Homestar Classic

Excellent product, not a toy, vivid image, very realistic. Seller is a 5 star, too ! To those having any difficulty using it, read manual, do not place projector far from surface, it will look fantastic if it is pitch dark, the shooting star effect, one of the features of the projector, adds charm to the sky as well as the movement, which makes it even more realistic. Remember, the REAL sky is not like a video game, don't expect it to be like a movie or have any aditional special effects as a real sky would not. For an astronomy enthusiast it feels real and beautiful. If you wish to improve the experience try to add some pleasant and meaningful soundtrack that you enjoy, sit back and relax. Other buyers mentioned their pictures don't do it justice and I agree, reason why I did not add any. Again, it is not a video game, you will see a realistic picture of a starry sky, with realistic motion, plus optional shooting star effect. I got the following discs : Northern Hemisphere, Northern Hemisphere with Constellations, Dissapearing Continent, Southern Constellations, and the Flowers and Butterflies. Seller shipped fast, answered my questions very quicly. HIGHLY RECOMMEND SELLER AND THEIR PRODUCTS.

We agonized over which star projector to buy for our 11-year-old, who is very interested in real-world astronomy. This time of year it's so cold and cloudy, so we thought we'd bring the stars inside. We read so many reviews and wondered whether we could find a high-quality projector in our price range. Our son didn't just want a bunch of cool space images on his ceiling -- he wanted actual stars and constellations. It took a few attempts to configure the projector in the best possible way -- where to set it and which way to point it. But once we figured out the tilt feature, we eventually ended up with near perfection on the very first night. The stars are crisp and bright. Star patterns are accurate. The "move" feature rotates the stars very slowly -- which is fine because real stars move so subtly. The meteors aren't very realistic, but at least they look cool. The only real nitpick is a small one: the focus feature is too granular; you can barely tell that the focus is changing at all, so you have to spin the dial quite a ways to make a difference. So it's a little pricey. We were able to get grandma to chip in to make this a bit more affordable for us. I'm always willing to pay a little more for quality, and the fact that this item is legitimately educational makes me a very satisfied customer. Our son's reaction made it all very much worth it.

Okay so im not sure if this was the intention of the creator for this, but i discovered something that makes this product a GEM!! first off, like most i bought this because i wanted a 'regular planetarium' to "look at the night sky" on my ceiling.. well its not.. the only pattern it ships with looks a bit like splattered paint. some of the stars on this will be the size of a golf ball on your ceiling. stars are not this big in real life.. so you will be disappointed if you want something that looks like "the night sky" but, and i mean as BIG BUT, this is where it gets interesting... As most reviewers her have said, some of these stars look blurry or dull, and there might be a reason.. when you project this on the ceiling in the dark and lay under it, the "stars" have an uncanny effect of looking like they are 3D. i have never seen anything like this. Im not sure how to explain it, because it looks more like you are laying under some kind of crystal cave with a 500 foot ceiling and different layers of "glowing things"... not sure they look like stars, sometimes it does, but in this sense it would be a DENSE star field, something you would see from the movies, not in your night sky.. this view of the stars has never been seen on earth so its not a familiar thing.. but the 3D effect I'm describing is BRILLIANT!! as i said, if it was designed this way, then this designer is a GENIUS!! if it was a mistake, then its a beautiful mistake.. I'm not quite sure how this is happening, I'm assuming its because some of the stars are blurry, some are a tad bit darker, some are a bit larger, and this combination gives us the illusion of depth (which is NOT something you get with the regular star fields, since they are mostly all at the same distance i.e. infinity) but THIS planetarium (and i use the term loosely) is more like an effect generator.. at face value it looks like glow in the dark paint splattered on your ceiling.. but when you stare at it for a few minutes it all shifts into focus and the 3D effect is STUNNING!!!! I'm really floored if this was the intention by the creators, and the more i look at it the more I'm convinced this was the intent for this device, as its REALLY easy to just make a "pinprick pattern" into a small disc.. this looks more like an engineered effect.. anyway, its cool.. and it rotated the disc so the pattern moves (and it has a shooting star which is a nice effect once in a while).. one last thing to mention, if you DO want something that looks more like a night sky, may i suggest adding another "effect device" into the mix.. perhaps buy an "aurora" or some other type of light device that projects could like images on the ceiling, it helps to break up the mix and add another layer of effects into it.. if you are just buying this because you want a realistic star field on your ceiling, like you would find out on a dark night on your favorite hill, then look elsewhere. this won't give you that.. you need a real planetarium, but that might cost you closer to the 500 mark... good luck..

A few big caveats before you consider buying this: (1) Its nothing more than a glorified attempt to project a flat stars print into the ceiling (2) The unit cannot adjust it’s covered area. As such, if you have a small room, you would need to have it on a higher stand or table. If you have a big room, then it needs to be closed to the floor, to cover the ceiling area (3) Unless you have a small room, half the stars would be out of focus, distractingly blurry. (4) While it advertised 60k stars, in reality, majority of such stars are in the Milky Way area. It surely doesn’t look like more than 30k stars on the ceiling. Anything fainter than magnitude 5 stars in the sky would not be clearly visible. (Naked eyes could see magnitude 6, for the record) (5) the sky coverage is northern hemisphere- doesn’t change by location, time of day, nor season. (6) all stars in white - no color (7) it’s nothing like what u see at planetarium (obviously). The stars are presented like on a star map: Magnitude 1 is a big circle, lower magnitude has smaller area. Nevertheless, it’s still better than most so called home planetariums.

I made certain investigation over the internet and looked pictures about the sega homestar projectors line. When i see the released of this projector was very happy because it was more cheaper and have the sleep and shooting star functions of the expensives ones. When i tried the first time i was very disappointed because its looked very blurry and the adjustable focus was stuck. The adjustable focus can be a little tricky, i have bought 2 of these, one for me and other one for my girlfriend. The focus of mine was able to turn after trying several time to make the 90 degrees turn, but the other one my girlfriend haved to dissarming to repair the stuck of the focus. When we have our adjustable focus ready, the both of us was blow away with the clearity and quality of this star projector.

Gave this as a Christmas present and didn't think my 12 year old son would like it. Much to my surprise, once I set it up for him, he loves it and wants it on every night before he goes to sleep. It has a timer, which is nice, and the shooting star function is really cool. Just remember to use the focus, that means -- turn it all the way! I was put off by some of the reviews, but have to conclude that they did not turn the dial all the way. The directions are not worthy of reading, you just have to guess, and much of it is self-evident. The focus, however, is key. That is the dial around the light. If you turn it on like I did, it will be an unfocused light with a lot of bars shining on the wall. Get past that, just keep turning the focusing ring and it will eventually get in focus. And put the disk in. Which, by the way is great. The one with the constellations, not so much as they are not identified as many others here have noted. I have ordered the planet disks and hope they are as great as the stars.

I don't know if my particular product was just defective or if this is how the product is sold. The images from the homestar are blurry to the point of uselessness. The product itself is cheaply made and it comes with two slides that are the same. Given the price of this item I was expecting a much higher quality planetarium and was instead supplied with a very questionable item. When I requested a return I discovered that they have a 20% restocking fee, which in my mind is unacceptable given the quality of the product being so low, and the price being so high. Needless to say I do not recommend anyone purchasing this item. Also they do not pay return shipping so by the time everything is said and done you've still paid 50% of the purchase price on a product you don't own.

This is a killer little planetarium to share with your kids or have yourself. Only complaint I have is that it could be a little brighter and defined. Worth the money SEGA!!