HomeStar - 21st Century Home Planetarium Review 98
Jeff writes "Direct from Japan, the SegaToys HomeStar is a unique home projector that turns any room into a planetarium, giving a clear view of the night sky. Using interchangeable plates, it's capable of displaying up to 10,000 stars of either northern or southern hemisphere, as well as their constellations. The starfield can move on a timer to simulate the earth's rotation. Also comes with a meteor generating function and sleep timer. Makes a great gift for the dad who has everything, or people who live in light-polluted areas." Check out Jeff's review of the unit.
Now we know (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Now we know (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Now we know (Score:1)
I live in central Osaka. If I had a car (and most people here do not, with bikes and public transportation so convenient), it would be well over an hours drive eastwards to get out far enough to at least not be surrounded by street lights and pachinko-parlour neon.
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Still wouldn't buy it though.
Re:Now we know (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Now we know (Score:3, Insightful)
I grew up in a much more rural region, and only after "citifying" myself did I realize how bad light pollution has become. Would be nice if it was feasible to do something about it.
Re:Now we know (Score:3, Insightful)
I looked a bit on
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Best place in the world for stargazing: the middle of the Pacific.
Not necessarily (Score:1)
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Re:Now we know (Score:1)
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Re:Now we know (Score:1)
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Oh well though, my 10' dob cuts through all that fairly well if I'm feeling to lazy to drive out to the boonies and just wanna drag it out onto the balcony.
Re:Now we know (Score:1)
Re:Now we know (Score:5, Interesting)
I've a friend back in London who had her ceiling painted with a mock-up of the night sky somewhere in Africa. She hired some company that specializes in glow-in-the-dark night sky displays working from real star maps.
I doubt this box is much more expensive.
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
I've a friend back in London who had her ceiling painted with a mock-up of the night sky somewhere in Africa. She hired some company that specializes in glow-in-the-dark night sky displays working from real star maps.
Londoners, eh? More money than sense...
I did that myself when I was a student with a pot of midnight blue emulsion paint, a packet of glow stars and the Collins Guide to Stars and Planets.
Re:Now we know (Score:1)
Re:Now we know (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Now we know (Score:3, Insightful)
Last time I saw stars was in Vieques (Score:2)
Lighting up birds bellies (Score:1)
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
I was only hoping th
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Has a big plus on the educational side as well, but is most probably more expensive. I wonder if you could build such a thing yourself by the way, with a normal projector and a filter to deform the pictures to fit on a circular screen.
Re:Now we know (Score:3, Interesting)
These are cool for parents to show their kids the night-time sky -- when the REAL nighttime sky is obscured. Most kids (mine included) are VERY interested in all sciences. I've one of these myself (n
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Re:Now we know (Score:2)
Not all of us live in areas with low population densities.
I can *never* see the Milky Way when looking up at night unless I travel quite a ways.
Sample links (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Sample links (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sample links (Score:1, Interesting)
I actually figured the whole thing out after visiting both a Planetarium and a Bucky-Dome [bfi.org].
The first clue came at the planetarium. At the top of the dome was a small circle. If you visually estimated the size of the circle, you would assume it is 1-2 feet across. However, according to the planetarium guy, it is actually 6 feet across.
The second clue came at the Cinerama Dome. The dome, like all geodesics, is made up of identical hexagonal pie
Re:Sample links (Score:2, Funny)
I had kicked my HSR Habit.....I was clean for 6 MONTHS!!!!
Strongbad 1
Office Productivity 0
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
Re:SB (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Homestar, you say? (Score:5, Funny)
/reads HomeStar name...
(Must not make Homestar Runner joke. Must not make Homestar Runner joke.)
Hmm, the warning label says: Do not look into lens when activated. Burnination of retinas may occur.
(Oh, bloody hell!)
