14 March 2006

I found a little more information about the Celestron SkyScout today. It appears that nobody has actually used, probably even held, one of these things since there are no reviews for it. Everything you read on the Web is the hype from Celestron with a ship date of this month. The few people who have actually seen it must have watched a Celestron rep demo it at one of the trade shows.

I managed to find this I4U News interview with Celestron at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show.

It is a terrible interview from a marketing point of view. During the three minute uncut interview the Celestron rep regerred to the unit as IT. Neither he nor the interviewer ever used the name of the device at all. From the demonstration it appears that you sight on an object through the device then push a button and have to take the device away from your eye to read about the object in the LCD screen on the side of the unit. It looks like the objective end has about a 2-3" aperture. He said that it will "launch at 399" which sounds like he is quoting a MSRP although the web indicates that it is $417.95.

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Observing Location	Hall of Science, Corona Park, Flushung Meadows, Flushing, NY Lat: 40.74729760342077, Long: -73.85119199752808
Observational Period	1800-1915 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Early today CSC was predicting clear and perfectly transparent skies. By the time I left the house for Queens they had backed away from that forecast and were predicting up to 70% cloud cover and even poor transparency for an hour. There were a few isolated clouds but less than 10% cloud cover. There was some haze but it was very light. The wind was strong and made it feel very cold. It also meant there was some boiling on the limb of the moon. La Guardia Airport Time Wind Dir Speed Gusts Vis Colud Cover Temp. 1751 EST W 24 mph 33 mph 10 m Mostly Cloudy 50ºF 1851 EST W 20 mph 36 mph 10 m Partly Cloudy 48ºF 1951 EST W 18 mph 28 mph 10 m A Few Clouds 46ºF Transparency Excellent Seeing Good When I got out of my meeting at 2200 EST the sky was 23-50% covered by broken cumulus clouds. I think at 1800 EST conditions were much better than the last CSC predictionn I saw. At 2200 EST they were better so I will say overall they were much better. The weather service has a high wind warning in effect for tomorrow. I didn't notice it earlier today but I wouldn't be surprised if there had been one in effect for today also. Sustained winds peaked out at 23 mph today in Central Park with the highest gust registering 36 mph. La Guardia always seems to be windier and their peak sustained wind was 30 mph with their highest gust at 43 mph.
Instruments	Canon 15x50 Image Stabilized binoculars - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

Target	Iridium Flare
Constellation
Category	Satellite
Time	20060314.1810 EST
Comments	Not Seen I watched for this Mag -7 flare from 1805 EST until 1815 EST and didn't see anything. I could see much dimmer Spica so the Iridium must have been behind a cloud.

Target	Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
Constellation	Lib
Category	Lunar
Time	20060314.1820 EST
Comments	When I first saw the moon I was in the parking lot at the north end of the Hall of Science. The moon was rising behind a modern statue of a plane making a very nice picture. 1822 EST The shadow was visible on the south limb and did not extend as far up as Tycho. 1849 EST At the time of maximum eclipse the moon was emerging from behind clouds. The snudge was as far up as Tycho. It was not very imressive and actuall looked better naked-eye. The smudge seems to be darker west of Tycho

Target	ISS Visible Pass
Constellation	Ari, Tau, Ori, Mon, Hya
Category	Satellite
Time	20060314.1833 EST
Comments	I moved from the parking lot behind the Hall of Science through an open fence into a grassed area and up a rise overlooking the Grand Central Parkway. From this location I could see very low to the horizon in all directions. The ISS was already high up when I first sighted it. It passed half way between orange Mars and orange Aldeberan, a few degrees above orange Betelgeuse and half way between white Procyon and white Spica. After it had pssed Procyon and was moving away it gave the appearance of continually reducing speed. Eventually it faded out above the aviary. This is the rough path of the ISS through Taurus, Orion and Monoceros. Annotated Distant Suns graphic The following finder chart from Heavens-Above.com shows the actual track of the ISS. Heavens-Above.com graphic This is more like what I saw in the sky (minus the ISS). Cartes du Ciel graphic This was hands down the best sight of the night.