The Vixen Star Book User Guide: How to Use the Star Book TEN and the Original Star Book (The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series)

This book is for anyone who owns, or is thinking of owning, a Vixen Star Book Ten telescope mount or its predecessor. A revolution in amateur astronomy has occurred in the past decade with the wide availability of high tech, computer-driven, Go-To telescopes. Vixen Optics is leading the way by offering the Star Book Ten system, with its unique star map graphics software. The Star Book Ten is the latest version of computer telescope control using star map graphics as a user interface, first introduced in the original Star Book first offered in 2003. The increasingly complicated nature of this software means that learning to optimize this program is not straightforward, and yet the resulting views when all features are correctly deployed can be phenomenal. After a short history of computerized Go-To telescopes for the consumer amateur astronomer market, Chen offers a treasury of technical information. His advice, tips, and solutions aid the user in getting the most out of the Star Book Ten system in observing sessions. Front Matter....Pages i-xii A Brief History of Vixen Computerized Telescope Mounts for Amateurs....Pages 1-6 Vixen Sphinx Mounts Using Star Book Technology....Pages 7-14 Introduction to the Star Book TEN....Pages 15-20 Basic Operation of the Star Book TEN....Pages 21-52 Learned Lessons in Using the Star Book TEN....Pages 53-60 Introduction to the Original Star Book....Pages 61-67 Basic Operation of the Star Book....Pages 69-97 Learned Lessons in Using the Original Star Book....Pages 99-103 Notes on the Star Book-One and Star Book-S Systems....Pages 105-121 Accessories for Vixen Sphinx Mounts....Pages 123-135 Mounting Other Optical Tubes on the Vixen Mounts....Pages 137-140 Maintenance and Care of the Star Book Electronics and Sphinx Mounts....Pages 141-145 Back Matter....Pages 147-292