Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium

Monday, December 3, 2012

When I was a little girl, I use to sit on the balcony and stare at the stars through the lens of my Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium. But not the brightest ones. My tastes were a little different.

My stars were the stars that other people might miss. That’s one of the things I loved about the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium. Thanks to the GPS function, I could quickly locate and identify all those stars none of my friends could recognize! But, really? I’ve always been that way. 

For example, in 10th Grade, I had a picture of David Ogden Stiers on my locker. My friends would laugh and say “Who’s he?” and I would cry and say “SHUT UP HE WAS ON M.A.S.H. YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW” and run down the hall in tears. Many was the night I would sleep alone next to my Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium, full of all the knowledge its built-in field guide had shared with me as I listened to the music of my favorite rock star, Kip Winger. How I cried the day I stopped being only seventeen!

And it didn’t end when I hit college. With my Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium at my side, I chose the school closest to the home of Curtis Armstrong. If I had a dollar for every time I said “No, you DO know who he is, you just don’t KNOW you know!” I’d have been able to afford a huge billboard promoting a “Better Off Dead” and “Revenge Of The Nerds” film festival at the drive-in. Plus I’d have been able to identify every visible star above that drive-in, thanks to the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium!

Today, I’m living a quiet life just two blocks away from Richard Moll’s modest duplex. Some days I look out the window and pretend I’m reading the mythology of Venus on my Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium’s screen. Really, I’m just staring in his window.. Oh, I wish I was brave enough to introduce myself. “Hi, neighbor!” I’d say. “Want to use my Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium to look at the stars?”

And maybe, just maybe, he’d say yes.

Celestial Database:

• Over 50,000 Stars, 1,500 Double and Variable Stars, all 88 constellations, over 100 deep space objects including Galaxies, Nebulae and Star Clusters, over 200 audio descriptions of the most popular celestial objects

User Controls:

• Target Button
• Menu Navigation: Four-way control
• One-Touch Controls: Identify Function, Locate Function, GPS Function, and Main Menu
• Display Brightness: Increase, Decrease
• Volume: Increase, Decrease
• Power: On/Off

Display:

• Graphic LCD display with red LED backlight
• 3″W x 1″H (78 mm x 26 mm)
• 240 x 80 with a 0.325 mm dot pitch

Audio:

• Maximum output power: 50mW
• Frequency response: 20 to 20,000 Hz

Inputs and Outputs:

• SD card slot (for pre-programmed data only)
• USB for connection to PC
• 3.5 mm stereo jack for headphones

Headphones:

• Earbud-style headphones included

Skylink Interface:

• Download of new celestial objects (including newly
  discovered comets, etc.)
• Download of firmware upgrades

Size and Weight:

• Height: 2.5 inches
• Depth: 4.0 inches
• Width: 7.4 inches
• Weight: 15.2 ounces (without batteries)

Power and Battery:

• 2 x 1.5 V AA batteries (not included)

In the box:

• Celestron 93970 SkyScout Personal Planetarium
• USB Cable
• Wrist Strap
• Earbuds
• Padded Case with Strap
• Instructional CD-ROM
• Quick Setup Guide

Woot