Celestron’s NexStar Evolution has an ingenious solution to figuring out just what, exactly, you’re looking at in the night sky. The Wi-Fi-enabled lineup of Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes — there are 6-inch (1500mm/F10), 8-inch (2032mm/F10), and 9.25-inch (2350mm/F10) versions — show up as an access point in a smartphone or tablet’s list of available networks. Connecting to the telescope to a mobile device lets you control it by tapping areas on a star-map app. Simply choose a celestial body and the telescope’s motorized mount and fork arm automatically position the scope.

To pair the telescope with the app, all you have to do is point it at three bright objects in the sky. Using the mobile device’s GPS coordinates, the date, and the time of day, the “SkyAlign” configuration system is able to figure out what it’s looking at and react accurately to your app-controlled maneuvers. The robotic arm on the telescope is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that gets up to 10 hours of robo-adjusting per charge. The USB-rechargeable battery also lets you sip a charge off it to your smartphone.

The bigger the ‘scope, the bigger the price. Celestron’s 6-inch model will go for $1,200, the 8-inch model will go for $1,600, and the 9.25-inch telescope will cost $2,100.

producer: celestron
period: 2014