If you want your kids to actually get excited about astronomy, don’t fumble around with your telescope for 20 minutes while you try to locate Pegasus. BOR-ing. Leave the star-searching to the smartphone-connected Stellina scope from the French company Vaonis. The companion app streamlines heavenly gazing by precisely aiming the robotic telescope—at, say, Pegasus—in as little as a few seconds. The system uses Wi-Fi to display the live view on your phone, where it’s easy to capture photographs and video, and it tracks the target across the sky long enough for everyone to get a look. The 19-inch-tall instrument is more portable than a traditional scope, so you can carry it into the wilderness where light pollution fades or just gaze at the constellations from your own backyard.
$2,999 at the MoMA Design Store
Styling by Kiki Stevens
This article appears in the September issue. Subscribe now.
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