In the early years of the 1960s Celestron (originally Valor Electronics) was created when Tom Johnson, who couldn’t find a decent telescope for his sons, built one from scratch. What was labor of love for his children became his business. The company developed an inexpensive way to produce Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, and in 1970 started to market the Celestron C8. They moved on to larger telescopes, and various other optical products. In 1980 Johnson sold the company, and it almost ceased to exist when Tasco closed its doors. However some wrangling saved the company when the company’s senior executives banded together and bought it. They continued to innovate, went on to develop computerized equatorial telescopes. In 2005 they were purchased yet again by SW Technology Corporation. Quite a wild ride from a garage project for children to products used by colleges and even NASA on shuttle missions.
I first read about the Skyscout on a cross-country flight. It has a sighting system and a database that allows you to identify 6,000 celestial objects. While that sentence describes the core functionality, it just doesn’t do it justice. Imagine you’re in your backyard on a stary night with your child. “Daddy, what’s that star?” she says, and looks up at you expectantly. If you’re like me you can identify the constellations (well technically asterids, thank you Skyscout), but how about that star? Or that one over there? Click a few buttons, point the Skyscout at the object by sighting through the lens and it will tell you not only what the object is, but a little detail about it. Read it on the display, or listen as it TALKS to you. It even knows what is going to be most visible tonight, and can make suggestions on what to look for, guiding you using flashing arrows in the sighting system. Elegantly designed, and perfect for the child in all of us that wants to know what lies in the night sky.
Order here: Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium
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Celestron