Here are a few exciting new products from Celestron, the company best known for its products for sky-gazing enthusiasts: For you closet-biologists, at-home lab technicians and those who like to bust out their microscope at parties (We understand, margarita ice crystals are quite becoming at 40x), the LCD Digital Microscope is a pricey ($300) toy you might not be able to pass up. This microscope has three magnification levels (4x, 10x, 40x) and a built in 3.5” LCD screen that allows you to look up close, capture images and even videos of your prepared microscopic world. The 2 megapixel camera comes with 128 Mb of internal memory–a bit sparse for lengthy videos of squirming larvae, but not a big barrier if you have a computer nearby hooked up to the USB port.
You may have just heard of—or even won—a SkyScout from a Discover contest. This innovative cheat sheet guides you through 6,000 celestial object with audio and text and came out about two years ago. You may prefer to gaze at the sky with an impressive computerized telescope that, at around $1000, automatically aligns itself to 40,000 bodies in the sky and can be operated remotely from your PC. Heck, if you’re a true enthusiast you might just have both–in fact, Celestron is banking on it. The SkyScout Connect is Celesteron’s $100 fix to those who want their SkyScout’s information with the remote controlled access of their computerized telescope. This product certainly isn’t for everyone, but it is a simple and seamless fix for an obvious and smart marriage of products for sky-gazers who have to have it all.
