CN FORUMS ARCHIVE Telescope Reviews: MySky Suggestions

The MySky is a great idea and the hardware suits it too. I like the pointer/trigger idea with a screen to show what you are looking at. But I think the useability could be greatly enhanced with a few software improvements.

1) When you pull the "trigger" to identify something you have no control over what it will select. It might choose a minor star or deep sky object you can't even see with the naked eye. It would be very useful to have settings to control what type of objects you want it to search for a match. E.g. Stars, Solar System, Deep Sky, etc. At the least allow you to choose a range of magnitude. e.g. Only objects with magnitude of 3 or brighter.

2) Often it will choose the wrong object. It would be great once it shows the map of the object to say "no that is not the object I wanted - I want the star next to it". To be able to use the cursor keys to quickly skip around the screen to select the object you really wanted. Instead you have to point again and try you luck for a second time.

3) The display of the sky map is a little hard to understand - too cluttered. It would be great if there was a legend of the object types somewhere. And a way to control how much information is shown. Again settings to control what types of objects are shown - just stars, or deep sky, etc. And also to be able to choose the magnitudes for each zoom setting.

I sure hope Meade don't think this is it. Or they are working on the next hardware platform to make this one obsolete. I hope they are working to make this device the best it can be before moving on.