Sega Homestar Original Black - Home Planetarium - Star Projector

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

Ignore all the negativity! This product was better than I expected due to all the negativity! I wanted to write this review for all the people questioning this product because of the negativity. This projector is so worth it! Yes the edges are blurry but it still looks so amazing! From my observation, I'm assuming in order to have perfect focused edges, you have to have a dome shaped ceiling which no one has. Due to it's round projected imagery then it causes the edges to blurry but I still think it looks amazing. I feel this product was made in the best way it could in this price range. Clearly work and detail is shown in this. It's not too bright but bright and vivid enough, soothing to fall asleep, makes you think of the beauty around us, stars appear closer and further due to its amazing detail, rotation function is very close to how stars orbit, shooting star is alright but still nice to look at it, gives a great sense of imagination (at least to me), max 1 hour auto shut off. I feel you will get best maximum experience if you place the projector as close to the middle of the room that you can but I don't feel it's necessary. I feel it may reduce SOME of the the appearance of blurry edges as well. This product really give its value and it shows in the way it was made. When I googled best star projectors of all time, this was in the top 3. If people want to say this product is worth 30$ then please find me a projector in that price range that's better than this. If you're looking for "perfect" no matter how much money you spend then don't buy this. If you're looking for something that's closest to beauty of our stars, then get this. Ignore the negativity! Have an open mind if you're a real star gazer lover!

Once fully set up and running, looks great overall, and we're happy with the picture quality. For functionality, we liked the little shooting star feature, and although the still image is good, I found the rotation to give the images almost a 3-D effect, which I thought was VERY cool. Accuracy seemed on point to us amateurs; we appreciate the NASA photography, which was an important consideration. The build does feel like fragile light plastic, and the motor makes a little noise, which I don't mind. The focus came close to locked and had these black lines, but after many, many spins of the focus ring, the lines went away and looked sharp except for the outer edge. The price for what you get is steep, in my opinion, but there aren't a lot of options out there that are likely to meet envisioned expectations. I'm glad we got it, but not the hoped-for legendary blockbuster. More slides with the base unit would've helped.

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.

I would love to have a custom-designed starry-sky bedroom ceiling, but just don't have the tens of thousands of dollars to have one put in right this minute... So I got this product, and could not be happier. This is a fantastic little device for a child's or adult bedroom. I wouldn't really call this an educational device. Yeah, you can sit under it and point out constellations and such, but it's much more of a relaxation/decoration item. That is its sole use in my home. Do not be influenced by the "Sega" product name; this is not some flimsy, toy-like star projector. Although small, this is a sophisticated (and expensive) device. As such, small children probably should not be allowed to operate it. Older kids, after sufficient supervised training, can understand the controls and functions, and should be able to use it properly. It is not very big, so takes up little space. The power cord is relatively long (could be a foot or two longer) to support your optimal placement in the room. It has a small fan for cooling as well as the rotation motor, and both are very quiet, supporting this as a go-to-sleep device. There is a sleep timer which you can set for 15, 30, or 60 minutes. The rotation option is very nice as it presents an ever-changing view of the star field. It rotates quickly enough that you can discern the rotation readily, but not so fast that you get the spins from staring up into it. As noted by a couple other reviewers, on first use it seems that the device is not focusing properly, and it appears that the focus ring is literally unscrewing from the housing. Not quite so. Be patient and slowly bring that focus ring out and the stars will come into perfect focus. This item is best used in a very dark room, so douse all lights and night lights. If being used in a child's room, the light from this device, if left on all night, serves as a night light on its own. That being said, the light is not harsh, and provides a nice soft glow throughout the room. The shooting star function is a nice little addition, but is kind of a letdown. The product photo appearing to show a shooting star looks a lot more like a comet, but either way, know that this is NOT how shooting star function appears. It's a purely optical effect using the lens, so the shooting star is always the same; it is in the exact same position on the ceiling every time, and its path and appearance are always the same. I recommend purchasing the optional discs as well, as they are a nice change-up to your standard view. Bottom line: I wanted a detailed and diverse starry sky on my bedroom ceiling, and this device has delivered well beyond my expectations.

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.

In comparison to the projectors ive bought before it is above average, Nothing Amazing. I do enjoy it and it impresses who ever I show it. But overall its more expensive than it should be. Simple operation and set up. I paid about 170 at the time. For that it should have more features, like a remote. I wouldn't blink an eye to pay around half because it is not a cheap made product. At least not so far, only had a few months.

I've been an astronomy hobbyist all my life. After trying this out for a few weeks in my bedroom, I love it. The shooting comet isn't that great so I usually don't turn that on. The rotation speed is subtle. Sometimes I turn that off too. I set the auto-off timer to 30-60 min while I stare at the night sky as I fall asleep. It's very peaceful and calming to watch at the end of the day. The only CON for me is some of the disk images. I bought several to go with it. The planet/moon is very large on my ceiling so look too close. I would rather they be smaller and appear at a distance, especially since my ceiling is only 8 feet tall. Since sometimes I turn off the auto-rotation, I would like the ability to externally rotate the disk to just the right image appears. Currently I have to turn it off, turn the lights back on and remove the disk, rotate it, turn the lights off and recheck the image. Repeat until the image is just what I would like to see. This is minor and more of a wishlist item. I do home more disks are being made for this wonderful product.