Hi Chris, thanks for the reminder. Heard about this promo from a friend shortly before CNY. Finally manage to find the time to drop by yesterday afternoon.
Bought 1 set to test it out at home and hopefully can find time to do a proper review of it.
For those who are anxious and can't wait to read more local reviews, I highly suggest you go into the demo booth and have a first-hand experience of the planetarium BEFORE you buy.
These are some of early impressions so far base on the demo inside the booth (self-service, not guided by any promoter):
- The booth is small (at most 3 adults inside). Maybe due to space constraint in Kinokuniya. As a result, one may not know how bright or how far the projection will be in a bigger room.
- The demo set is positioned on a table. Not on the ground. Some of the marketing imagery show the planetarium on the ground and still projecting a bright image around the whole room.
- The projector dome is created by joining pieces of pentagons. At the edges where join, they form a dark border/line. This lines of darkness is also "projected" on the walls among the stars. Some may not like this as it may destroy the illusion a border-less night sky of stars as implied in the imagery used in the printed marketing materials. If the edges are not joined properly, a line of light will be projected on the wall.
- The walls of the booth are painted white. Not sure how well the stars will look like when projected on non-white walls which some users may have in their home internal decoration.
- The moving stars mode is cool! IIRC, about 15 mins for one complete revolution. To prove that the projected stars are indeed moving, place your fingertip on one bright projected star and observe the star slowly moving away from your fingertip.
Things to do when you are inside the booth:
- Don't get too many of your friends inside as the stars will be projected on them instead of wall. Best is do it solo. You can lock the room from inside.
- Close the door when you are inside because you want it to dark. It's obvious to us amateur astronomers but not so to some members of the public. And remember there is no promoter around to guide anyone, only printed instructions inside the room near the projector and the English manuals at the table near the booth.
- The planetarium may be auto switched off (30 mins timer). So don't be surprised if it is so dark you can't even see the on/off switch when you close the door.
- The on/off switch is located at the base of the projector. Press once to turn it on. Press it twice to make the projector rotate slowly.
- You can tilt and rotate the projector on its moveable axis. Be gentle. Don't break the demo unit and spoil the fun for others.
- Have fun testing your knowledge of the constellations and stars and try to identify them on the wall!
Other misc info:
- The promotion cum demo booth is from 27th January - 27th February 2014 at Kinokuniya Takashimaya.
- The projector is powered by 2 type "C" batteries.
- After you have purchased it, go to the Chinese/Japanese information counter and get the manual in English. Copies of this manual may also be located on the table near the demo booth.
- The price per unit is $47.36 after 20% promotional discount of the original $59.20. This discount is for all buyers, not a special discount for Kinokuniya members only.
- The package includes a scientific magazine in Japanese with nice backcover ad of Vixen telescopes.
- As of yesterday afternoon after I bought my set, there are still roughly 25 units available at the promotional booth. There may be more in their warehouse or in the astronomy-section bookshelves.
Some photos:
As you see from my initial impressions, I am not extremely impressed, at least not yet. But I still bought it because:
- The price is not too steep at $47 compared the $300+ price tag of other home planetarium packages.
- Fixing the planetarium is part of the fun too!
- A show of support for Kinokuniya for stocking some of the best astronomy/stargazing books/magazines in Singapore for many years.
- A small act of appreciation to the creator(s) for making an accurate planetarium instead of just projecting random dots of lights as stars and constellations.
Looking forward to slowly unboxing my set and enjoying the process of constructing the planetarium. Hopefully, the more talented modders can make a stronger and brighter internal lighting modification.