After plunking down $99 (on sale) for a Meade ETX-60 telescope, and pointing it toward the Seattle area night skies, where I saw a) clouds and b) the product of clouds coming down in sheets, I fired up The Celestial Sphere to discover what I, as a geographically-challenged, sub-amateur astronomer was missing. Produced by Robert Dick, this "narrated tour of the night sky" opens with a brief, somewhat confusing (for general viewers), low-budget-graphics-enhanced introduction to stargazing (explaining the positions of the stars in relation to the rotation of the Earth), before embarking on a single-point (in southern Canada), time-lapse filmed record of the night sky featuring on-screen and voice-over identification of major constellations, asterisms, nebulae, clusters, and galaxies, followed by a brief segment on comets, meteors and the Aurora Borealis, concluding with about six minutes of rather pointless non-narrated, non-labeled sky footage. Having attended a stargazing party, I know firsthand that otherwise sensible people can spend upwards of seven hours in one night peering through refractors and reflectors at their beloved fuzzy white specks, so--to quote King Lear--let us "reason not the need," but simply accept the fact that demand for this kind of material definitely exists. The real question, however, is whether the video medium is the best way to present it, and I'm not convinced it is (video is generally poor at serving ready reference functions--which star maps, even moving ones, essentially fall under). A 70-page "educator's supplement" containing the script and extra material is available for an additional $20, as well as color and b&w star maps for $12 and $8, respectively. While a bit more advanced than the kid-oriented Astronomy 101 (VL-5/95), this is not nearly as compelling; still, consider The Celestial Sphere a strong, optional purchase given the general dearth of similarly-themed titles. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)
The Celestial Sphere
(2000) 50 min. $25 ($50 w/PPR). Starlight Theatre. Color cover. ISBN: 0-9685970-2-5. Volume 17, Issue 1
The Celestial Sphere
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