1. Autostar® and your computer
Bob Pasken
Dept of Earth &Atmospheric Sciences
Saint Louis University

2. Using a computer with Autostar
Since the Autostar hand-controller is a computer why would you want to use your computer with Autostar?
Upgrade the software to newer releases
Add your own tours
Record your observations
Search catalogs for things to look for

3. Using a computer with Autostar
What do you need ?
Meade made it relatively easy to upgrade the software
Windows-95 or higher
Macintosh OS-8.6 or higher and virtual-PC
#505 cable
patience

4. Using a computer with Autostar
Talk is about how to do three things
Upgrade your Autostar to a new release
Add tours to your Autostar
Using Autostar with planning software
Start with upgrading the Autostar

5. Using a computer with Autostar
#505 Cable is the key
Buy the cable from Meade
Buy from a third party
Build your own
I recommend building your with Radio Shack Parts
Diagrams for the cable are on the Mighty ETX Website (
Very easy to do
Need only needle nose pliers and a file.

6. Using a computer with Autostar
#505 Cable
A simple parts layout is below

7. Using a computer with Autostar
#505 Cable
The simplest way to build one is to buy from RadioShack a DB-9 to RJ45 adaptor
The DB-9 connector has 9 pins in a D-shaped shell and the RJ45 is an 8-pin version of the familiar telephone cable.
The adaptor comes with the pins for the connector disconnected. All you need do is insert the pins into holes. The extra wires are not connected and left in the hood.
On my adaptor green goes to hole 5, red goes to hole 2 and black goes to hole 3. This can vary so be careful.

8. Using a computer with Autostar
#505 Cable
The 9 pin D connector looks like this before the hood is put on

9. Using a computer with Autostar
#505 Cable
Once the adaptor has been assembled, a cable is needed to connect the adaptor to the Autostar.
Since I have a crimper for RJ45 connectors I bought a coiled telephone handset cable.
I bought a Meade blue handset cord from RadioShack and then cut one of the RJ-12 connectors off.
Carefully inserting the cut end into the center of an RJ45 connector, I crimped the new connector on.
An alternative is to buy a CAT5 jumper cable and cut off one of the RJ45 connectors, trim the wire and insert it into an RJ12 connector and then manually crimp the wire by pushing gold pins down with a jewelers screwdriver

10. Using a computer with Autostar
#505 Cable
The telephone end of the cable goes to the Autostar.
The Autostar end of my cable looks like this

11. Using a computer with Autostar
#505 Cable
The RJ-45 end of the cable goes to the DB-9 Connector.
The DB-9 connector end of the cable looks like this

12. Using a computer with Autostar
#505 Cable
Below is a photo of the assembled cable and the ETX-90EC ready to be connected to the computer.
I am using a DB-25 connector as that is what my computer uses

13. Using a computer with Autostar
You need to pieces of software from Meade.
Download two packages from either the Meade or from the Mighty ETX websites.
ASU3.61 (the update program)
Build26eb (the updated Autostar ROM)
Both are auto-extracting zip files so all you do is click on them.

14. Using a computer with Autostar
Desktop after Download

15. Using a computer with Autostar
Starting the Install of ASU

16. Using a computer with Autostar
End of the Install of ASU

17. Using a computer with Autostar
Starting ASU

18. Using a computer with Autostar
Running ASU

19. Using a computer with Autostar
You now need to connect your Autostar to the computer via the #505 cable
Next click the connect button.
ASU will search for an Autostar on the serial ports
ASU will report the version # and the port that it found the Autostar on

20. Using a computer with Autostar
ASU connecting to the ETX

21. Using a computer with Autostar
Asking ASU to upgrade the hand box.
Note that I am using a disk file version of the ROMS.
ASU will go to the Internet to get the ROMS
If you are not connected it will search the Ephemeredes directory

22. Using a computer with Autostar
Note that you must shut off your screensaver AND make sure the ETX-90EC has new batteries to make sure the download completes.
A safe download can be started by turning on the power with the ENTER and Scroll down keys pressed before you turn on the ETX

23. Using a computer with Autostar
You can also retrieve the existing Tours and objects by asking to get the objects from the handbox

24. Using a computer with Autostar
You can also retrieve the existing Tours and objects by asking to get the objects from the handbox

25. Using a computer with Autostar
You can download objects and Tours that you can write your self or download from the net.
I have pulled down a copy of Dr. Clay Sherrod’s constellation guides and then down load a few.

26. Using a computer with Autostar
The Tour files are first imported from an ordinary text files.
The text file can be built with textedit following some simple rules.
The best bet is to take an existing Tour files and then modify it for own Tour.

27. Using a computer with Autostar
When you have copied everything you want on to the handbox side of ASU, just press send.
As before it will ask if you are sure. Click Yes and wait for the down load to finish

28. Using a computer with Autostar
Although you can use a simple text editor like textedit under windows to build Tour Files, I prefer planning software
There a many different kinds of planning software available I prefer to use AstroPlanner by Paul Rodman
It works on Macs and PC’s, it is easy to use and understand and it allows the ETX to be driven by the software

29. Using a computer with Autostar
AstroPlanner also allows you to build Tour Files from the software and then download them to the handbox
AstroPlanner also helps you learn the night sky because it shows what the star field looks like in the finder and through the eyepiece.
It also includes the Tycho Database so you can plot everything that you can see in ETX

30. Using a computer with Autostar
As an example I have a list of double stars that I have been observing.
The list of double stars was collected from the Washington Double Star (WDS) catalog.
I sorted these doubles by season, magnitude and separation to create a list of stars that ranged from easy to hard in my ETX-90
AstroPlanner lets me keep a record of what I viewed and how hard it was.

31. Using a computer with Autostar

32. Using a computer with Autostar
By switching from the planning view to the sky view I can see what the ETX-90 with a specific eyepiece.
As an example I want to know what Kappa Hercules will look like with an ETX-90 and a 9.7mm Meade 3000 eyepiece

33. Using a computer with Autostar

34. Using a computer with Autostar
The best thing about AstroPlanner is that once I have a list of objects built I can then use AstroPlanner to control my ETX-90EC.
I can also use AstroPlanner to automatically build a Autostar tour file that then can be downloaded to my ETX-90EC