National Geographic 9105000 Astro Planetarium Multimedia, Black

Product Information

We feel the Deep Space Home Planetarium and Projector is age-appropriate, expanding their knowledge and creating a sense of awe and wonder. The stars and constellations are soothing and enjoyable; children will enjoy falling asleep underneath them or just using them to enhance the ambiance in their bedrooms. The reasonable price makes this a great option for a first star projector meets home planetarium. If the Brainstorm Toys Deep Space Home Planetarium and Projector isn’t for you The same Astro Planetarium Multimedia disks are included — one featuring a starry night sky and the other featuring overlays of constellations, and it's all entirely accurate for the time and day you're using it.

National Geographic 9105000 Astro Planetarium Multimedia

Sega Toys Homestar FluxGreat for recreating a realistic-looking night sky inside. It's on the pricier end of the market but the option to upgrade your disc collection is attractive. The night sky representation is about as realistic as it gets.★★★★½The image can be rotated in its stand and moved 360 degrees using built-in motors. It works best when projected from a distance of two meters. The lens, made by Bresser, has a focusing wheel that allows for easy image adjustment. Like many star projectors, it can automatically shut down after 30, 60 or 120 minutes, which is helpful if it's used by a child who wants to fall asleep under the stars in their bedroom. It also has a 'shooting star' mode, which projects a 'meteor' every 40 seconds. If you're shopping for a child, you might want to look at the Dinosaur Egg Galaxy Star Projector. Like the aforementioned SkyLite Evolve, it isn't scientific or educational, but it's a novelty item to add ambiance to a room or to use as a sleep aid. The hatching dinosaur egg design will appeal to any young space or dinosaur fan. The Sega Toys Homestar Flux certainly has a more premium and 'adult' look to it, and although it is more costly, you would miss out on the time and date selector, the inbuilt speaker and the radio (if you can get that tuned in). Spinning the projector on its axis, we found the slide viewer and tactile focus wheel. As with an old-fashioned overhead projector, the projector can be focused onto near or far surfaces to increase or decrease the size of the images. Image quality is maintained with minor focus adjustments, which our children managed to do intuitively and with ease.

National Geographic Multimedia Astro Planetarium - Bristol

Below the wheels, there are six buttons. One of them can be used to switch the planetarium on and off. To switch off, you have to hold the button for several seconds. This prevents the device from being switched off accidentally. The Pococo Galaxy Star Projector is a worthy addition to this guide, and it is a good rival to the National Geographic Astro Planetarium and the much more expensive Sega Homestar Flux. During our full Pococo Galaxy star projector review, we found it a good value star projector with decent build and projection quality. The controls on the device are intuitive even for younger children. Our kids had no trouble using the focus wheel to make the images sharp (Image credit: Lorna Jordan)Most interesting of all, it projects the stars based on your programmed time and date function. That means on any given time and date, it’ll accurately display the night sky and constellations of the Northern Hemisphere. (That unfortunately means those in the Southern Hemisphere may not get the accurate reading they’d hope.) There is one speaker on each side of the unit. They are good quality and have a rounded audible quality. (Image credit: Tantse Walter) Besides, the projection can be rotated either to the left or the right using two motors. The only disadvantage of this function is that in my opinion, the motors make quite loud noises. As discussed in our Create a Night Sky Projection Kit review, this is a great learning device when assembled with a guardian. The goal is to create a globe-like night sky that shines and projects the constellations. Before moving on to the stars, children learn about the northern and southern hemispheres. Then, they make holes with a sharp tool where the major stars should be, which introduces them to the important stars and constellations in the night sky.