Planetarium Projector for kids

[Mliss (Mel)]

I saw this today at the local toy shop and was so tempted to get it... for the kids of course

I thought i'd put this out there and ask if anyone else had seen/bought this.

They were selling it for $59.00, there's an aussie seller on ebay asking $74.90 for the same thing.


http://unclemilton.com/explore_it/star_theater_3/

[Allan_L (Allan)]

But, unfortunately (for us) it only covers stars visible from the Northern Hemisphere.
(possibly why the Aussie guy is selling his )

[Mliss (Mel)]

ugh! really?

thank goodness i didn't get it then. i don't know if i even would have considered that! i was just so suprised when i saw 'stellarium'. what a shame, it looked really cool too.

@ ebay guy, you're probably right.

[Suzy]

I had a look at the link and all the piccies and I got very excited for one for myself, why? Because I can .
But then I read it was for ages 8 and up

And then I thought, hold on, what a fabulous way to spend the night when clouded in! Wouldn't it be just sooo relaxing laying down in the dark, having that globe do it's thing, whilst listening to some space music like Pink Floyd or Constance Demby

Or would my family think I've gone too far ...

I couldn't find any thing saying what altitude it covers.
If it's only for northern, it should still show down to Centaurus? So, I'm thinking there's lots to be seen anyway.

[torana68 (Roger)]

Originally Posted by Suzy

I had a look at the link and all the piccies and I got very excited for one for myself, why? Because I can .
But then I read it was for ages 8 and up

dont see the problem, your over 8 (not by a lot ) looks like fun...

[Jen]

lol Suzy yeah i thought i could practice my imaging using that hehe

[Mliss (Mel)]

of course i wasn't the only one *looks at SuzyNova*

i have no idea how Allan knew, but i went back to the link and downloaded the manual.... and he was right. Northern Hemisphere only

i am tempted to email them and ask, what the....

something like this would even be really cool for kids at school or even on a Luna night or something.

[Suzy]

Originally Posted by torana68

dont see the problem, your over 8 (not by a lot ) looks like fun...

Nice save!
A man of tact- you'll go far.

& Jen.

Mel, email away- tell them that the earth is a round globe, not half a globe.

[michaellxv (Michael)]

Save your money. I have a similar unit which is designed for the southern hemisphere and it is not very good. You have to hold it too high and close to the ceiling to get a focussed image. It might be ok in a hobbit's house.

[Mliss (Mel)]

what luck, i'm a hobbit.

[Suzy]

Originally Posted by michaellxv

Save your money. I have a similar unit which is designed for the southern hemisphere and it is not very good. You have to hold it too high and close to the ceiling to get a focussed image. It might be ok in a hobbit's house.

Thanks for the feedback, Michael.

[Poita (Peter)]

The Sega Homestar Planetariums are the best I've seen, and they have discs for the southern hemisphere available.
http://www.segahomestar.com/Sega_Hom...ums/index.html
They often come up in ebay for more reasonable prices, but are expensive.
If you ever see one cheap, grab it!

[Bosi72]

Sega planetariums are selling for $500+ which is too much for my budget. Also, a person in some review said Sega's are overpriced and not of high quality, and it would be better if he purchased projector and plugged into computer/google sky/stellarium..

That gave me an idea to proceed with projector, however when searching for wide angle lenses I come to another disappointment in terms of pricing.
http://navitar.com/product/hemistar-dome-lenses.aspx
plus good projector could go above $10k in total...

Finally, I decided to continue with cheaper option so I purchased Chinese NCO 907M projector on the eBay for $300, then experiment with some wide angle lenses.

The worst case scenario, and at the end of the day, I am sure projector will give us some fun

Cheers