Amateur astronomers around the world have cause to celebrate as the first completely hands-off self-aligning telescope is now shipping. The Meade ETX-LS telescope uses a range of technologies, including GPS, magnetic sensors and a built-in CCD camera, to automatically determine its own location and then find any of more than 100,000 celestial objects.

The ETX-LS makes the universe simple for new stargazers. Meades’ “Lightswitch Technology” automatically positions and aligns the telescope at the flick of a switch, while the “Astronomer-Inside” provides the user with an interactive guided tour of the most interesting objects in the sky.

The Meade ETX-LS is priced at USD$1,299 for the standard model and at USD$1,499 with the premium optics system.