|
|
120 of 126 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Count me among the disappointed, November 17, 2004
A few days ago I had the audacity to write a review before I ordered this planetarium, because my reading of the reviews of this and one other toy planetarium suggested that two "disappointed" dads were confused. I said I would write another review once the planetarium arrived.
Well, I just received the planetarium, and I now count myself among the disappointed.
So, I'm writing this review to correct the earlier one, written when I had only ordered the Space Theatre, but before it had arrived. Due to rules governing this site, I could not post this corrected review til I removed the first.
The "sky" offered is a very narrow part of the sky, maybe 20 degrees of arc, just what might be seen straight above, with no peripheral view. There is no attempt to reproduce stars closer to the horizon or even those as you gaze upwards 45 degrees.
And the "stars" as projected on my ceiling, just eight feet (2.44 meters) above the floor, and about 2 meters (6 or 7 ft) above the table on which the planetarium sat, are each much too big, not pinpoint stars at all. Each star is about a centimeter or two in diameter, as if every star in the upper sky were suddenly enlarged, blown up, with not enough dark sky between them. Instead of a dark night sky, with little starlights, we have instead a polka dot sky, with hundreds of flat circles of light, like so many large buttons thrown onto the ceiling.
Only when the planetarium was held up high, only a foot from the ceiling, did the stars have an appropriate small size, bright intenstity and tight resolution. But then of course, with the light source and theater so close to the ceiling, the reproduced "sky" was only about a meter across.
I did not open the CD or any of the other materials, because it is clear that I will need to return this.
It is strange, the planetarium that I had as a child, nearly fifty years ago, when plastic toys were all brand new, was a full nearly 360 degree black sphere, with very tiny poinpoint holes, which projected stars throughout the entire room, ceiling and four walls, no doubt distorted a bit by the walls, but not limited as this one, to just such a tiny midportion of the night sky. We could see the morning sky, the evening sky, and how the sky might look from other distant parts of the world, in different times and seasons. None of that is possible with this tiny section of sky.
I apologize for questioning our "disappointed dads". [...]
|
by Michael Driscoll
