Worth a closer look
Nearly 400 years ago Hans Lippershey, a Dutch eyeglass maker, offered a new optical device to the government for military use, or so the story goes. The device made use of two glass lenses in a tube to magnify distant objects.
The following year, in 1609, Galileo Galilei built his own telescope and set about exploring the heavens, inspiring generations of astronomers and schoolboys to do the same.
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If memory serves, my first telescope was little more than a cardboard tube with two roughly ground lenses at either end. The only thing I could find in the night sky with any degree of certainty was the moon. As I quickly discovered, telescopes are tough to use, especially if you don't have a tripod or a map of the heavens.
Well, technology has come to the rescue of amateur star gazers like me.
A few years ago I bought a secondhand Meade ETX-70AT Astro. A low-cost refracting telescope, it was one of the first to feature Meade's Autostar technology, which automatically locates more than 1,400 celestial objects.
Once the Autostar finds an object, it directs the telescope to track it across the sky, compensating for the Earth's axial rotation to keep the target object in the centre of the lens.
As the literature from Meade Instrument says: "All you need to do is place the telescope on any flat surface, do a quick, easy 60-second alignment of the telescope's computer to the sky, and start observing."
Now Celestron International, another maker of telescopes for the amateur, has made it even easier for novices and backyard astronomers to find their way around the night sky.
I have been testing its SkyScout "Personal Planetarium" ($399) for the past month or so and I am impressed. (It is also available in the UK for about ￡350 online.)
This brick-sized electronic marvel combines satellite-based GPS (global positioning system) navigation and two main sensors with a database to find and identify stars, planets and galaxies.
But first a point of clarification. The SkyScout is not in fact a telescope. It does not magnify heavenly objects but merely finds those observable by the naked eye.
One sensor detects the earth's magnetic field, the other its gravitational field. Then it works out exactly where you are and what you are pointing at. The database includes more than 6,000 objects.
When you first turn the SkyScout on it searches for signals from global positioning satellites - a process that takes from 20 seconds to a minute. That is pretty much all there is to the set-up procedure.
It then works in two modes: identify and locate. In identify mode you point at an object in the night sky, centre it in the circular viewfinder and press the "target" button, which is conveniently positioned on the top of the device. Pretty much instantly the SkyScout spews out the answer on its five-line red LCD display.
In locate mode, you select a target from the database, be it a planet, star, constellation or asterism - a pattern of stars within a constellatioin: for example, the Big Dipper. Then you point the SkyScout skywards.
(Selecting "tonight's highlights" pulls up a list of 20 interesting celestial objects visible that night and is probably my favourite feature.)
Looking through the viewfinder, you are guided by a ring of eight blinking LED lights to point the SkyScout towards the object. It is a bit like playing a visual version of hunt the thimble. The closer you get to the target object, the faster the LEDs blink, until it is centered in the viewfinder.
The SkyScout has some other neat features including recorded audio files that inform users about celestial objects and astronomers. It comes with a set of iPod-style earbuds that plug into a socket.
There is also a USB port so the device can be plugged in to a PC and updated over the internet.
The device is powered by two AA batteries, which seem to last a very long time even when the display brightness is adjusted to maximum.
Somewhat surprisingly given Celestron's overall attention to detail, the Sky-Scout lacks protective covers for the glass viewfinder and "lens" but it does come with a convenient travel case.
The SkyScout is simple to set up and a pleasure to use, even if you haven't the faintest idea where to find the north star or what Orion's Belt looks like.
Using the SkyScout I was able to identify stars like Vega, the fifth brightest star in the sky, and find Venus just above the horizon. In fact the SkyScout is almost guaranteed to bring out the stargazer in all of us. It definitely beats trying to build your own telescope.
