Celestron SkyScout now available, not a million dollars

We just thought we'd let you know, we were just kidding about that whole million dollars price tag for for those Celestron SkyScout GPS star finders that were announced last year. They're actually weighing in at $399, are up for pre-order now, and will be available for delivery in April. Hope we didn't cause any confusion, you know, with the million dollars stuff.

[Thanks, Mark]

[SasquatchEds Posted Mar 3rd 2006 8:21PM]

What's this? Engadget lied to us! How when they have become the most trusted news source in the world! I say we have an uprising and replace the editors with Bill O' Reilley, he ought to stop the lying and shape this place up!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2006 8:53PM]

OPT has free shipping on the Celestron SkyScout.

I've been buying from OPT for years, awesome folks.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2006 8:54PM]

Apparently links don't show up in comments: http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=7824

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2006 10:22PM]

Long live Meade!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2006 10:28PM]

Unfortunately, Amazon is now showing the ship date as June.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 4th 2006 12:43AM]

This thing is certifiably awesome.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 4th 2006 4:05AM]

Once you have targeted an object the real fun begins.
The SkyScout includes entertaining and educational audio and text information, including facts, trivia, history and mythology about our most popular celestial objects.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 4th 2006 5:42PM]

While this seems like a fantastic idea and will arouse the curiousity of anyone who enjoys looking at the stars, I can't help but blink repeatedly at the price tag.

For just $75 more, you can buy an XT6 Intelliscope from Orion. It's a great starter scope with a lot of aperture, and it comes with a computerized database of 14,000 objects that you can actually LOOK AT through the telescope's eyepiece.

Note that the Skyscout is NOT a telescope, contrary to what is listed here at engadget. It specifically states in the product details that it is a non-magnifying device. This means that you can't see Saturn's rings, Jupiter's moons, or anything of the sort through it's viewfinder like you can with even a small telescope (and an XT6 is NOT small).

While it may be portable, I cannot imagine why someone would want to pay $400 for what amounts to be nothing more than a glorified star commentary device. Using a telescope not only provides much more versatility and staggering views -- it's all the more rewarding to find objects without having a machine do all the work for you.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 5th 2006 7:36PM]

let the augmented reality revolution begin...