Navir HT32388 Starglobe, Dark Blue, Multicoloured

Received it today and felt like putting down my initialimpressions.The globe is 10 cm in diameter and sits in a horizon ring(15 cm diameter). There is a time of night ring thatcan be inclined by means of a knurled latitude knob.The globe itself can rotate within that time ring.The globe shows- major, named stars and many minor ones- constellation names and pattern lines- the Milky Way- the Ecliptic- meridians of the equinoxes and solstices- a date scale around the celestial equatorAll this on a small globe, but the layout is very clear..The standard of manufacture is good: it's made of plastic butis not 'plasticky'.The globe is unconventional in the way the constellations areshown. On a normal celestial globe, you are viewing the starsfrom the 'outside', whereas you observe the stars from insidethe celestial sphere. The constellations have to be displayedas mirror images. With this globe, the constellations are laidout as you would view them, the idea being that it is an observationtool. You have to turn the globe to align the time and date in asimilar way to using a planisphere. The instructions explain thisclearly.There is a tiny magnetic compass on the horizon ring. This is for remindingyou where North is rather than for orienting the globe in a conventionalway. The compass works fine for me.You also get a little key-ring torch with a red LED for night-timeobservations, plus a small three-pronged stand for the globe.The globe is a bit expensive, but altogether it's a nice original idea,nicely executed.[One minor error I noticed: the constellation name Corona Borealis isprinted as Coroma Borealis.]

The little compass embedded in the ecliptic plane is totally useless and non-functional). But the rest of it seems to work well, and does the job I needed it to do.

È stato acquistato per fare un regalo ad una persona appassionata di astronomia, alle prime armi, ed è stato parecchio apprezzato. Ci vuole un po' di pratica per usarlo con destrezza, ma comunque fa il suo dovere. L'ho usato insieme a questa persona e siamo riusciti a trovare le varie costellazioni.