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Meade mySKY, the next best thing to your own personal astronomer
Holding the Meade mySKY GPS-enhanced multimedia guide in your hands is just like standing next to an expert astronomer as he describes what you're seeing in the night sky. Reminding us of the Celestron SkyScout, both devices automatically align using GPS, so they're able to determine exactly where you're looking.
It's great for astronomy noobs. Line up an object in its sighting system of three pointer lights, and mySKY plays back video on its 480 x 234 LCD screen describing planets, constellations and galaxies from its database of 30,000 celestial objects. If you want a closer look than mySKY's naked-eye view of the heavens, it can link up with Meade AutoStar-enabled telescopes, and when you point mySKY at an star, it can command the attached telescope to point at that star, too.
If you've ever stood next to an actual astronomer pointing out different constellations, planets and galaxies, you'll know how that gives you a fascinating and entirely different perspective on what you're seeing. This $399 mySKY, available in May, could be the next best thing.
Meade (Video) via Businesswire
By aguilarojo at 7:27 AM ON 04/12/07
At that price tag I'm not sure that this device is really aimed for the person or persons who care - caritas - for Astronomy. It may be aimed more at the hobbyist whose interest expresses itself rarely but who wishes to be well informed when the mood arises.
In comparison, I believe there are other instructive software which is far more useful. Both are created by Clear Sky Institute. They are:
1. Xephem
2. Personal Sky Chart
Xephem runs on any Unix system as well as any version of Linux including Yellow Dog Linux and even Mac OS X. It is an interactive system which can track satellites orbiting the Earth, as well as moons orbiting planets within our solar system, as well as anomalies occuring on the Sun. Beyond that it can map deep space objects such as binary systems and track their orbits -- it may be best to just go to this page to learn more:
http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/xephem/index.html
This means that a laptop can become a Linux system running Xephem which also can control telescopes and have them point of stellar objects of interest.
The other product, Personal Sky Chart runs on the Sharp Zaurus PDA; it's advantage is that it also can control telescopes and likewise aim towards objects of interest.
It's unfortunate that Apple has decided to cripple it's iPhone. Had it allowed third party software to run on the iPhone, it could have run Xephem as well. That however, is not to be.
I'm greedy regarding features so I'm more likely to go for Xephem running on a laptop than Personal Sky Chart; however for the options of what can be done on a PDA when one needs to pack light, Personal Sky Chart deserves review.
Oh yeah, Price:
Personal Sky Chart: about $30
Xephem: the full set, about $70
By Convoyman at 7:00 PM ON 04/16/08
Incredible peice of technical hardware..
By Bobo at 2:14 PM ON 06/28/08
I hate to say this, being a HUGE CELESTRON fan, but the Meade MySky is totally AWESOME, once You figure out how to propery orient the SkyMap to Your advantage! Simply, INCREDIBLE!
By Teranko at 6:08 PM ON 09/17/08
MySky is the cheapest piece of junk I've purchased to date. It tipped over whilst going through the standard "calibration" mode at startup and broke due to its poor weight distribution. I called Meade who told me this is happening so often, they are now refusing to repair it even at the owners cost. Now I have a $435 boat anchor. I'll never buy another Meade product again.
By NoSky at 10:06 PM ON 01/20/09
Totally incredible junk. Wanted to get for my grown son, so placed order as soon as I could. Waited 5 months for delivery. Upon receipt, found out they had already upgraded current model to internal speaker, but mine didn't have it. Only acquired the birds without locking up about twice, and took way more than the stated 6 minutes. One battery cover tab broke immediately. Batteries would run down almost overnight even though turned off. Had to remove batteries every time, necessitating reinitializing with every use. We would try it, usually without success, then put it away for a few months...MY BIG MISTAKE...warranty expired. I did the flash upgrade which stated not for the MySky II, which mine certainly is NOT. BUT the documentation online did NOT say to check with them to see which version would update. Guess what-- after updating, it would not acquire the birds at all, and threw two "calibration errors" at startup. Then, to add insult to injury, the power switch broke, and we are all adults here and handled it gently. Meade offered to sell me a new one for $199. I had just got a discount catalog hawking them for $169. Thanks for nothing, Meade! and you may have heard that these new models do not have GPS at all; you pick position from a list. How accurate would that be? I am not in or near a big city, and after this experience, I would not want any Meade product, ever, even if free. They got me; my fault for waiting more than a year. I threw it in the dumpster. I am not in a position to blow off $425; that is a lot of money to me, but I have no recourse. I see SkyScouts are selling for $189. Meade should be ashamed of this debacle. These are the exact, true, objective facts, no exaggeration or embellishment. We never successfully got to look up even ONE object with it. I am much wiser now. I knew it was new technology, and may have some glitches, but I never dreamed a well-known company would market something so poor.
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NoSky:
Totally incredible junk. Wanted to get for my grown son, so placed order as soon as I could. Waited 5 months for ...More »