用SKY-SCOUT望天
近
400年前，荷兰眼镜制造商利伯希(Hans Lippershey)向政府提供了一种新的光学设备，以供军事使用（至少，故事是这么说的）。这种设备利用一个管子里的两片玻璃透镜来放大远处物体。
第二年，1609年，伽利略(Galileo Galilei)组装了自己的望远镜，着手探索天空，激励了一代又一代天文学家和中小学生纷纷效仿。
如果没有记错的话，我的第一台望远镜不过是一个硬纸板做成的管子，两端各有一个大致呈圆形的透镜。我在夜空中寻觅，但惟一能有些确定的只有月亮。我很快就发现，望远镜不容易使用，特别是在没有三脚架或星空图的情况下。
于是，科技就来拯救我这样的业余天文爱好者了。
几年前，我借了一架二手Meade ETX-70AT天文望远镜。这是一款价格低廉的折射式望远镜，是最能代表Meade公司Autostar技术特点的产品之一，能自动查找到1400多个天体的位置。
一旦Autostar找到一个天体，就会指引望远镜在整个天空进行追踪，修正地球自转的偏差，保证目标天体位于透镜的中心。
正如Meade Instrument公司资料所说的：“你只需要把望远镜放在平面上，花60秒钟，轻松而快捷地调整一下望远镜的电脑，让它对着天空，然后就可以开始观测了。”
现在，另一家业余爱好者望远镜制造商Celestron International令新手和业余天文爱好者更容易在夜空中找到“路”。
过去一个月左右，我一直在测试这家公司的SkyScout "Personal Planetarium"（399美元），它给我留下了深刻印象。（这款产品在英国也可以买到，网上价格约为350英镑。）
这个砖头大小的“电子奇迹”将以卫星为基础的GPS（全球定位系统）导航和两个主传感器与数据库结合在一起，来查找和识别恒星、行星和星系。
不过首先要澄清一点。SkyScout实际上并不是望远镜。它不能放大天体，只是能找到那些肉眼可见的天体而已。
一个传感器检测地球的磁场，另一个检测地球的重力场。然后，它精确算出你的位置以及你指向的位置。其数据库中包括超过6000个天体的资料。
当你第一次开启SkyScout时，它会搜索全球定位卫星发出的信号――这个过程需要20秒至1分钟。这基本上就是全部安装过程。
接着，它以两种模式工作：识别和定位。在识别模式下，你瞄准夜空中的一个天体，使它处在圆形取景器的中心，然后按下“目标”钮――这个按钮很方便地设置在这个装置的顶部。答案几乎立刻就会显示在SkyScout的五行红色液晶显示器上。
在定位模式下，你要从数据库中选择一个目标，可以是行星、恒星、星座或星群――星座内的一簇恒星，如北斗七星(Big Dipper)。然后把SkyScout指向天空。
（选择“今夜集粹”，会拉出一个20个当夜可见有趣天体的列表，这可能是这款望远镜我最喜欢的一个特点。）
在取景器中，有八个不断闪烁的发光二极管组成的光圈。你可以在光圈的引导下将SkyScout指向目标天体。这有点像玩视觉版“丢手绢”游戏。你越接近目标天体，光点闪烁得就越快，直到天体处于取景器的中心。
SkyScout还有其它一些非常好的特色，包括录制好的音频文件，可以将天体和天文学家的相关信息告知用户。它配有一套iPod式的耳塞耳机，可以插入插槽内。
这台装置还有一个UBS端口，可以连接个人电脑，在网上进行更新。供电采用的是两节AA电池，即便把显示器亮度调到最高水平，电池似乎也可以使用很长时间。
鉴于Celestron总体上对细节非常关注，因而Sky-Scout的玻璃取景器和“镜头”没有保护盖多少有些令人吃惊，不过，它还是带旅行便携箱包的。
Sky-Scout安装简便，使用过程中充满乐趣，即便你压根儿不知道北极星在哪儿，或是猎户座(Orion)的腰带是什么样子的。
使用Sky-Scout，我能够识别出天空中第五亮的恒星――织女星(Vega)，还能找到地平线上的金星(Venus)。实际上，Sky-Scout几乎肯定能唤起我们所有人心中对天文的热爱。它肯定会打消那些自己组装望远镜的念头。
