CELESTRON'S New *SKYSCOUT

Has anyone seen or had "hands on" the new Personal Planetarium that Celestron is selling? Or has anyone heard good/bad reports yet? Item # 7060 in the ORION cat. $400.00 It is about the same size as a small camcorder, uses GPS to locate they claim over 6K Stars, Planets, Constellations, and deep sky objects... John M

I called a couple of vendors this past week and they said they were looking at August delivery.
Joe

As I understand it, this will be marketed as a tool to help people learn the night sky. So, yes if you're already familiar with the night sky and can find your bearings the Skyscout is redundant.

Here's my problem with it. First, because distribution has been delayed, it's likely that Celestron has experienced technical problems that make it's accuracy suspect. I'm concerned that in an attempt to get their product out, they'll market what is essentially a 'beta version.'

Second, if the response from Celestron Tech Support is accurate, then the SkyScout will point you in the general direction of an object but won't be able to pinpoint it. That runs counter to their advertising which suggests that it will lead you directly to an object and provide you with background information. It appears more likely that it will point you in the general vicinity and provide information that therefore may or may not apply to the object you're looking at.

Consequently, my ultimate concern is that rather than helping people learn and enjoy night-time observing, like a cheap telescope, it will turn people off. That may be pessimistic, but it will be up to Celestron to prove that they have a product that delivers as advertised.