It may look like a phaser (well, only vaguely), but it’s the coolest stargazing aid to come out this year. The Meade MySky allows you to explore the heavens simply with a point and shoot. It’s database comes with 30,000 objects in the night sky and also can show cool multimedia astronomy presentations. And thanks to its 12-channel GPS receiver, there’s no complicated alignment either. It’s all automatic, which is something previous attempts at a handheld observatories have been woefully lacking at.

The MySky also works in concert with any computer controlled Meade telescope, meaning it becomes the perfect companion for serious astronomers who want to interface and point their telescopes simply by raising their arm in the right direction. There are real-time color maps of the night sky, over 500 audio descriptions with more information on what you’re looking at, incredible photographs of distant celestial objects which you can view from it’s color LCD screen (another option that other handhelds haven’t had), 256 MB RAM (expandable) an SD card slot, and even a long-lasting 7-hour rechargeable battery.

The My Sky has a competitive price of $399.00, but Meade is currently running a deal where if you buy their Meade ETX-90 or ETX-125 with a mySKY™ you’ll qualify for a $200 mail-in rebate.