Christmas gift guide
Must-have gifts for space fans
With the holiday season just around the corner, All About Space selects the space gifts sure to delight any fan of the universe
Planetarium Universe2go: My Personal Planetarium
Cost: £59.90 (approx $69.90)
From: universe2go.com
In combination with the accompanying smartphone app, this newly developed star viewer shows the stars with a wealth of information and fantastic images. With Universe2go, you can experience the stars as if in the planetarium. Even dimmer stars, which generally remain unseen as a result of large cities and their light pollution, are now visible thanks to the star viewer. Constellations, planets, deep-sky objects and even satellites are observable with explanations on Universe2go.
The audio guide features several hours of material, which provides further elucidation to the observed phenomena. The menu is accessed and navigated through head movements, enabling a change in the viewing mode without removing your smartphone from the star viewer. To begin or interrupt the audio guide, focus on the object or gently shake the viewer respectively.
Universe2go is the world’s first smartphonebased AR viewer, demonstrating what is already possible now in the virtual reality and augmented reality world.
Event An Evening with Chris Hadfield
Cost: From £22.50 From: www.uniquelives.com /chris-hadfield-uk
The 21st century’s most famous astronaut, Colonel Chris Hadfield, returns to the UK in February for a four-city tour. “An Evening with Chris Hadfield” is a unique 90-minute presentation by the Canadian pioneer reflecting on his 35-year history, complete with rarely seen videos from space. Since his retirement from active duty, Hadfield has appeared worldwide on stage and television. In August he returned to the BBC to host Astronauts: Do you Have What it Takes? The series took 12 applicants through a process of challenges devised by Hadfield to test their suitability to become an astronaut.
During his five month stay on the International Space Station, he became something of an extraplanetary media star. He not only shared extraordinary photos, he tweeted the Queen and William Shatner, talked to school children, strummed his guitar and provided demonstration videos about daily life. On his last day on the ISS, he posted a farewell music video online – his version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. It instantly went viral, garnering millions of views quickly. It has now been viewed almost 37-million times.
An evening with Chris Hadfield will open your eyes to dream the impossible. This is a highly educational and inspirational presentation that is suitable for all ages.
Model kit Space Racers: Make your own paper rockets
Cost: £22.50 (approx $29) From: Laurence King Publishing
Space Racers contains everything you need to press out and make your own paper rocket models, from the rocket that made the first manned space flight, Vostok K, to the future of space travel, the Skylon space plane. Use the easy to use, step-by-step instructions to build eight historically accurate rockets and two imaginary rockets, which are left blank for your own designs. A separate booklet introduces you to the exhilarating world of rocket science and space exploration, and includes fun and detailed fact files for each rocket. Space Racers is sure to delight any space enthusiast aged from eight to adult.
Planetarium Sega Toys Homestar Original
Cost: £99 (approx $130) From: www.segatoys. space
Imagine enjoying the sky full of stars while sitting on your sofa. This dream can become reality with the Homestar Original from Sega Toys. The high-definition planetarium with ultra-bright 3-watt LEDs and its rotating movement projects the night sky throughout the year. Two interchangeable discs contain the fixed stars in the Northern Hemisphere and will enable you to observe the night sky or the map of constellations, as well as an integrated 'shooting star' function. The handy timer lets you fall asleep while gazing at the stars, turning off the planetarium automatically.
You can also upgrade the planetarium with new discs – imagine seeing the sky from a different angle. This can be achieved with the additional discs for the Sega Toys Homestar Original. The colourful discs let you travel to four different places in the universe without leaving your home - look at the Earth or Moon during day or night or even approach the Andromeda Galaxy from the comfort of your sofa!
Book Moonshots: 50 Years of NASA Space Exploration Seen through Hasselblad Cameras
Cost: £60.00 (approx $75) From: Voyageur Press
Moonshots is the definitive photographic chronicle of NASA space exploration, featuring more than 200 remarkable photographs from that eventful era created almost exclusively on large-format Hasselblad cameras. Though a number of these images have been reproduced in books and magazines over the years, one attribute of this incredible collection has seldom been exploited: the sheer size and resolution of the photography. Aerospace author Piers Bizony scoured NASA’s archives of Hasselblad film frames to assemble the space fan’s ultimate must-have book – a gorgeous large-format hardcover presented in a heavy slipcase with die-cuts to represent the phases of the Moon.
This resulting volume extracts a stunning selection of photographs captured by astronauts using Hasselblad equipment, many of them seldom previously published, let alone in such a lavish package.