Home > Consumer Reviews > Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium

I am very satisfied with this product. It performs exactly as advertised. The GPS system acquires surprisingly quickly. When I first brought it outside, the first thing I did was point it at the star Altair as a test. Bingo! I just couldn't believe it. Then I listened to the audio message on it. Even though it does chew batteries, don't let that keep you from buing this product. It is truly amazing!

First, there are a few probles as with any electronic "new" device. But these are minor. Celestron is all over the issues at hand and updates the firmware regularly! All of the issues are addressed in firmware updates and mine works flawlessly for what its supposed to do! The shut down problem has been addressed in the newest update as well. There is a wealth of knowledge in the database for the objects your looking at and the fact that I can use this along with my scopes out in the field WITHOUT the need for a sky chart is worth its weight in gold! If you have a polar alligned mount, finding polaris is a snap! Its like the way we all felt when remote control came out for the TV! I can now be lazy in this hobby too....lol. Not only that, but I can attach this to my Takahashi fsq-106 clamshell and use it as a guidescope!!! OK, it wont put you exactly on target at high power but it will get you damn close at lower ones....Attach a laser pointer and your a college professor in a split sec. I did only give it a 4 for 2 reasons....1. The battery life sucks, get rechargable ones asap! and 2. they should have designed this to accept lens caps! 400.00 for this equipment with NO lens protection is nonsense! having said that, i couldnt be happier with this purchase. I cant wait for the add on cards to come out!

I received the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium about ten days before I was supposed to. The little machine is incredible. I am rather new to astronomy and need to become more skilled locating celestial objects but I have some kowledge of it and always use planispheres and charts. Since I received the Skyscout it has been cloudy and a little bit problematic to view the stars. I pointed the machine to some lonely objects in the sky and it said they were Arcturus, Antares and Vega. I later chacked against the charts and it was correct. It also identified Jupiter correctly. It gave me several other names which I have not checked out. It seems to be really amazing. I am going to show it today to the members of Puerto Rico's Amateur Astronomy Association.

I ordered this yesterday morning and received it this afternoon (love Amazon service !!). The SkyScout seemed perfect to help my family locate the comet Holmes that has recently become visible in the northeastern sky. The unit I received had the latest firmware version installed. Initially I used NiMH batteries in the unit, which was a mistake (more on that later).

The SkyScout has a built-in GPS which is used to setup the unit by discovering the user location and time of day. After finding the location, extremely sensitive magnetic sensors are used to determine the direction (azimuth) and height in the sky (elevation). When I turned the unit on for the first time, it indicated an absurd location (the other side of the planet). Also, even though I was standing in the middle of an open yard, it gave an error message saying the magnetic sensors were being interfered with.

A check of the user forum uncovered the problem - my use of NiMH batteries. Apparently this battery technology generates a stronger magnetic field than normal alkaline batteries do. I swapped out the rechargeable batteries for a normal set and restarted the SkyScout. I was immediately rewarded with an accurate location.

Tonight was my first opportunity to use the SkyScout at night, and all I can say is WOW!!! I selected a star that I knew was near the comet (Mirfak) and simply followed the arrows until the star was right in the middle of the view finder. After finding the start, locating the comet was easy, it was right next to it as expected.

After everyone checked out the comet, we used the identify feature of the SkyScout which correctly identified every star we pointed it at. The more famous of which had audio descriptions which we listened to using the included headphones.

I'm giving this a four-star rating because the manual doesn't mention that only standard alkaline batteries should be used. Also the literature states that accessory "Night Sky Tours" are available on SD memory cards, but they haven't been released yet.

Easy to use and educational, this is a fantastic product that has its own place next to a telescope or pair of binoculars.

First off, it works perfectly. Exactly as advertised, which is pretty
amazing given all it does.

The thing that jumps out at me right away is how versatile a tool it is for astromomy buffs of all levels of experience. Clearly it is a perfect tool for beginners. It gets you in business in the first 5 minutes. But it is also useful for those of us that already know their way around the sky. For example, if you are on a mission to chase something a bit challenging and want the thrill of finding it on your own, you can positively ID a trio of stars and more quickly zero in on your quarry (vs. wondering if what you've assumed to be a major landmark is really what you think it is, based on the chart). When you don't have unlimited time but you still want unlimited fun, knowing what you're looking at is pretty handy.