This past weekend we had the privilege of hosting our first overnight guest, Jen's Uncle Kenny. He's a warm and generous man with a great sense of humor and some lingering (undiagnosed) ADD.
Uncle Kenny brought along his brand new "personal planetarium" called the Celestron SkyScout. Here's how it works:
The GPS-enabled gadget offers on-the-spot commentary, in scrolling text and narrated audio, about the most popular celestial entities. Point the SkyScout at any bright star and it identifies the object from a database of 6,000-plus entries. SkyScout combines GPS technology, which gives the time, date and location of the user; software that calculates the position of the objects; and three axis sensors measuring gravitational and magnetic fields to determine the orientation of the SkyScout to Earth. Standout features include a "must-see list" that points out the 10 coolest things to see in the sky on a given night. (cnet.com)
Sounds pretty cool, right?
Well, he forgot he even brought it until after midnight, when we were getting ready for bed. So we put on our coats over our pajamas and stood on the back porch in the freezing cold, trying to get this contraption to work.
And I'm sure it would have worked if Uncle Kenny knew it needed batteries.
After borrowing them from the TV remote, Jen was able to "shoot" a star. We were hoping it would be something cool like Vega or Alpha Centauri...but it was something like XPZ8742. And it probably wasn't even XPZ842, since the date was set to January 1st.
Uncle Kenny has a habit of buying new-fangled gadgets and not reading the instruction manual. Know anyone else like that?
I died laughing at this entry-my hubby has ADD and it has been adjustment working with him. This is EXACTLY something he would do!
Posted by: Muneera Fontaine | January 20, 2007 at 07:01 PM