More High-Tech Goodness

[davekill]

Went to my first star party last Friday night (11/9) no moon - the best time to watch the night sky.
I saw demos of big and small telescopes, got a good look at a comet, a ring nebula a star nursery... and one of the coolest "Star Trek" gadgets since the cell phone.
The "SkyScout" is a small handheld device that guides you to the planets and deep space objects.

It has been available for a year now and has proved to be well made and reliable
and like the cell phone, it was pure science fiction not that long ago.

http://www.myskyscout.com/skyscout_tour/index.html

[Rico]

That sounds cool.  I got a Celestron Nexstar telescope a few years ago that has a built in tracking system for planets, stars, and many other cool stellar objects.  It's just in Michigan the weather is not great to use it much.

[davekill]

I took my little 6" Celestron "Starhopper"  dobsonian scope out to get some tips. All of the old timers where on it in a flash!
The prognosis was that even for a smaller telescope, Celestron builds good quality optics.
Of course it really shined when I saw what a $400.00 Pentex eyepiece could make it do ;)
The Meade "mySKY" looked real good -  but after reading the customer reviews I ordered the "Skyscout". I'll let you know how it works out.

[iceman]

very cool

[davekill]

So I got home today and found that my new Celestron skyscope ordered from Amazon had arrived, standard UPS ground shipping just two days after I ordered it. Would be funny if they had a whole warehouse full just across town!

It works as advertised right out of the box and super easy to use. (manuals? We don't need no stink'n  manuals).

Just insert two AA alkaline user supplied batteries and push the on button.
It quickly acquires GPS satellite signals and your "off to the races"!

You can actively search for and locate, or just point at and identify any of 6000 planets or stars. Sorry no comets or satellites.

It offers a list of the brightest objects appearing in the sky for that night.
And audio or text files for (I think) 200+ objects.

Built-in firmware and software is updated via usb connection from the Celestron website

Now the bad news:
It has an expansion slot for SD cards - but no one is selling expansion software yet :(

It eats batteries like candy, about 4 hrs per every 2 alkaline batteries and the device is too sensitive to use rechargeables.

It works during the day too - but what's the point?

DK

[moyer777]

I don't often covet.. but wow.  That is just so cool.

Now that I have seen the Skyscout I have something to add to my wish list.  That has to be the coolest thing to a star watcher ever made. 

If I can, I will get this for next summer so Catherine and I can watch the sky and figure out what we are looking at.

I am just very impressed.  How cool.

[davekill]

Rico - what model Nexstar do you have?

Do you use it on occasion or have you considered selling it?