Planetarium Like
There are other products that offer to project stars on your ceiling but this one by far is the best that you can come to having an actual planetarium in your home.
The projection is good on the first disk with familiar stars easy to pick out and the Milky Way well represented. The meteorite flying over is cute and never fails to catch ones eye.
The second disk with the outlines of the constellations is really helpful to get familiar with the night sky.
Overall it's a pleasure to project on the ceiling at night.

One of the best things you could be staring at in a room, while falling sleep
I love it. I think for the price you pay you get a very good real life model of the stars and constellations and I love the fact that the whole sky actually rotates around the north pole star, and not around the middle of the sky. This way, you can really see the constellations coming and going by season, and you can clearly understand why some are not visible at some seasons.
It adds quite a nice feature to your bedroom at night time, something to stare at and fall sleep.

Nice home planetarium
I set mine up and tried it out in a dark room, and was not overly amazed, but it is very neat. Although it isn't as spectacular as that green laser star projector, it is way more realistic. If you want to see the stars, just like it is in the night sky, then this will do very nicely. If you want to feel like you are experiencing a trip in some far away galaxy, or want to see some sci-fi effects, the green laser projector will do better. I do like the fact that they have an optional disc with the constellations labeled on them.
I understand they have a better, and more improved version of this planetarium available now, with more discs. It certainly looks alot like this one, so I don't see why they don't make the discs available for separate purchase so I can see them on this projector, or make some new ones available.
All in all, this was worth the money, and it looks very professional. The music CD was a nice bonus, however I think they could have put more songs on it.

What you see is what you got
This little projector does what I wanted it to do, which was to be a home planetarium projector. All my life I wanted one of the planetarium style projectors in my home; well, those cost up to $100,000, so anything for the home would have to be much less cost and capable. This unit projects a sky on the ceiling, not necessarily THE sky. If that is enough for you, along with maybe a soundtrack, to get you to sleep, then great. As a planetarium learning tool, it is only so-so, with a separate disk for the constellations, but without the variability and scope of a real planetarium...not surprising at this cost.

Quality planetarium for your home
This is the best home planetarium I have seen (I used to work at a planetarium). Most toy planetariums are pretty poor. But this is really not a toy planetarium, and I would not recommend it to anyone other that a teen or adult that has more than a passing interest in astronomy. Its not really even a training planetarium, at least for beginners. This is for "stargazing" and mellowing out, not really for learning constellations.

Its sky is extremely good, rivaling the multi-thousand $$ machines. You need a DARK room, no night lights, etc. just like at real planetariums, and you need a white ceiling. (Mine has "popcorn" surface, which didn't cause a problem.) I turn off all the lights, close the door, turn on the "celestial" music included, and lie back on the floor, staring straight up at the "sky" as it slowly turns overhead.

If you know constellations, you can make them out. The stars are accurate, but its like a night sky in the middle of the high desert. Packed with stars and full glory of the Milky Way. So constellations are inundated with stars. Good for more advanced amateurs. I catch myself picking out the brighter star names I know.

I bet this would look good in a school planetarium dome of ~ 20ft or less.

The decreased ratings were just due to this is not really an educational toy for kids. For an amateur astronomer, its 5 star!


Russell