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Re: SSP post# 91900

Sunday, 07/30/2006 2:40:20 PM

Sunday, July 30, 2006 2:40:20 PM

Post# of 285967
July 30, 2006
Novelties


A Guide to the Sky for Galactic Tourists


By ANNE EISENBERG


SUMMER evenings are the classic time to look skyward and identify the stars. Except I can't. They all look alike to me - I am incapable of spotting even the North Star, the one object that stays more or less in place.


But at last there is a point-and-click gadget, the SkyScout, that may help even hopeless duffers like me enjoy the delights of astronomy. It's a hand-held device the size of a camcorder but much lighter, packed with sensors, computer power, databases and an L.C.D. screen.


Standing on Hudson Street in Lower Manhattan, I aimed it at a bright spot in the heavens and pushed its Target button. Instantly the word "Vega" appeared on the screen.


I stared from the screen to the sky. Yes, the star was there, twinkling away. Vega. It was absolutely the first time I'd identified it.


I pointed the device at a different bright point in the heavens. "Murphrid ... 37 light years from earth, yellow white, twice as hot as the sun," said the text that scrolled across the screen.


The SkyScout offers many ways besides the Target button for beginners to search the heavens. For instance, it lists "Tonight's Highlights," 20 objects of interest in the celestial neighborhood that can be located by name.


I selected "Jupiter" from the list and raised SkyScout. Twinkling red dots immediately appeared in the viewfinder. I followed their lead - when they bounced up, I raised the device; when they bounced right, I turned it right. Suddenly all the lights twinkled in a perfect glowing circle around a bright object. Bingo. It was Jupiter, right there in the center of the viewfinder. It was huge. How could I ever have missed it?


The device comes with headphones <http://tech2.nytimes.com/gst/technology/techsearch.html?st=p&cat=&query=headphones&inlin... and an audio feed describing Jupiter and many other heavenly bodies. Users who prefer silence can read text descriptions of the 6,000 or so stars, planets, constellations and other objects visible to the naked eye, all backlighted in red on the screen (red preserves the user's night vision).


SkyScout, which is priced at $399, is the invention of Mike Lemp, an engineer who had the idea in 1995. Mr. Lemp always enjoyed looking at the stars, but found it difficult to point them out to his children. "It was hard, even when I knew where they were," he said. There had to be a better way, he thought, than "Left of that telephone pole. See that tree? Go up from there."


Mr. Lemp is chief executive of Yamcon, in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., which has licensed his technology to Celestron, a manufacturer of astronomical equipment, which has engaged Mr. Lemp to further develop a SkyScout product line.


SkyScout weighs a bit less than a pound, including two AA batteries. It uses a global positioning system chip, Mr. Lemp explained, "to give us the current daytime and your location on the surface of the earth."


To calculate where the SkyScout is aimed, Mr. Lemp used two other sensors - one to detect the magnetic field of the earth; the other, the gravitational field. "I need to know where the earth's magnetic and gravitational fields are to figure out which way you are pointing the device," he said.


Unlike a telescope, SkyScout does not magnify the view. It is meant for what can be seen by the naked eye, identifying stars up to the faintly visible fifth magnitude, said Jennifer Adams, marketing manager at Celestron, in Torrance, Calif. (The moon is first magnitude.)


The combination of G.P.S., sensors, database and microprocessor tells users where celestial objects are, even if clouds or buildings obstruct the view. SkyScout is not a viewer that depends on lenses, but a calculator that depends on stored data, software and the dependable paths of heavenly bodies. It knows where it is pointed, not what mortals can see.


For instance, when I selected "Moon," I followed the flashing lights in the viewfinder down, then down some more, straight into the asphalt of Hudson Street, for the moon had not yet risen, and was below the horizon - indeed, below Hudson Street.


The Amateur Astronomers Association of New York discovered the X-ray-like ability of SkyScout to locate the planets behind obstacles when the group assembled recently for an evening of stargazing at the Brooklyn War Memorial on Cadman Plaza.


The sky grew cloudy, but that was no deterrent to these astronomers, who had arrived knowing roughly where Jupiter and Vega were. But did SkyScout know? Members of the group put the device through its paces. Then the measured calm of the astronomers evaporated in enthusiastic approval.


"Wow! It's magnificent," said Rich Rosenberg, president of the group and a Brooklyn resident.


"Pretty cool," said Joan Ross, also a member from Brooklyn.


Ron McCullough, who is on the group's board and lives in Park Slope, had brought his telescope along, but he too tried out SkyScout. "I love it," he said.


Ms. Ross said SkyScout would be a useful adjunct to a telescope, especially in the country on a dark night when thousands of stars dot the sky. In the city, where only the brightest stars and planets shine through the light pollution, a program on her PC that tells what's in the evening sky is usually adequate. "But in a night sky in the country, it's harder to find anything," she said.


The device would make it much easier to locate the small area of the sky that she would then target with her scope. Ms. Ross has a traditional telescope, not a computer-assisted one that can easily put users in the area of objects they want to observe.


Mr. McCullough said he thought the $399 price was reasonable. "Astronomers pay a lot more for esoteric gadgets," he said.


Mr. Lemp, the inventor, who also developed the commercial technology, said that many of the components were inexpensive off-the-shelf items used in other computer-based applications. For example, the gravity sensors are similar to ones used in air bag deployment in automobiles.


Making the prototype was one thing, Mr. Lemp said, "but making 100,000 that worked perfectly is another project."


The device was initially expected to be shipped in March, but was delayed for four months of fine-tuning. Orders have been piling up, but shipping began last week, and orders are being filled as quickly as possible, said Ms. Adams of Celestron.


Joanie Kozak, a product specialist at OpticsPlanet Inc., in Northbrook, Ill., said demand for the SkyScout was brisk. "We had an immediate response within hours when we put it on the Web site. We have a ton of orders."


The device has a U.S.B. connector so that users can add updates - for example, the coordinates of a space shuttle they might want to observe. The machine requires almost no setup. Once activated, it looks for a G.P.S. fix - this may take several minutes. It also warns if you are standing too close to metal that might interfere with the magnetic sensors. (A magnet icon appears on the screen.) Other than that, it's point and click all the way.


AT the War Memorial, the astronomers were enthusiastic about the Sky- Scout, but Mr. Rosenberg said his heart belonged to the telescope. "I don't want to miss the aesthetic experience of seeing details" like the moons around Jupiter, he said. He would like one day to see a telescope incorporating SkyScout's technology.


But rank beginners not yet ready for a telescope may want to follow Walt Whitman's advice, who when he tired of the "learn'd astronomer" wandered off in the moist night air and "look'd up in perfect silence at the stars." Of course, if they take along SkyScout, they should ignore the audio feed.


E-mail: Novelties@nytimes.com.

Copyright 2006 <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html> The New York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/>

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