhead will be displayed.

Step 5. Use the mouse to pull down and select: Telescope | Link | Establish, to allow the computer to talk to the telescope. If everything is in order, a little crosshair graphic will appear on the star chart symbolizing where the telescope is (sort of) pointing (if not, you have a cabling/port issue).

Step 6. "Intialize" the telescope: Telescope | Options | Intialize, then sequentially set the Date, Time, Longitude, Latitude and GMT offset. (Note that for some strange reason setting the date doesn't always work, but retry a few times, and if it still doesn't work, don't worry about it.) Of course, this is only useful if the computer date & time are correct, and the little info bar at the bottom of TheSky6 screen shows the location as "Las Cruces"!

Step 7. Manually (using the handpaddle motions), move the telescope to a bright star (that you can correctly identify), and center this in the eyepice of the telescope. Now, select (mouse click) this same star on TheSky6's map of the sky. A cross-hair target will be drawn around this star on the sky map, and a window with the star's catalogue information (the "Object Information" window) will pop up. We now need to "sync" on this star, so in this information window, select the "Telescope" tab and click on the "Sync" telescope button (if these tabs are not displayed, click the "more" icon on the bottom, right hand edge of the window).

Step 8. You are now ready to point to any object on TheSky6's star chart. Click on an object and then hit the little green telescope slew icon on the bottom of the information window. Sometimes on long slews the telescope pointing is not perfect, so select a bright star near the object of interest and slew there and then "Sync" to get better results.

Note that all sorts of objects, from galaxies and star clusters, to planets and comets, are shown on this map. You can also download new comet data from the internet if a bright comet comes around (be aware that most comets, and all galaxies, are very disappointing sights!). The handpaddle has a RA/Dec motion "speed" control so that you can center-up targets (push the "speed" button, followed by a number from "1", to "9", with "9" being slewing rate, and "1" being guiding rate). There is also an electronic focuser, push the "focus" button, and then use the Dec motions to move in and out (it does reach its limits easily, so be aware). Warning: rotating the north dome draws a lot of power, and thus should not be done until the telescope has signaled that the slew is complete (it beeps!).

Shutdown: At the end of the night slew the telescope to a point near the equator on the meridian (HA=00:00, Dec=+0). Terminate the telescope link. Make sure the computer and telescope are unplugged (lightning!!!), and both the monitor and CPU are covered with their plastic bags (the north dome leaks water and dust like a sieve).

Step 1. Plug in the computer and telescope and power them on. Power on the dome rotation box, and the shutter control box. Note that the telescope does a little initialization routine. Don't do anything with it yet.

The dome rotation box is by the eastern doorway. It has the "dome right", "dome left" buttons on it. The power is the rocker switch on the south side of the box. The central, red LED should light. The slit control box is located near the base of the dome opposite the slit. The power switch is located just as the rotation box (that "power on-off" button on the front face of the box with "stop" written above it is the emergency stop, and has nothing to do with the power!). It also has an LED to signal the presence of power. The "home" position of the dome under computer control has the slit oriented to the south.

Step 2. Before starting TheSky6 software, double click on the "Automadome" icon to start-up the dome control software.

Step 3. Then click on dome | link | establish to allow the computer to talk to the dome.

Step 4. Then click on dome | find home to allow the dome to initialize (that is, to find its "home" azimuth). It will notify you of this when complete.

Note: At this point the dome slowly rotates clockwise (to the right) to find the optical sensor that defines zero. This should take a few seconds. If the dome continues to rotate, click the "emergency stop" button, then manually rotate the dome back (CCW, using the dome "left" button on the rotation power box) so that the optical Home sensor is just to the north (left) of the actual dome rotation motor. Then re-do step 4. Unfortunately, this is pretty much normal operation, especially if the dome was incorrectly parked at the end of the night.

Step 5. Now click dome | open shutter, this will (after a brief pause) first open the shutter, and then lower the windscreen. This entire process takes several minutes, and will stop when done. Minimize (do not destroy) this window with a mouse click.

Step 6. Now start-up TheSky software. The current sky should be displayed.

Step 7. Do a shift-D from within the star map window to bring up a dome control window. Do a dome | link | establish to allow TheSky to talk to the dome (yes this is done twice during the start-up!). Normally, the dome will automatically track the telescope at startup, but if not, select it in the dome control menu. You can now also minimize this window.

Step 8 Using the handpaddle, hit "Mode" until you get to the "Select Item: Object" prompt. Using the up/down arrows at the bottom of the paddle, scroll down to the "Setup" menu, push "Enter". Now, scroll down to "Date", hit "Enter". You use the E/W slew buttons to move back and forth. Set the date by entering the numbers. Once set, hit "Enter".

Step 9. The last operation should put you back into "Set-up", scroll to the "Time", select it and enter in the time. Press "Enter".

Step 10. Now we need to point the telescope to the Celestial pole--do not worry about anything precise here. The telescope needs to be set to Hour Angle = 00:00 (on the Meridian), Dec=+90. In this position the telescope is aligned with the forks, and the eyepiece is nearly inaccessible. Use the big slew buttons.

Step 11. In the "Select Item: Setup" menu, select the "Align" option on the handpaddle, scroll to and select "Easy" (it now scrolls a bunch of stuff on the screen--ignore it and just hit "Enter". It will attempt to slew to Polaris. When it stops hit "Enter". Don't worry about whether Polaris is in the eyepiece--this is meaningless for what we are doing. It then will choose some other bright star and slew to it (Arcturus or similar). Center it and hit "Enter".

Step 12. In TheSky, establish the link to the telescope, and you should see the crosshairs around the last alignment star. Go ahead and "Synch" the telescope if the star is still centered in the eyepiece. Now you are ready to operate as normal.

