Christmas Shopping

Posted by Kelly Whitt Nov 30, 2006

I spent the entire day today at the mall doing my Christmas shopping. The stores and aisles have an abundant amount of goods for the space enthusiast. And if you are looking for ideas for kids or adults, read my other two blogs.

The first store I came to was the Discovery Channel Store. They have a whole space section yet I did not find very much of use. They had average telescopes to purchase - certainly not as good as one from a big-name manufacturer or one for a bigger price tag, but they were decent enough. At least I can say, I've seen worse. The Discovery Ultimate Star Planetarium was for sale and it was being pushed hard - in the window and then inside with a video showing how it is used. My son just got this for his birthday last week and while it seemed nice, both bulbs in the hemispheres burned out after 10 minutes of use, so we are waiting on free replacements. We are only hoping it does not happen again, especially for the hefty $100 price tag - we expected a little more. (Update - the new bulbs are not working either. If you wiggle one it will come on for a fraction of a second and then go out again, just enough time for the "space-age" bulb to burn your finger. I'm going to return it and see if ours has a short or if the product is just junk. December 16 - I took the product back to the store and exchanged it for a new one. I am happy to report that so far it is working! The Northern Hemisphere stayed lit for an hour last night as it lulled my son to sleep. I am hopeful that it continues working properly!) Then there are the less expensive planetarium shows (Discovery Star Theater Home Planetarium) - not terrible, although I had one of those and the bulb is now burned out. That one we've had for about two years, although it did not get regular use during that time. Also, plan to use it on a wall not the ceiling - the ceiling is too far away and the sky scene will be blurry. And the slide show projector - fun the first 10 times, after that you've seen it all. The books and videos - your call. When you already have most of that information committed to memory (and I'm talking about my 6-year-old son here) then they are not so useful. There was a kit for everything you need to get started observing, which consisted of a sky map and how-to booklet. This is only good if the person has no materials or background already.

Just about everyone is selling the planet mobiles. From Restoration Hardware to Toys R Us, I saw it everywhere. It might be fun to hang the planets separately on the tree now and use it as a mobile later. My son got one for his birthday last week and I sewed the planets in order to the bottom of his curtain valance. The year before he had a set and I sewed them on a large piece of black felt and cut a hole out for his head so he could be the solar system for Halloween. The planet mobiles can serve many purposes, depending on how creative you are. Restoration Hardware also has a travel telescope, the ever-popular Moon in My Room, a $90 space navigator and a "stellarscope". If I had to pick one of these I would get the Moon, because it's a fun idea and a good night light for kids. As for the last two, I'm thinking you can save a lot of money and get a much more thorough guide to the sky through a book. Check your favorite book store for some of the titles I recommended.

The calendar kiosk brought me in to purchase a space-related calendar. If you are just looking for one with pretty pictures, than anything will do. But if you want info on what's going on in the sky, read carefully. The one that I prefer, Universe of the Hubble Space Telescope, gives you no peek at the inside and little hint at the bounty of information found inside. Other good choices would be calendars put out by the top magazines in this category, Astronomy and Sky and Telescope. Indeed, a subscription to either of the magazines would give you all the timely information and beautiful photographs you could possibly hope for.

But the place I did the best shopping today was after I got home. The things I couldn't find in the stores I ordered off the Internet. Yeah, I'll have to pay shipping. But it's worth it to get something I actually wanted to buy and something that will get use. The Mars 2020 board game is on its way! It better be good....