How to Identify Stars and Planets - the Easy Way!

The Celestron Skyscout is a handheld 'personal planetarium' which has been a knockout success for good reason, it has truly made amateur astronomy simple. Its main purpose is to locate and identify stars, planets and other objects in the sky and it does this with point and click ease.

It uses advanced built in GPS technology which works out your current location and sensors that let the Skyscout know where it is pointing. To identify an object simply look through the Skyscout at a star and press the target button to find out what you are looking at. You can then listen to an audio file or read the text to get the facts on the target object. Facts might include when the object was first discovered, mythology, scientific facts and more.

Alternatively, you can use the Skyscout to locate an object you want to find. Just choose the object from the large database and the Skyscout will guide you to it using directional LEDs in the viewfinder. The 'Tonights Highlights' feature is a great tour of the top 20 objects to view at the time for your location.

The Skyscout has over 6000 objects in its database, from stars and planets to clusters and nebulae. Note that Southern hemisphere users are also catered to so users there should rest easy knowing the Skyscout has plenty to show anytime.

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One of the first things you'll notice about the Skyscout is that it weighs so little, which helps make it very easy to use and easy to take with you on field trips. The menu operation is real simple being much like that of a cellphone. The Skyscout comes with a carry case, headphones for the audio commentary, a wristband, a USB cable and the CD-ROM and manual. The USB cable is used for updating the database over the web as new objects are discovered, particularly useful for comets. The Skyscout also has an SD-card slot that can be used for optional "Sky Tours" (audio presentations) as they become available.

The built in field guide includes an introduction to astronomy with a good glossary of terms and even a little background on the history's great astronomers. It also includes information on some of the man made wonders like the Hubble Telescope and the International Space Station.

Telescope owners should know that the Skyscout can be mounted on a telescope using its tripod socket. It can also be mounted in place of a finderscope with other adapters. As a 'digital' finderscope, the Skyscout works very well indeed. It consistently puts just about anything you might ask near the center of your eyepiece.

The constellation lessons will also be appreciated by beginner astronomers. You can roam around constellations while the Skyscout tells you all about the stars in that constellation and even show you an onscreen map.

The Skyscout presents few glitches and many pleasant surprises. It keeps kids and adults amused for hours in a highly educational way. Pack one for the next camping trip to a dark sky location. Expect about 8-10 hours from a set of batteries. The Skyscout is worth every cent of the asking price.


The Celestron Skyscout from Telescopes.com


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Note if you live outside USA/Canada you might find you need to purchase from a local supplier, in Australia I highly recommend York Optical

Trying hard not to be outdone, Meade have now brought out a similar gadget called the 'MySKY'. This looks a little different to the Skyscout being more like a toy gun in appearance. It's actually held like one too when aiming the device at the target star! It has a little color screen at the back of the unit which even shows little videos for some objects.

It can also be used as a finder of objects in that you can select from the 30,000 or so objects in the database and little arrows will point you to your target. It comes with an SD card on to which you can download database updates.

Like the Skyscout it also has guided sky tours and essentially works in the same way as the Skyscout. You'll find the same limitations apply, it won't work near large metal objects including steel framed buildings, so its very much for outside use.

While the database is much larger some folks find the gun shape a little unsettling, perhaps a good idea to use this in the middle of nowhere where nobody including the police are going to get the wrong idea!

Serious astronomers would probably prefer the orange/reddish display of the Skyscout. In case you don't already know, color and bright LED displays destroy your night vision and it can take some time to recover again, annoying if you're doing some observing through a telescope!

You'll find the mySKY sells at about the same price at outlets like Amazon - check them both out. In my opinion every school should have one or other and these units are a lot of fun to have at observing evenings, great for public events too!

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