Shutdown For this telescope, go ahead and "Park" it using TheSky (from the Telescope tab). This terminates the link and the telescope will stop tracking. Restore the second Automadome, and close the shutter. Once this is done, exit from this Automadome, and exit from TheSky. If the dome isn't parked, go ahead and park it from the other Automadome, and exit. Power off everything (remember the dome boxes!!!) and unplug the computer and telescope.

Using these telescopes requires you to become familiar with the operation of the handpaddle, see page 9 of the manual. Note that these telescopes will not point and track without a full alignment, thus even looking at the moon requires a full alignment to be done--this takes time, so start early.

Step 1. Place the tripod at a location that is flat, and stable (and from which you can see the objects of interest). Adjust it to the appropriate height. Mount the telescope onto the tripod by screwing-in the large bolt, insuring the "tripod spreader" aligns with the legs of the tripod---this is required for stability! The "control panel" should be on the south side of the mount. Use the bubble level and adjust the legs to get the telescope as level as possible. Do not power anything on!

Step 2. Now, unlock the axes so that you can manually point to some distant light/pole/tree and center this in the eyepiece. Now adjust the screws on the finder to make sure it is aligned with the telescope. This is essential for getting a proper alignment!

Step 3. Manually point the telescope (roughly) north, keeping it horizontal. Lock both axes! Plug it in, and power it on.

Step 4. The telescope will whir a bit, and then the handpaddle will display "Automatic/Alignment", you should press "Enter" to select this mode (this entire process is described in the manual, starting on page 18). The telescope will now go through about 10 minutes of alignment--getting a GPS fix, finding north, and performing a software leveling exercise. It will then slew to a very bright star (e.g., Arcturus). It will not come very close though--you must now center this star in the eyepiece and then hit "Enter".

Note that the slew operation resets the motion control speed down to "guide", so press the "Speed" button followed by a number (5 is good), to allow you to center the star.

Step 5. Now the hard part---star #2. After completing step 4, the telescope now picks a star located well away from the first. Unfortunately, this is probably not a first magnitude star, but some obscure 3rd magnitude object (e.g., Alderamin). Assume that the brightest star in the finder is the correct star (it usually is!). Center it, and press Enter.

Note that if you cannot identify this star, there is a way to skip it and go to another object, see the manual for details.

Step 6. As long as no one kicks the tripod, the telescope is now aligned, and will point fairly well to any object above the horizon. You can select various menus using the handpaddle. For example, the "SS" button brings-up the solar system menu which you can scroll through to select a planet. While the "M" button allows you to choose a Messier object (hit M and then type in a number, then "Enter", and then "Goto"). There are also other "hot keys" that allow catalog access, such as the Caldwell, NGC, and IC catalogs, named stars, etc.

As noted earlier, the gearing inside these telescopes is not especially durable--while the nylon gearing keeps the damage minimal when the telescope suffers a severe shock, it does mean the telescope will need to go back to Meade for repair (about $400, no matter the issue!). So treat these telescopes with respect, and watch the students/parents/children (& faculty!) carefully so as to avoid damage (and injury).

1. Focus issues. All GPS telescopes have a coarse focus knob, and a focus lock. The focus lock is very nice, acting to keep the mirror from "flopping" around inside the tube. But trying to manually focus the telescope while the focus is locked causes damage. So be careful. Usually, you can manually set the focus close to what is needed, and then use the electronic focuser to fine-tune the focus. Note that the total travel of the electronic focuser is about 3/8", so run it to the middle of the range before attempting a coarse focus. Then lock the focus and use the electronic focuser. I recommend that you press the "Focus" button on the paddle to allow individuals to focus the telescope for their eyes. This also insures that no one moves the telescope without hitting the correct key sequence.

2. Finder scope issues. There is no way to keep these perfectly aligned--they will eventually get bumped and need to be re-aligned. This can be a daunting challenge for the 12" Meade's since we cannot see below the dome walls. If the moon, or a bright planet is visible, point the telescope at that object. I find that you can pull out the eyepiece, and can usually see an image of the moon/planet in the wider field of view--if so, sort-of center it up (the secondary mirror obscures the very center of the field of view), and replace the eyepice. You can usually sight along the tube to try to get it close--do this from two sides of the tube to make your error symmetric. There is a spiral search feature that can be invoked from the software if this does not work.

3. The "Mode" button is your friend! Whenever you get stuck in some odd menu on the handpaddle--and some of those areas are very dangerous(!), repeatedly press the Mode button until the display returns to the "Select Item: Object" mode. Especially dangerous are the "Align" menus, and the "Site" menus. You can get the telescope stuck in a very funny mode of operation from which you cannot recover without additional guidance, so be careful (someone in our department seems to frequently change our permanently mounted telescopes from Equatorial mounted to Alt-Az mode--not a very good thing to do, and surprisingly hard to de-bug!).

4. Dome issues. The computerized dome seems to work fairly well, but occasionally has pointing issues. If everything started-up ok, but on one of your slews the dome tracked to some odd position, simply re-slew the telescope and the dome might catch-up. If not, you can re-home the dome, and try everything again. You can also send the dome to the desired azimuth simply using the Goto option (note that the azimuth of the object of interest will be displayed in the object information window). Sometimes, when the sun has been shining on the home sensor area on a hot day, the dome simply will not intialize. If this happens simply manually move the dome around (though even un-initialized, the dome sometimes points ok). If the dome will not close through the software, press the "Close all" button on the shutter control box. Sometimes, you will need to cycle the power to get this box to respond--especially after an emergency stop.