It’s a thing that shines the night sky onto the ceiling and walls of your room.
Sounds kinda cool. I’m wondering if anyone has one, Has ever seen one, did you like it?
Was It cool?
I did get one as a gift. I used it a few times, but it was pretty primitive. But that was 70 years ago and they must be vastly better now.
We love ours! I have the Uncle Milton Star Theater Pro. I got it for my son when he was a baby and we used it to fall asleep for naps almost daily but after a few months of that the disc started to wear out. It is still useable but the colors have faded a lot. With less frequent use it probably wouldn’t be an issue at all. I am still considering buying more discs for it. Ours came with a Solar System disc and one showing the Milky Way but there are maybe a couple dozen other choices available for around twenty dollars each.
It helps to have a place near the center of the room to set it up. No overhead light fixture and very little texture on the ceiling are also helpful but I think you could hang a sheet or something if it seems necessary.
I am sure there are nicer units out there and I would love to know what anyone else has and likes but we are pretty happy with ours.
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[Moderating]
Moving to IMHO.
I have something way better!
Stellarium.
Long ago I bought a planetarium projection system for a small science museum. We had a jerry-built semi-inflatable dome, and the system we got used the above-linked Stellarium open-source software. Big fancy planos have multiple projectors pointing at the dome - ours had one projector, pointing at a curved mirror. It worked really well! We also got some great silent beanbags instead of built-in reclining seats. It was a triumph, for a fraction of the price!
I had one of these as a kid.
Not the same, but I have SkyMap loaded on my Android Phone. Works great when you want to know what planet is shining so brightly.
Turn on and go.
It’s usually Jupiter.
We don’t. (admittedly I had to use google)
But it is never in Lupus.
I have a Home Planetarium in my basement. It’s a black sphere with holes punched in it that projects stars on the ceiling (and walls).
When I was a kid I had a Renwal Cosmorama, a wonderfully complex piece of engineering done in plastic
https://davidrwebb.typepad.com/photos/astronomy/cosmorama1.html
Actually, I still have it, but it’s old and fragile now. You could set it for any time of day and time of year, at any latitude and longitude, looking north or south. It had a tiny “grain of wheat” bulb in the center of, again, a black plastic sphere pierced with holes to project dots of light. The projection part was crude, but the controls were pretty sophisticated.
Of course, yiou can get cheap or even free computer software that will run rings around the Cosmorama’s capabilities. But it’s still not as cool.