Gizmodo: celestron

CES 2008: What You Missed So Far

Benny Goldman — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:00:00 EST

We arrived at CES yesterday, and despite being separated into bloggers and press, and watching the game in standard def, we've had a great time so far. If you've missed the coverage, let's catch you up to speed:

• After Warner's announcement, HD DVD won't be attending CES this week, a fact that only looks worse after they put their logo on the press bags. Adding insult to HD DVD's injury, New Line Cinema also joined the Blu-ray exclusive crew.

• WowWee showed us three robots aiming to attack AIBOs, Robosapiens and autonomous helicopters everywhere. The only thing missing was a robot to bring us beer. Luckily, Inter Active Toy covered that with the RC Cooler.

• Other good finds included the Celestron SkyScout Scope, Cobra's OLED radar detectors, and an in-dash CD player for audiophiles. On the GPS front, Magellan's 5340 with built-in Google local search and Garmin's 880 with voice recognition stood out the most. Finally, Logitech unveiled a whole bunch of stuff, including a networked music player, a sleek set of speakers, and an IR remote with capacitive touch.

So far, so good, CES. We'll be looking forward to the press conferences today, and the floor opening on Monday. Until then, keep up with all of our CES 2008 coverage to date.

Celestron SkyScout Scope Makes You a True Space Cadet

Charlie White — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:45:17 EST

Match Made in the Heavens: You saw the Celestron SkyScout a while ago, and now here's a scope on which to mount it. See galaxies with the SkyScout Scope's high-power eyepiece, or get your bearings with its included its low-power counterpart. But It'll Cost Ya: To use this with the excellent $400 Celestron SkyScout spotter, you have to buy one of those, too.

The $299 telescope, now available, works like a champ with the SkyScout piggybacking on top. . If you have your own telescope, get the SkyScout Connect, that aquaints your own scope with this easy-to-use spotter. [Celestron]

Celestron Digital Microscope Rocks Digital Screen and 2-Megapixel Camera

AddyDugdale — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:30:19 EST

A sub-$300 microscope with 3.5-inch digital screen and built-in camera is being launched at CES 2008 next week. Celestron's LCD Digital Microscope has three magnification levels of 4x, 10x and 40x, as well as a 4x digital zoom and a six position color filter wheel. There's 128MB storage memory, plus an SD card slot. Full specs are below.

Six Position Color Filter Wheel
Compound (Biological) Microscope
USB Cable for Transferring Images to a PC
40 to 400 Power - up to 1600 Power with Digital Zoom
AC Adaptor to Power the Microscope
3.5" (88mm) LCD Screen with 4x Digital Zoom
Carrying Case Included
Built-in Digital Camera - 2 Megapixels
Weight - 51oz (1446g)
Top and Bottom LED Illumination
Two Year Limited Warranty
Mechanical Stage - 3.5" x 3.5" (88mm x 88mm)
128MB Internal Storage Memory
SD Card Slot
Five Prepared Slides
Objective Lens - 4x, 10x, and 40x

It should retail for $299, and is, says Celestron, suitable for coins, molds, yeasts, bacteria and animal parts. [Celestron via I4U]

Smoke a Doob and Enjoy Celestron's SkyScout

tgrumet — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 14:06:39 EST

Do you loooooooooove the night sky? Yeah, me too. So, to make it easier to zone out—I mean check it out, Celestron introduced its handheld, portable celestial viewing device called the SkyScout, here at CES. It's about the same size as a camcorder and weighs less than 16 ounces, so it's definitely portable, and the SkyScout lets you identify and/or locate over 6,000 celestial objects viewable to the naked eye. Wowsa. Sure, it's not a telescope, and I know how much we all love our telescopes, but this could be a great addition to any camping trip and/or geeky astronomy get together. To make sure it's on target, the SkyScout uses patented technology that combines data from sensors measuring both the magnetic and gravitational fields of the Earth, along with internal GPS and a huge celestial database. No price yet, but this thing has been in the works for 3 years and should be available in March.

CELESTRON SKYSCOUT TAKES HOME TOP HONORS FROM CONSUMER ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION [Celestron]