Sega Homestar Original Black - Home Planetarium - Star Projector

Purchased this as a Christmas gift - due to a late order, it was expected to be delivered after Xmas. I was pleasantly surprised when it showed up before :) The good: 1) Set up is simple. 2) The projected view (Northern Hemisphere disc) is fairly realistic for naked eye viewing. 3) Very quiet operation when you have the motion moving. 4) Probably the best home planetarium available, without resorting to projecting a view from Stellarium (open source program) onto the ceiling. 5) Kids with interest in astronomy should love this. 6) If you want to sleep out under the stars at night, you can see them from the comfort of your own bed without the bugs and dew! 7) We also got the "Milky Way" disc to go with the projector - Quite realistic view of the milky way that you would see 8) The constellation disc uses stick drawings to show the major constellations, but does NOT name them. You will need to do that. However, it's a good way to learn to identify them. What needs to be improved (not necessarily "bad", but is detrimental to the experience): 1) The rotational movement is far too fast compared to actual sky movement - this would be better if it were adjustable. 2) The projection covers the entire northern hemisphere - it would be great if you could set your own latitude, and project what YOUR night sky looks like. 3) Polaris SHOULD be the focal point for all rotation; unfortunately it is not. 4) The projection covers an area of 8'-10' in diameter when projected from about 6' away. A fisheye attachment to the lens would help spread this out to be more "life-like", but would also add additional distortion into the display, so it would be a trade-off. 5) The "shooting star" setting is very poorly done - it is best to leave this off. 6) It would be nice to be able to toggle the constellations on/off so you can see what it looks like with and without the identifiers, but this is not possible without shutting it off and swapping the discs. Overall, would I recommend this? I'd give it a qualified Yes, primarily for the reasons above. It is probably the best home planetarium available (unless someone can point me out a better one). For viewing the stars from the comfort of your home or bedroom, it's great. It does have some limitations, but short of getting out your own telescope at night, it's pretty darn good. Yes, you can build your own planetarium dome and projection (see a website by teacher Craig Beals for his student project), but short of that, you can't beat this device.

I've been interested in astronomy for a long long time. I have owned about 30 telescopes, but currently a 10" and 16" dobsonian, and an SN6 . I've always wanted a decent little cheap planetarium. In the past I painted glow in the dark dots on the ceiling, different sizes for magnitude differences, using a huge paper template to get the star positions correct. It works fine but it's a lot of work, and the sky doesn't change. Then I saw this Homestar, and did some comparisons between this version and the new version. In every review I felt the new version was TOO bright. It does not accurately represent what a night sky looks like. For this reason I purchased the original version. The original version is also a bit too bright, but acceptable. Another reviewer mentioned that the stars do not revolve around the pole star (Polaris) but that is wrong. The sky does indeed rotate around polaris. This is neat because on my ceiling polaris is (correctly) in the same place all the time, just off to the edge of the ceiling. This means that the sky completely changes over the course of 30 minutes or so. I still feel this device is extremely overpriced for what it is, but I suppose that has to do with the limited demand, and cost of manufacturing the laser disks. The shooting star effect is pretty good even though it's always in the same place. It's spaced out timing wise, and the sky has rotated a bit by then so it does not get repetetive. Overall I am really happy with this. My wife lost her mom about a week ago due to covid. I was going out to a friend's house for awhile and knew she would go to bed early. I had just received the homestar and secretly set it up for her but left the room lights on so she couldn't notice. When she turned off the lights to go to bed she was rewarded with a star lit sky. I received a text which only said "thank you <3" In the morning she told me she was so delighted that it made her cry. Now we run it every night when we go to bed. BTW, even if you do not set the timer, it turns itself off after a few hours. I'm not sure how long that is yet because I'm usually asleep when that happens. BTW the other night I played "space music" really faint to add to the theme. I had already fallen asleep when my wife came to bed. She woke me up and said she keeps hearing UFOs taking off outside. Apparently she had been looking out the window for awhile before waking me. That was pretty funny! I just love her

The other positive reviews played a big part in my purchase. Very disappointed in the product and the other reviewers. This thing shows fake looking stars grouped into a fake looking pattern that doesn’t look like any night sky I’ve ever seen. One review stated that holes poked into cardboard could provide similar looking stars and I agree. As far as the “shooting star” function goes; when I saw it the first time it pretty much finalized my decision to get my money back. The shooting star is just this little square shaped electronic door which opens that briefly shines over the stars… other lights within the unit shine through the walls of the compartment at the same time so it’s about the same effect as turning on a cheap flashlight and calling that a shooting star. Another thing which the Q&A as well as the reviewers did NOT do justice to, was placement. Unless you have extra high 10 foot ceilings and can place this thing in the dead center of the room the projection is not going to come out looking anywhere near right. There’s a wheel you can turn to focus but any little movement sets the whole thing off and you have to redo it. Plan on spending a few minutes in the dark turning the wheel trying to put the stars into focus and then just NOT touching it again, etc. This thing is worth about $30.00 at the most as a gag, but DEFINITELY not $175.00! Lastly, the advertisement here on Amazon compared to reality of the product makes the product seem MUCH more spectacular and sophisticated than it actually is, and the company itself is disorganized and don’t seem prepared or equipped to be doing business on Amazon.com. Their tracking numbers were wrong, they didn’t know how to do a return, their advertisement was inaccurate.

This is a great projector! It makes no sound when turned on, and only makes a soft white noise (much like a humidifier) when the motion function is turned on - great for falling asleep to. The light is very bright and projects very strongly onto the ceiling and the focus ring works well if the stars look blurry to you, or if you see some light rings in the projection. Only issue (which is a non issue for me) is the shooting star function. It only works when the motion control is on, and it's quite a fat streak of light (doesn't match the stars) and is always in the same spot. However I did not buy this for the shooting star function, so it's a null point for me. My boyfriend and I love this! Projects clean and clear in the dark with a ton of stars!

This is not a toy for kids but serious projector developed to realize home planetarium with affordable price. The mechanism is simple but good precision lens and films. Very good "darkness" for dream sleeping. No other cheep products can produce such a virtual starry sky. But this is even not perfect. Since our bedroom is not dome ceiling we should understand to compromise the capability. I definitely recommend this is the best choice at this price range.

Pricey little unit but oh so cool. Stars are really something. I've found that it works best in the middle of the room as opposed to a side table or dresser. Room i have it in is about 12x14 and it fits the ceiling very nicely. OUtter edges are still somewhat blurry but its not bad. Timer is a nice addition for children at night, can set it to run for 15, 30 or 60 mins. Can also have it rotate too. Shooting start function is pretty useless though i must say. Overall, good buy!

i get around $150 from my dad a month so buying this was a big deal for me (i’m a teenager and i don’t have a job lol) i was very excited when it came but when i opened it and looked at the product i realized that there is no way it’s worth $200, the projection is blurrier than i thought it would be and the projection doesn’t fill a room it’ll just illuminate a small portion. it comes with the northern hemisphere, and the northern hemisphere with constellations but i would rather it have come with a northern and southern hemisphere instead of northern and wirh constellations. it also came with a cute double sided poster of the northern and southern hemisphere. all in all, it’s cool, but not worth the money, i’m sure you could find one that works just as well and is cheaper. also you won’t see it unless the room is pitch black dark.

I received a returned item which is defective. The quality of the picture is not attractive at all. It's just a toy, not worth 199 but 30 dollars at most. I returned to the seller and the seller deducted 40 dollars shipping fee without telling me.