Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium

Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium

Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium, is your revolutionary handheld device that uses advanced GPS technology with point and click convenience to identify thousands of stars, planets, constellations and more. Simply point the SkyScout at any star in the sky and click the target button. The Celestron SkyScout will tell you what object you are looking at. To locate a star or planet, select the object's name from the menu and follow the directional arrows through the viewfinder. SkyScout tells you when you are on target.

Celestron SkyScout also includes entertaining and educational audio and text information, including facts, trivia, history and mythology about our most popular celestial objects. A fun learning tool for all ages, the SkyScout personal planetarium puts the knowledge of an expert astronomer in the palm of your hand.

The Celestron SkyScout features Tonights Highlights, a customized list of the 20 best objects to view for your exact date, time and location anywhere in the world. Celestron SkyScout also provides you with Constellation lessons. If the star you identify or locate is part of a constellation like the Big Dipper, you can actually take a guided tour through all the stars in that constellation and even see an onscreen map of the constellation.

Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium Technical Details

• Locates and identifies over 6,000 stars, planets, and constellations with GPS technology
• Red LED backlit display for easy-to-read information
• Accepts SkyTour SD multi-media cards for interactive tours of the night sky
• Includes USB port for easy download of database updates
• Measures 7.4 x 2.5 x 4.0 inches (W x H x D)

Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium Reviews

The idea is genius - marry a GPS with an accelerometer and create a device that can tell you exactly what star it is pointing at, or direct you to any visible star. And Celestron SkyScout pretty much works as advertised. We've used ours on several nights so far, and everyone in our extended family has wanted a turn spotting different stars.

The info on the major stars is plentiful. The audio is a nice idea, but Celestron SkyScout just reads the same information that is on the text display. Sighting can be a little tricky through the plastic tube, but even faint stars took no more than two or three tries to spot.

The precision is good, but not great. If you point to Orion's belt, Celestron SkyScout's going to list all three stars. You'll have to read the descriptions to determine whether you are interested in the eastern-most, western-most, or middle star. Did you know that the middle star of Orion's belt, Alnilam, is 50% farther away than the other two? Or that Alnitak, the leftmost star in the belt, is primarily a hot blue supergiant star that is 6 million years old and has already begun to die? Those are the kinds of things SkyScout will tell you. Fun stuff.


Celestron SkyScout is very sensitive to metal - you can't use rechargeable batteries, and Celestron SkyScout comes with special tubes to you have to put the batteries in. We couldn't use it standing next to a big swing set, for instance. A little symbol pops up on the video screen and it refuses to work.

The software is PC only. No Mac version in the works as of now. We haven't tried running the updater in parallels or VMWare yet. Updates seem fairly rare anyway.

Celestron SkyScout's a little pricey, but all in all, I really can't find too many negatives about Celestron SkyScout. It's amazing.

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