In My Room Star Theater Pro Home Planetarium Light Projector and Night Light

Have had ours for 3 days and have used it several hours each night. It is about the size of a big cantaloupe, very light-weight, and very portable. There are 4 simple push-button controls, 1. Power On-Off, 2. Disc rotation On-Off, 3. Power-off timer you can set for either 30min or 1hr, and 4. Tray-Open. If the timer is not set the planetarium will by default automatically power-off after 2 hours. The Tray-Open function works whether the unit power is On or Off so you can always retrieve or load your star disc independent of the power setting. Instructions indicate to use the projector from 6.5ft-7.5ft from the projection surface. However we have used it on surfaces 8ft away and it works well. There have been some complaints that the rotation motion is jerky. Not so with our unit. During 3 nights of watching (2.0-3.0 hours each night) there was only one brief jerky movement that I saw and that my wife did not. The unit operates on either a supplied plug-in transformer or a set of 3 AA batteries that can be either alkaline or rechargeable - just do not mix them. Running on batteries does not change the brightness or rotation speed but the projector runs cooler when running on batteries. The star disc rotation drive makes no noise that I can hear. The focusing ring is intuitive and easy to use. For kids, the 2 included Milton star discs are fine. However if you want an adult viewing experience then I recommend you get the Northern Hemisphere star disc, the Aurora disc, and the Scenic disc from Miller Engineering. These much, much higher quality Miller star discs change the Milton projector into a home planetarium for adults. The Miller discs are worth the extra expense. You do need to pay attention to correctly loading the star discs. It is not a fool-proof operation so pay attention to the disc loading process. The Milton box indicates the projector is to be used by those 12+. If you have a kid who has been around telescopes and likes stargazing then I think a kid as young as 10 can correctly use and enjoy this projector without supervision. Price varies over time so watch for it to drop into the $65-$85 range.Update after 6 weeks:Still greatly enjoying this projector and have added 7 Miller Engineering star discs to our library of viewing discs. Our regular viewing is settling down to about 3 nights per week and usually just for 30 minutes at a time - sleep comes very easy these nights. The variety of star discs available for this projector is what makes this planetarium work as entertainment for both kids and adults. We bought a second planetarium for our grandsons and we are told the boys are very excited about it. Pressure is now on us to "expand" their library of star discs.Many reviews criticize the projector's brightness but it is actually brighter with better optics than the Homestar Original and Homestar Pro (gen 2), both of which are far more costly than the UM Star Theater Pro. It is definitely not in the same class of home planetarium as the Homestar Extra, but for the price, it is a nice home planetarium.I have tried to post several pics of some of the star discs available for the Star Theater Pro but while Amazon reports they have successfully uploaded the images and comments, they randomly throw away most of them - very frustrating. Its odd that they encourage customers to post pictures but then discards them.

I spent a few days reading reviews to try and find the best planetarium projector at a reasonable price. My 10 yr old son loves space, and I knew he would enjoy something like this, but I also wanted the sky to be accurate. I finally stumbled on the Miller Engineering website, (microstru.com) and they reviewed a few of the most popular projectors. This one was ranked second, under the $800 sega one. Their only real complaint was that the discs that come with it aren't realistic. But for the price, it was brighter and better than the $300 sega versions, and I decided to give it a try. It works great! Bright projection, and the rotation is nice. I love the two timer options, so my son won't accidentally let it go all night. I did buy 2 of Miller Engineering's discs, which are accurate depictions - the northern hemisphere and the twilight moon. Beautiful! My son does also enjoy the disc that came with the machine of the earth, sun and moon. Overall, I am very happy that I bought this!! And my son LOVES it! My only worry is that the disc tray will break, since it seems a little flimsy, but time will tell. I will update if there are any changes.

Paired with the Miller Engineering disk, this projects a truly fantastic night sky. The Miller image is super sharp and you feel like you are sleeping under the stars. The timer feature is great, as you can put in on for 30 or 60 minutes and fall asleep under the Milky Way. The rotation feature work fine but I frankly am ok with the static sky. The basic disks supplied with the unit are really not that detailed, so the Miller engineering disk is a must - albeit it's pricey. I did not give it 5 stars, mainly as the unit does not feel like it was built all that well. It is not cheap - but for the price I would expect something that is a bit more rugged. The lens is good quality and focuses easily. I have projected onto an 8 foot ceiling from the floor and it produces about 14-15 foot diameter sky. They throw in a nice spacey planetarium style music CD to complete the package which is enjoyable. All in all I like it very much - and have to say seeing the night sky from the comfort of indoors is a great little luxury.

I didn't expect too much for the price and it was for my two year old. Nonetheless, what a let down. My son has a turtle that projects stars and moons, while it is cartoonish, at least it is designed to cover the whole ceiling. The "Star Theater Pro" projects a circle about 5 feet in diameter! So you end up with this little circle on your ceiling. You can put it into the corner of the room and project it on an angle...that will cover the ceiling, but then all the stars are "stretched" and you feel like you are in a time warp as if you just hit the hyperspace button on the Millennium Falcon.Additionally, there is a setting that allows the stars to rotate. Problem is, it makes a high pitched sound that is rather penetrating. Not relaxing if that is what you are anticipating.It is of thin plastic, but appears to be fairly solid . . . time will tell on a true durability rating.A definite pass is my advice..... cheers!

Las proyecciones son de muy buena calidad, excelente opción para los niños

A very nice thing,A bit fuzzy around the edges,however it arrived on time.At a good price,very good saving.Only one niggle the person who owned it previously didn't look after it very well.It was a bit grubby as though a child had miss used it,with smudges of white tipex onit.After cleaning it up a bit, it looks a lot better.As i'v said it is a lovely machine with quite a big saving.Perhaps a little more dusting out there! wouldn't go amiss.

BUEN PRODUCTO

Excelente

This thing has been great. The kids have loved it since they were infants and they are now 6. Only now is the motor starting to get a bit loud. Will likely take it apart and clean it. Wish it came with a higher output LED. For additional discs make sure to check out Miller Engineering. They have about 20-30 super accurate stars/nebula/etc discs.