As I became interested in skywatching some years ago, I was faced with the problem of finding stars and other night sky objects. Soon after the kick-off to my astronomy hobby I discovered planispheres that are manual tools for finding stars and planets. I spent nights turning the wheel of a planisphere and wondering “where is Capella“.. Even though planispheres are pretty easy to use, sometimes it is not so easy to find the target you would like to observe. Today it is different. Today we have digital tools.

GSP controlled digital planispheres are fantastic tools replacing old-fashioned paper-planispheres. With a GSP controlled digital planisphere you just point to the sky, press the trigger and see what the target is. You can do it also other way round. Just pick up the target from the list and move the device according to the arrows shown in the screen until you are pointing to the target.

There are two pretty nice GSP controlled digital planispheres in the market right now. Celestron SkyScout is a bit cheaper than Meade MySky. The purpose of both devices is to help to find targets. They don’t include any magnification, just a screen showing instructions and a picture of the target. Both devices are based on GPS positioning technology.

Celestron SkyScout

Celestron’s SkyScout has about 7500 stars and over 100 deep sky targets (nebulae and galaxies) in its database. There are also all the planets of our solar system and more targets, such as comets, can be downloaded from the Internet. A nice little extra is that Celestron SkyScout includes about 200 stories of the most popular targets.

Usage of Celestron SkyScout is pretty straight-forward. You simply turn the device on, wait a little, press Identify-button and point the target you are interested in. Next you press Target-button and you see information of the target on the screen or read loud by the machine. Finding a target is as easy as identifying. Press Locate-button, pick up the target from the list, direct the device according to the instructions is gives. As you see eight arrows flashing, you have found the target. An additional feature in Celestron SkyScout is so called “tonight’s best”, which gives you interesting targets of the night. Celestron SkyScout requires two AA-sized batteries that last four hours.

Meade MySky

I like more Meade’s MySky. It has a “pistol-like” design which makes Meade MySky very handy and usable. In order to find a target, pick it up from the list of Meade MySky and press GoTo-button. Follow the instructions in order to find the target. Why I like more Meade MySky is that you can integrate your Meade GoTo-telescope with the digital planisphere which helps you to direct your telescope. As soon as you have directed your Meade MySky towards the target, additional information, such as text, pictures and videos of the target appears in the screen. Just like Celestron, Meade’s MySky includes also the “tonight’s best” feature.

While Celestron SkyScout requires two, Meade MySky requires four AA-batteries. With Meade MySky you can explore the sky during six hours until you need to recharge the batteries.

GSP controlled digital planispheres are cool equipment for exploring and learning the night sky. Although many astronomers use computers for finding targets, but these digital planispheres are also pretty handy and useful. If your children are interested in astronomy, I strongly recommend purchasing Meade MySky for them. With Meade’s MySky children can learn much about the universe without getting confused with manual planispheres and star maps.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these devices, you can find them here:

Celestron SkyScout

Meade MySky