You don’t necessarily have to be an astronomy master or space traveler in order to be able to identify the bright blinking spots in the sky. As an alternative to pouring through books you might be able to hack your way into celestial knowledge using this handheld telescope-like gadget from Celestron.

This camcorder sized gadget called the SkyScout can identify the objects you are looking at through the viewer and provide you information on what it is. It does this by combining various information to pinpoint over 6,000 different constellations, stars or planets in the sky. By using GPS to identify your location on the earth, a magnetic compass for the direction you are looking, gravity to get the angle of the physical SkyScout device and the current time it can identify pretty much exactly what you are seeing while looking through the scope.

Once you power it on you look through the telescope viewer at the object you would like to identify and press the Target button. It will then blink around the viewer to let you know it found what your looking at and proceed to give you an identification of the object along with any pertinent trivia to go along with it. Using headphones you can even listen to audio telling you the information while you’re viewing. Celestron also offers an SD card with a “Sky Tour” on it. Put in in the SD card slot on the SkyScout to listen and watch and educational tour of the stars. The SkyScout retails for about $400.

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