...And it comes in the NIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!! (Score:2)
Re:Homestar, you say? (Score:2)
Re:Homestar, you say? (Score:2)
Homstar (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Homstar (Score:2)
Re:Homsar Projector (Score:2)
Re:Homstar (Score:2)
Don't buy it. I had one and it sank my jenga jam.
Re:Homstar (Score:1)
The cheat, The cheat
Re:Homstar (Score:1)
High-tech - for the 1970's? (Score:1, Flamebait)
You go girl - buck that digital trend!
Direct from Japan...
All the way across the Pacific Ocean, huh? Far out man, that's EXOTIC!
salsadotted already (Score:2)
Re:salsadotted already (Score:1)
Re:salsadotted already (Score:2)
The MirrorDot mirror [networkmirror.com] has the details, along with some decent pics of the thing.
I bought one of these (Score:5, Funny)
I do not recommend this product.
Re:I bought one of these (Score:2)
Misread... (Score:1, Redundant)
It's too early in the morning...
not quite the real thing (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:not quite the real thing (Score:1)
No, probably not. So you're right...it's useless.
Exellent unit (Score:2, Informative)
HSR distracted you from the other obvious quote: (Score:2, Funny)
"Oh my god, Its full of stars!"
No planetarium matches the real night sky (Score:4, Interesting)
It's unreal. Just as it's hard to recognize the constellations from your typical U. S. suburban location, because you see too few stars, under good conditions it become hard to recognize the constellations because you see too many stars. The brighter stars that form the H. A. Rey connect-the-dots diagrams are lost in a sea of stars that look almost as bright.
I had a real "Aha!" moment on one of those occasions.
We've all been brought up to believe that the constellations are connect-the-dots stick-figures. And most of these stick-figures are so lousy that it's hard to believe anyone ever connected them with anything. There are a few exceptions, like Orion. (H. G. Wells wondered why the Christians had allowed the constellations to continue to be named after pagan mythology, and had never reinterpreted them. He figured that in any such interpretation Orion would be Christ...) Sagittarius does have something that perhaps can be seen to resemble a bow. But, mostly, they are a bunch of slightly-out-of-true triangles and boxes.
Well, one night, when the sky was full of, what can I say but stardust, I suddenly had this perceptual shift, like seeing a Necker cube reverse. I didn't see dots. I saw a silvery, stippled texture. And the sparser and denser stipples of starlight looked sort of like clouds. And, just as you see shapes in clouds... not connect-the-dots, stick-figure shapes, but solid, three-dimensional shapes... I saw solid, three-dimensional shapes, sculpted blobs of starry fog in which I thought I could see animals, and faces, and so forth, just as I can in clouds.
I can't prove it, but I am certain that this is the way the ancients perceived the sky.
Re:No planetarium matches the real night sky (Score:1)
Yeah, the country really is the best place to trip.
Making the Planetarium real (Score:2)
Many years ago I spent a lot of time volunteering at the Charles Hayden Planetarium in Boston, Mass. (actually I was the Museum of Science volunteer with most hours for several years.)
I did a lot of talking about astronomy, showing off models of spacecraft, helping folks try on spacesuits, etc. I also helped out with the shows, the 3pm one being the live show, "Stars of the Season". In the theater for that show was the lecturer and a guard. The guards were mostly there to help anyone who had to get up in t
Re:No planetarium matches the real night sky (Score:1)
Finding the dark skies (Score:2)
Re:No planetarium matches the real night sky (Score:1)
>I can't prove it, but I am certain that this is the way the ancients perceived the sky.
Ancients, as well as contemporaries who live in the mountains and who sail the seas...
It's great (Score:1)
HomeStar? (Score:1)
Re:HomeStar? (Score:2)
Constellation lines? (Score:1, Redundant)
Years ago I used a kit to put luminous paint on my bedroom ceiling in the pattern of the stars. It was a set of stencils you'd stick to the ceiling and us
Covered... (Score:2)
I wouldn't buy it.... (Score:1)
Here is a better review... (Score:2)
Planetariums and the night sky (Score:1)