If you're looking for a visual and guided tour of the cosmos, you can have one from the comfort of your own backyard. Bushnell, the people famous for their binoculars also have a line of telescopes, which do some amazing things. Their Voyager® Sky Tour telescope, is one of those gizmos that makes astronomy that much more fun.

This model is one that is suitable for the novice astronomer or just plain interested stargazer who needs some of the basics of the cosmos explained to them. The Voyager® Sky Tour Telescope comes equipped with a talking handset, which provides audio commentary of the constellations, planets, and stars that abound in the heavens. This audio tour of the night sky lets an enthusiast have what amounts to his or her own personal tour guide. This verbal discourse provides facts about the interstellar neighborhood that surrounds our planet. The commentary also highlights certain mythologies about the outer world as well as other interesting data.

The Illuminated Smart Mount that is part of the telescope guides a user to objects in the sky highlighted by the handset. The unit has an LED electronic red-dot finding scope, which allows for fast, easy positioning of a particular entity. You don't have to scan the night sky aimlessly trying to lock in on an object of interest. With the red dot finder, you target your viewing fast.

The illuminated smart mount uses a backlight behind the markings so that it is easier to follow the audio tour. What's great about the audio tour is that you can customize it to your specific region through latitude and longitude inputs. This way you get audio telling you about entities viewable from your geographic position specifically. You do not want a general commentary about planets and stars and systems that you cannot see, you want to see these actual entities as you hear the facts about them.

The unit is easy to set up and has a full tripod of sturdy construction. The Voyager® Sky Tour has a 700mm x 60mm refractor. It also has eyepieces of 8mm and 12.5mm, which give magnifications of 56 times, as well as 88 times. There are two controls, which control vertical and horizontal movement. These allow you to focus in for a great view of the specific object you want to see.

The Voyager® Sky Tour is one way to boost the viewing and learning experience of the person who seeks to learn more about the universe. It's user-friendly and makes the vast array displayed in the night sky a little less intimidating to learn about because of the audio tour function. A panoramic movie experience of the cosmos is yours to have with this unique telescope from the folks at Bushnell.

Posted by Mike.