Sky Scout - 2nd Night

Well, after a cloudy night yesterday, it cleared up and I spent about
an hour playing with the Sky Scout under suburban San Deigo Skies. I'm
going out to a "dark sky" (as dark as it gets around here) area this
weekend and will continue my experiments. Some additional thoughts:

1. While I remember being told that the SkyScout would be limited to
Naked Eye objects, it seems to have quite a bit more. For example, it
seems to have the entire Messier Catalog.

2. Using SkyScout definitely takes some practice. I find that I can
more accurately aim it with the unit held about 12" from my eye. I
have a very hard time seeing the object through the viewfinder unless
it is held close to my eye (monocular style). It seems to work best
in "Locate" mode if I hold SkyScout away from my eye for initial
location and then bring it close for final identification. For
"Identify", I use it up close and carefully aim.

3. I have yet to use "Identify" where it doesn't pick up several
objects (most of them VERY dim stars). I think that it arranges the
objects it thinks you are looking at by Magnitude because the object I
point at is always listed on top.

4. I'm not sure that the optics are so hot here. The viewfinder
seems to dim the objects quite a bit and also seems to add some
distortion. There is no provision for focusing.

5. The unit is obviously designed to be held in the right hand. There
is a conviently located "Target" button on top that is very useful for
the "Identify" function. I think I would have located the "Locate"
and "Identify" mode buttons on top of the unit as well.

6. An audio menuing system (something that would allow you to
navigate the menus while looking through the eyepiece) would have been
VERY nice. If you are using a "Tour", you select the tour, look
through the eyepiece to locate object 1, then you must take your eye
away from the eyepiece to advance to the next object. This is
inconvenient and makes the experience of, for example, tracing
constellations much less enjoyable.

OK. I tried to trick the unit a little. First, once you "Identify"
an object, it goes into "Locate" mode to guide you back. So, I
Identified Jupiter, spun around so I was facing the other way, and let
it guide me back. Did a nice job. Then I Identified Vega (near the
zenith in the Squirrly Zone). It picked Vega out no problem but when
it guided me back, it put the star JUST outside of the target circles.

Next, I chose to "Locat" Mizar and started as close to exactly
opposite the star as I could. There was no "dead zone" where SkyScout
has a hard time deciding which dirction to take you. I panned through
the area multiple times and there was always a clear direction
indicated, although it sometimes seemed to want to take me the "long
way around".

More as I use it more.

Mark
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