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I've just bought one. I was dubious but it seemed a potentially useful device when visiting friends to help them learn the heavens.
Amazingly it appears to work as described bearing in mind the wobbly nature of compasses. Some points of notes:
1. Compared to the as received version software there have been a lot of firmware updates which can be downloaded from Celestron. The major last one a few years old has a lot more interesting objects and starts to look for or locate approximately. Notably it has now in addition the Messier objects lists of calder objects ngc and herschel 400 items plus a lot more stars.
2. I had a bit of a problem getting the USB drivers needed to transfer the new firmware from the computer to the skyscout. If you have trouble be patient and just keep working at it. I had to reload the main program and update it a couple of times but it didnt hurt the units.
3. Regarding batteries I have 2400 mAh NiMH. These work well for at least 30 minutes straight and I have spares so no big deal there. I've seen complaints but its more of a nuisance - to change that is. The web site says dont use NiCds but these are inferior so there is no reason anyway.
4. You cant properly explore the unit options without taking a fix first outside.
5. Oddly position is only reported in degrees but in the suboption menu you do get minutes as well.
6. If two bright stars are close together like a centauri and hadar it may not identify the dimmer star correctly. It seems to have a probability function which lists the most likely candidate - but this is minor criticism.
So far so good.
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