Celestron SkyScout Review

Pros
Works everywhere on earth, day or night. Identifies or locates every visible star or planet.

Cons
Eats batteries for breakfast. Forgets location when powered off. Hard to see stars through viewfinder.

The Bottom Line
Does it have some problems? Yes. But it does work flawlessly. Overall, I consider this an excellent product for the money.

Full Review
My SkyScout has performed almost exactly as advertised, and I am extremely pleased.

There are two basic functions of the SkyScout, and it performs both flawlessly. The first it identification. Point at any visible star or planet (except the Sun), press the target button and it will be correctly identified. The second is locating. Choose an object from the menu, and the red arrows in the viewfinder will guide you to it.

The Good
It just dead on works, and it is simple enough that a child can use it. Even thought it is made of plastic, the rubberized case makes it fairly rugged.

In addition there are some other very nifty features. About 200 celestial objects have audio clips which you can listen to with the included headphones, and many of the ones without audio have useful text information. In addition to stars, planets, Messier objects, etc. it also allows identification (or location) of all 88 constellations and common asterisms.

The Bad
It forgets its position when you turn it off or when it shuts off automatically after 5 minutes of non-use (presumably to save batteries) and then takes a few minutes to re-acquire the GPS satellites every time you power it back on. It is also difficult (for me, at least) to see stars through the viewfinder, even with the target rings dimmed, especially at a dark sky location.

The Ugly
The SkyScout can easily run through a brand new set of batteries in just a few hours. Changing the batteries in the dark is difficult, because you have to loosen a screw, pry up the cover, and remove and reinstall the battery sleeves.