Home > Consumer Reviews > Meade mySKY Personal Guide for Sky Exploration

Received mine last week, didn't work at all. Appeared to power up and get a GPS fix but couldn't identify any object. Upgraded the program using the included disk but no change in behavior. Liked the way idea of this device as opposed to the SkyScout but sent it back this morning and decided to stay with the SkyScout. I was going to give the SkyScout to my son if the Meade device worked because I generally prefer Meade equipment but decided to just return this one and wait to see if the reported problems I see on other sites are corrected down the road.

This product had problems from the day I unpacked it. Clearly the R&D on this product was great, but the manufacturing and build quality is horrible for a $400 product. GPS takes too long to lock in, and the aiming system is actually more difficult to use than if they had just added a viewfinder (they imply that it is actually easier) The color lcd is cheap, even the little aiming lights are cheap plastic. Overall, this is a badly produced product and not worth the money.

Mine was bad out of the box too. Has been back to Meade for OVER a month now and every time I call Meade they say "We'll get that shipped out to you tomorrow". I had problems with my Celestron SkyScout when I first got it but Celestron got it back to me in about a week and it's been GREAT since then. Save your money and buy a SkyScout from Celestron and avoid Meade. I know I will from now on and I own several of thier scopes.

UPDATE:

After three days of use my mySky is now dead. It just died. Won't work at all. Meade is going to have me mail it back, wait a few weeks and then have a $400 refurb and less than a year of warranty.

If I could change my rating for the mySky, I'd now give it no stars.

Very lame.



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Functionally perfect. And what an incredible functionality! Being able to point and shoot at celestial objects is even cooler than it sounds.

A little cheesy to look at though and the rubberized plastic construction has too much of a "cheap" feel for a $400 toy. Plus, the audio, video and overall production values of the multimedia leave much to be desired, although the content itself is great.

One last criticism - the software is on a standard, removable SD card, and yet you need to use Meade's proprietary, Windoze-only software to update it. Who's the genius behind that?

My verdict: if you have the cash and the desire and can overlook some minor aesthetic shortcomings, this thing is the stuff. Although, sadly, Mac-owners need not apply.

Received the unit for my birthday. Very excited at first. Went through a tedious setup process. Realized that the unit was built very poorly with switches that don't seem to be quite right, either recessed too deeply into the device or not as responsive as they should be. Never could get a GPS lock after several attempts. Put in date/time/location manually. mySky was way off on identifying objects. Attempted to update the included SD card per the manual but the "Programming failed." From that point forward, the unit never functioned again. I am returning it for a refund.