Celestron Sky Scout

It was supposed to be unveiled today and on sale at CES in Las Vegas
tomorrow:

http://www.celestron.com/news/ces_innovation.htm

Any word on price and availability to non-CES attendees?

Phil

On 2006-01-04, Phil Wheeler wrote:
It was supposed to be unveiled today and on sale at CES in Las Vegas
tomorrow:

http://www.celestron.com/news/ces_innovation.htm

Any word on price and availability to non-CES attendees?

I got mail from Astronomics - $299 a copy, available 1st quarter this year.

--
The night is just the shadow of the Earth.

William Hamblen wrote:
On 2006-01-04, Phil Wheeler wrote:

It was supposed to be unveiled today and on sale at CES in Las Vegas
tomorrow:

http://www.celestron.com/news/ces_innovation.htm

Any word on price and availability to non-CES attendees?


I got mail from Astronomics - $299 a copy, available 1st quarter this year.


Thanks for the info.

William Hamblen wrote:
On 2006-01-04, Phil Wheeler wrote:

It was supposed to be unveiled today and on sale at CES in Las Vegas
tomorrow:

http://www.celestron.com/news/ces_innovation.htm

Any word on price and availability to non-CES attendees?


I got mail from Astronomics - $299 a copy, available 1st quarter this year.


Are you putting your name on the list? There are likely better astro
toys I can buy for $300 .. but I do like gadgets :-)

Guess it would not be useful in the daytime; gotta be pretty lame to not
find the Sun.

Camcorder size is a bit of a turnoff.

I am curious if it has optics inside and what they consist of: Must be
some reason it is camcorder size when GPS rcvrs are smaller. I envision
some sort of monocular.

Phil

On 2006-01-05, Phil Wheeler wrote:
William Hamblen wrote:
On 2006-01-04, Phil Wheeler wrote:

It was supposed to be unveiled today and on sale at CES in Las Vegas
tomorrow:

http://www.celestron.com/news/ces_innovation.htm

Any word on price and availability to non-CES attendees?


I got mail from Astronomics - $299 a copy, available 1st quarter this year.


Are you putting your name on the list? There are likely better astro
toys I can buy for $300 .. but I do like gadgets :-)

Guess it would not be useful in the daytime; gotta be pretty lame to not
find the Sun.

Camcorder size is a bit of a turnoff.

I am curious if it has optics inside and what they consist of: Must be
some reason it is camcorder size when GPS rcvrs are smaller. I envision
some sort of monocular.

I figure on passing this one up. It obviously has to have some sort of
sight inside. I wonder how the position sensors work.

--
The night is just the shadow of the Earth.

Try looking at:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6844822.pdf

Gives you the low down on what they are thinking about and what we
maybe likely to see in the future. I really hope we get some good
cheaper stuff that we can use like a Telrad/DSC combo, could be a real
gadget of the decade. All depends on what comes out, how useful and
flexible it is and how much it costs. Ought to put Celestron in a good
position.

Waiting for more details.....

PEterW

This can eventually replace your finder, Sjy Commander, GOTO, etc. Just
hook it on to your telescope - remember, it has an SD card slot for
expandibility. So you can put tens of thousands of objects in the
catalogue, turn it on, and just use it as a finder. It weighs less than
a pound, so even if it's on the large size, it won't be more difficult
to use than a normal finder. No need for encoders, etc.!! WOO-HOO!!!

Clear skies,
Shneor

Shneor wrote:
This can eventually replace your finder, Sjy Commander, GOTO, etc. Just
hook it on to your telescope - remember, it has an SD card slot for
expandibility. So you can put tens of thousands of objects in the
catalogue, turn it on, and just use it as a finder. It weighs less than
a pound, so even if it's on the large size, it won't be more difficult
to use than a normal finder. No need for encoders, etc.!! WOO-HOO!!!

Hi:

This is my take on it too. I'm excited, not so much about what this
will do at the moment, but by the potential possibilities.

For starters this could completely automate the alignment routine on
goto scopes. No more "center the brightest star," even.

It might also be offered as a DSC replacement/auotmatic TELRAD.

The possibilities are really mind-boggling if it works as advertised.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Join the SCT User Mailing List.
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user
============================
See my home page at
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
for further details!
============================
For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog See:
http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/

"Shneor" wrote in message
oups.com...
This can eventually replace your finder, Sjy Commander, GOTO, etc. Just
hook it on to your telescope - remember, it has an SD card slot for
expandibility. So you can put tens of thousands of objects in the
catalogue, turn it on, and just use it as a finder. It weighs less than
a pound, so even if it's on the large size, it won't be more difficult
to use than a normal finder. No need for encoders, etc.!! WOO-HOO!!!

Clear skies,
Shneor

Ooooohhhhhh.......... hold that thought.

RMOLLISE wrote:
Shneor wrote:

This can eventually replace your finder, Sjy Commander, GOTO, etc. Just
hook it on to your telescope - remember, it has an SD card slot for
expandibility. So you can put tens of thousands of objects in the
catalogue, turn it on, and just use it as a finder. It weighs less than
a pound, so even if it's on the large size, it won't be more difficult
to use than a normal finder. No need for encoders, etc.!! WOO-HOO!!!


Hi:

This is my take on it too. I'm excited, not so much about what this
will do at the moment, but by the potential possibilities.

For starters this could completely automate the alignment routine on
goto scopes. No more "center the brightest star," even.

It might also be offered as a DSC replacement/auotmatic TELRAD.

The possibilities are really mind-boggling if it works as advertised.


Yup.

Initially the "camcorder size" seems a bit largish for some
scopes/mounts. Hope not a VHS camcorder!

And we don't know how well/fast the various sensors work (GPS, magnetic,
gravity), really a matter of implementation.

And of course it will need a 90 deg sighting option :-)

Phil