But in any case, it should work with your scope. It has the new ability to tell you about what you're looking at if you use their tour function. The new version of the 497 is the Audiostar. They have some truly brilliant minds who are end-users of these products and know what fits which. The first way is to poke around in Yahoo Astronomy Groups. There's another way (or two) to get the info you need. So if they've gone 'round the bend again - don't despair. I ended up in a verbal fist-fight the last time I tried to use them. Meade "Customer Service" is said to have improved in the last year or two. Meade did not do much to make it easy, a 10" Meade could be any of several models. If you ask elsewhere then you will need to give more information on the scope, LX10, LX90, LX200 models if I recall all came in 10" sizes. You will find you can run the scope from a laptop and software, a number of clubs do this.
#MEADE AUTOSTAR UPGRADE UPDATE#
I will suggest that if the handset is working and it does what you need/want then leave it alone.Ĭonsider it this way:= You have a working handset now, if you attempt an update you may or may not have a working handset. They seem to be the mainstay of many clubs and so a club may be able to help. Say this as although people may comment somewhat critically of Meade scopes every club I have been to and visited has used 8", 10" and 14" Meade scopes. Meades were more common over in the US and they tend to have more information.Īnother aspect is if you are in the UK locate a club within reach. Going to suggest 2 things - try the Meade Support site, and also go to the Cloudy Nights Forum and check or ask in their scope specific section.
#MEADE AUTOSTAR UPGRADE SOFTWARE#
I also think that some #497's can be updated, some cannot, it depends on the memory if them, and possibly the software already present. There will/may be one or two but in general Meade did not throw out a lot. This came from the Weasner site some years back.Ĭoncerning software upgrades, Meade didn't really do updates. The #497 does not have the ETX 70 as an option, but if you change the Alt and Az gear ratio data of say an ETX 90 in the #497 to the ratio's of the ETX 70 then apparently it all works fine. The main handset aspect is the gear ratio's that the handset has within it for each scope. I am not sure what scopes are in the handset. If the newer #497 has your model in the list of scopes then it should work by simply plugging in, powering up and setting the scope. My #497 simply says Autostar at the top, no reference to #497 anywhere. Meade started out with Autostar and then appeared to have the #494 and #497 as the main handsets.