High Tech Stargazing

Astronomy is fascinating for almost everyone. The problem is most of us are lost when it comes to knowing what to look for. Meade Instruments has solved that problem with a new line of telescopes that are guided by a small handheld computer called AutoStar. It's amazing and fun. Meade CEO John Diebel...

"With the AutoStar attached to the ETX telescope the observer takes about, literally, sixty seconds to align the telescope to the sky using known stars, this procedure is almost automatic. After that, you just bring up from the database of the hand controller the object you want to see, for example, the planet Saturn, enter it on the display, push go to and the telescope automatically locates Saturn and puts it in the field of view of the telescope."

"That is absolutely true. We've been selling telescopes for 27 years and one of the most common comments that we've heard, particularly after the holidays when a lot of people are getting their first telescope is...they'll say something like you know it's a nice telescope, I'm really enjoying it, but gosh, I just can't find anything."