I may be out of a job with this gadget!

[Watchinherskip]

There seems to be a lot of interest in astronomy in this forum. We can thank Skywatcher for keeping up the interest. His interest and enthusiasm is evident in his posts and his images. If you would like to know more about the heavens you might be interested in this device mySky plus.

For about $250 USD you can get this hand held device that will after initializing the time, date and magnetic field, identify objects in the night sky, let you find a particular object (star, planet, constellation) and also give you a guided tour of the sky for that evening.

You can see the demo online..pretty cool comes with multimedia stuff packed inside. Just did a professional development in my school district with it.. FYI...if your are a good shot with a pistol you will have a good shot at identifying objects!::

http://www.meade.com/mysky/index.html

[Tink]

Oh wow. Oh WOW! This is amazing! Thanks for the info!

[Dorothy]

Then I could spot something besides just the big dipper when the sky is clear

[Watchinherskip]

It is pretty neat. It is really sensitive to metal objects so you must initialize it on a flat surface away form anything metal, like your car.

[Skywatcher]

They are very cool - but there as soo many better ways to spend the money

[Keith]

They are very cool - but there as soo many better ways to spend the money

really really REALLY though? because they look like they'd be such a great thing to have when starting out?

[Skywatcher]

really really REALLY though?

really really REALLY! - they would be great for a night or 2 or for showing your mates, then you will wish you spent the extra money on your scope and spent £5 on a starchart or a magazine.

[Keith]

really really REALLY! - they would be great for a night or 2 or for showing your mates, then you will wish you spent the extra money on your scope and spent £5 on a starchart or a magazine.

mmmm interesting thought for sure. I guess they make sense for people perhaps wanting to show their kids without having to buy a scope and really get into it.

ok food for thought thanks

[Watchinherskip]

To be honest Chris, most families aren't into it as much as we are, so for the masses, it is money well spent. They could spend an extra $100 for a good pair of binoculars if they didn't have them and really spend more time looking at the sky. If you are to really get into the hobby, yes, get a chart (free on the internet) and start looking up.

It is pretty good with the movies that come with the mySky. Plug in the headphones and listen and watch as a nice multimedia show comes on with everything from planets to stars to constellations, meteor showers, and even comets (it comes with a xd card to get the latest downloads.) I haven't tried it but it will even give info on the ISS and Hubble. So for the most part, the average Joe will see something in the sky. Normally he will call the planetarium and I will try to figure out what he saw or he would be able to point at the object and find out a lot about it. So money well spent in my opinion. I have a lot of friends who have bought a telescope, nice ones Orions, Clestrons, Meades, and they sit an collect dust. This device can be taken outside into the back yard at a momments notice and give the user a lot of information, may enough to go and get their heavy scope out and actually use it.

[Tink]

Why after purchasing a "good" scope do people not use them? Is it because it is hard to identify what you are looking at?