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The DS-2114ATS-LNT is a fully GOTO telescope featuring AutoAlign. The advanced LNT Auto-align technology featured as standard
equipment on LX90 and ETX-Premier models is now integrated into DS-2000 telescopes. Turn on the power and the telescope
automatically finds level, senses precise north and inputs (factory calibrated) time and date, then races to the first
alignment-star automatically without any user inputs or interaction. You'll see more objects in one night than Galileo saw in a
lifetime. See planets like Saturn and Jupiter, star clusters, nebulae, galaxies and more.
Meade Digital Series telescopes bring microprocessor technology and the very latest in electromechanical design to the serious
beginning or intermediate observer. Completely re-engineered and redesigned, Meade DS-2000 telescopes provide extremely smooth
motions in both altitude and azimuth, and, most importantly, include a fully integrated Autostar control system as standard
equipment. Oversize bearings on both telescope axes of all models negate the imprecisions found universally, virtually without
exception, on competing models.
With the standard-equipment #494 Meade Autostar Computer Controller plugged into the control panel of your DS telescope, locating
any astronomical object in the sky is as easy as pushing a button. Identical in operating characteristics to the Autostar
controller available for the Meade ETX-70AT telescope, Autostar for DS telescopes is easy to use, even for the beginner who has
never before operated a telescope.
Autostar's celestial object database includes more than 1500 astronomical objects, any of which may be entered on to the Autostar
display; alternately, the Right Ascension and Declination of any object in the sky may be input to the Autostar display. In either
case when the observer presses GO TO, the telescope automatically moves to the object at 4.5°/sec. on both telescope axes, and
places the object in the telescopic field of view. Autostar's database for DS-2000 telescopes includes the following celestial
objects:
Deep-space objects from the Index Catalog (IC) and New General Catalog (NGC): 66 named objects (e.g., the Orion Nebula) 74
galaxies, 31 diffuse nebulae, 19 planetary nebulae, 135 star clusters. Other deep-space objects: 109 objects from the Caldwell
Catalog of the best objects for small telescopes, 110 Messier (M) objects, the complete Messier catalog, 943 stars from the
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) catalog, including 395 double stars, 189 variable stars, and other stars of special
note. In the Solar System: 50 Earth-orbiting satellites, 26 asteroids, including all of the brightest asteroids, 15 periodic
comets, 8 major planets from Mercury to Pluto ______ 1586 objects, total!
Beyond the location of database objects, Autostar allows for a wide range of important - indeed revolutionary - telescope
capabilities:
Automatic GO TO capability to any astronomical object of known coordinates (RA and Dec.). Enter an object's coordinates to the
Autostar display, press GO TO, and Autostar moves the telescope to locate the object and place it in the telescopic field.
Digital Readouts of telescope position, continuously in RA and Dec.
Precise sidereal-rate tracking. Once Autostar locates an object, it directs the telescope to track the object automatically on
both telescope axes, simultaneously, keeping the object centered in the field.
9-Speed Dual-Axis Operation. Use Autostar's pushbuttons to move the telescope on either or both axes, simultaneously, at any of
nine drive speeds, from very slow 2x sidereal to fast 4.5°/second.
GO TO capability to any of 200 user-defined objects.
Use Meade StarNavigator sky software, included with every DS telescope, on your PC to GO TO any object on the PC display at a
click of the mouse. (Requires optional #506 Connector Cable Set).
Plus: over 20 other menu options, including guided tours of the best objects observable on any specified date; major event menus;
utility functions (e.g., timer, alarm, eyepiece power calculations); and much more.
For the beginning or intermediate observer Autostar is a revelation that permits the observation of hundreds of objects the very
first night out. And, with its wide-ranging capabilities, Autostar is a valuable tool in the hands of the most experienced
observer as well.
Meade StarNavigator™ Software: Included with all Meade DS-2000 telescopes, StarNavigator software displays more than 10,000
celestial objects on your personal computer - galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, stars, and planets - enabling even the beginner to
locate and identify objects to observe with the telescope or to print out star charts for use in observing sessions. StarNavigator
operates with any Windows®-based PC.
Observing with Meade DS Telescopes: A large and exciting array of objects is visible through any Meade DS-2000 telescope: the
rings of Saturn, including, in 114mm and larger models, the Cassini division in the rings; Saturn's largest satellite, Titan; the
four largest satellites of Jupiter, as well as cloud belts across the planet's disc; Moon craters, mountain ranges, and fault
lines by the hundred; and hundreds of deep-space phenomena: galaxies, nebulae, star clusters.
While all of the foregoing objects may be easily viewed through the Meade DS-2070AT, the larger apertures of the Meade DS-2114ATS
and DS-2130ATS telescopes show all of these objects in greater resolution and in wider extension, in proportion to the additional
aperture and light-collecting area of the telescope.
The Orion Nebula (M42), for example, is easily visible through the DS-2070AT; the nebula's four central stars are readily
resolved and a good deal of tenuous nebular structure can be observed. Through the larger aperture of the DS-2114ATS, however, the
nebula becomes almost three times brighter at the same magnification, filling the field of view at moderate powers and with outer
extensions of the gas cloud now observable. The Pleiades (M45), an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus, displays perhaps
one hundred stars in a low-power field of the 70mm telescope, while the DS-2130ATS permits observation of over 250 stars. The
larger instrument also enables, under dark-sky conditions, the resolution of faint nebulosity around some of the primary stars in
the Pleiades.
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