Where can I find this kind of telescope?

Factual Questions
1

My nephew’s birthday is coming up, and I know he’s big into looking at stars right now. What I was hoping to get him is a small telescope that you point at a place in the sky, and it outlines and identifies what constellations are in the field of view.

I recall reading that J.J. Abrams gave this as a gift to the cast of the new Star Trek movie, so I know they exist, but I’m having trouble searching for it.

I also don’t want to pay a ridiculous amount of money for something like this, seeing as how he could be moving on to dinosaurs next week.

Any help appreciated.

2

Celestron’s SkyScout? ($199, might find better prices elsewhere though.)

CMC fnord!

3

http://www.meade.com/mysky/features.html ?

4

Is this the kind of thing you’re looking for? It’s simple and not too expensive.

There’s also the Meade MySky and Celestron’s SkyScout, which look really cool, but are a couple hundred dollars, and maybe a little complicated for a little kid.

I don’t think any of them are actually telescopes, just instruments for identifying objects in the sky.

5

That looksmore like what I’m looking for. Has anyone used anything like this? Does it actually work?

6

::exercises one bump rule::

7

I had one of those. It’s NOT a telescope. It’s pretty meh.

8

I think that’s just a planisphere mounted inside a tube. It’d probably be better to get a conventional planisphere.

Meade, Celestron, Vixen, etc. all make computerized telescopes. They don’t let you slew the telescope by hand though.

9

I’ve got one. It works, sorta.
In theory you could look through it while looking at the sky and match-up what your seeing through it vs your view of the sky.
In practice there’s a big problem, you need a light source to use it. Indoors, no problem, but outside (where ya actually need it) it becomes a frustrating juggling act. It in one hand, flashlight in the other, try to aim the light at the back of it without shining the light in your eyes …

I’ll second getting him a planisphere, a good plastic not cardboard one! This one (the large one) actually, for all the reason given on the site. Amazon has both the 30°-40° and the 40°-50° N hemisphere ones and an E-Mail to billie@DavidChandler.com should get you to where you can buy the 20°-30°, 50°-60°, & Southern hemisphere ones (not knowing exactly where 123 Fake Street is ;)).

The other thing he’d really need is a red, preferably LED, flashlight. The Photon Freedom Micro covert model is the light of choice. The “covert” sleeve (covers the sides of the LED so you don’t see the bulb) and the adjustable brightness do as much to protect your night vision as the red bulb does. But any similar red LED keychain light will work, if it’s too bright you can “frost” the LED with steel wool, electrical tape/shrink-wrap tubing/black paint on the side of the LED gets rid of the side-spill light. Do get/make a lanyard for it (the hole in the planisphere is a great place to attach it). Dropping one of them at night, in grass, is NO fun!

CMC fnord!