The Universe in Your Hands: Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium

For the budding young astronomer to the full-fledged star gazer the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium puts the knowledge of an expert astronomer in the palm of your hand.  No more complex star charts, and no more uncertainty about whether that gloving thing hovering in the south is Venus, Mars or the bright star Castor.

Overview:  The Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium is a handheld gadget that uses built-in GPS technology and database to show you the location of over 6,000 planets, constellations and stars, their location relative to yours, and tells you interesting tidbits about whatever astronomical body catches your gaze or your fancy.  It’s a point and click device – put the viewfinder to your eyes, point it to a star or celestial body, and click the button to know a little something about the star or planet you’re looking at.  You can also simply choose a star, planet or whatever celestial object you want from the list and the planetarium will give you whatever information it has available about that object as well as point you to the right direction – that is, show you where in the sky you should point your SkyScout so you’ll be looking at it (provided the sky is clear, of course).

What You’ll Love:  This is a pretty high-tech device, yet it’s amazingly simple to use.  You don’t need an advanced degree to understand how it works.  It is packed with useful features.  The database is as comprehensive as you’ll want and need, and it can still be updated with new information and facts by using the USB cable it comes with to connect it to a computer with an internet connection.  If you ever get lost in space, you can use the built-in field guides and help documents.  There are also multi-media presentations about the planets and stars and constellation tours as well as a “nightly best list” indicating which 20 celestial objects that you should view at certain times during that particular night; the content of your best-viewed list depends on the date and your actual location.  You can also get more audio presentations than that which comes with the unit by using the SD card expansion lot.  As an added bonus, the SkyScout can be used as a navigation aid for its built-in GPS is accurate at plotting your actual location.

Full Disclosure:  The update feature does not work very well due to buggy firmware, and remember to bring spare batteries for a whole night of star gazing.  It could also use a strap for more secure handling.  It’s also an expensive toy – educational it may be, but it still is a toy – at $199.99.