Legacy Features

Sky Commander XP4 is based on the original Sky Commander design, now over 25 years old!

Many of the basic operating principals and features of the original Sky Commander are carried forward in the XP4 design.

	Six Button Control – the ENTER, MENU, UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT buttons are used to control the unit. You will quickly master the operation by understanding a few basic principals. Large LCD - 32 character (16 x 2 line) Liquid Crystal Display with adjustable intensity yellow-green backlight. The backlight is soft on the eyes and not detrimental to night vision. RS232 - Serial (RS232) port to connect the Sky Commander to your Personal Computer. Display telescope position on the PCs screen. Many astronomy programs interface to the Sky Commander – The Sky, Megastar, Guide 7.0, Sky Map Pro, Deep Sky Planner, and more. Search & Identify mode – As you pan the scope, any database object that matches the scopes position is displayed immediately. Search is ‘filtered’ by an adjustable magnitude limit. Browse by Constellation – Select a constellation and ‘browse’ the database. Adjustable magnitude limit. User List – Select objects from the internal database and add them to a ‘favorites’ list for easy access at a later time. Special List – Add coordinates of any object to a ‘special’ list. This can be done ‘on the fly’ through the keypad or through the RS232 interface. Realign to Object – Improve pointing accuracy, especially in the vicinity of the object that you realign to. Ultra Low Power – Get about 40 hours of operation from a single 9 volt battery. Battery current is a mere 6mA. Standby Mode – Extend battery life and extinguish backlight with a simple ‘double-click’ on the MENU button. Return to normal operation by pressing any button. Battery Monitor – Bar graph indicates relative battery life. External Power – Standard 2.1mm power jack for use with 12 volt battery or power supply. Display Heater – In cold weather the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) will be come slow. An internal heater will turn on under thermostat control. This feature requires the use of external 12 volt DC. Equatorial Table Support – Use the Sky Commander with an equatorial table. No need to re-do the two star alignment after resetting the table.

Six Button Control – the ENTER, MENU, UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT buttons are used to control the unit. You will quickly master the operation by understanding a few basic principals.

Large LCD - 32 character (16 x 2 line) Liquid Crystal Display with adjustable intensity yellow-green backlight. The backlight is soft on the eyes and not detrimental to night vision.

RS232 - Serial (RS232) port to connect the Sky Commander to your Personal Computer. Display telescope position on the PCs screen. Many astronomy programs interface to the Sky Commander – The Sky, Megastar, Guide 7.0, Sky Map Pro, Deep Sky Planner, and more.

Search & Identify mode – As you pan the scope, any database object that matches the scopes position is displayed immediately. Search is ‘filtered’ by an adjustable magnitude limit.

Browse by Constellation – Select a constellation and ‘browse’ the database. Adjustable magnitude limit.

User List – Select objects from the internal database and add them to a ‘favorites’ list for easy access at a later time.

Special List – Add coordinates of any object to a ‘special’ list. This can be done ‘on the fly’ through the keypad or through the RS232 interface.

Realign to Object – Improve pointing accuracy, especially in the vicinity of the object that you realign to.

Ultra Low Power – Get about 40 hours of operation from a single 9 volt battery. Battery current is a mere 6mA.

Standby Mode – Extend battery life and extinguish backlight with a simple ‘double-click’ on the MENU button. Return to normal operation by pressing any button.

Battery Monitor – Bar graph indicates relative battery life.

External Power – Standard 2.1mm power jack for use with 12 volt battery or power supply.

Display Heater – In cold weather the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) will be come slow. An internal heater will turn on under thermostat control. This feature requires the use of external 12 volt DC.

Equatorial Table Support – Use the Sky Commander with an equatorial table. No need to re-do the two star alignment after resetting the table.