A ceiling instead of a sky, and two very different kinds
The shelf labelled star projector holds two products that have almost nothing in common, and telling them apart before buying saves most of the disappointment. The first is a home planetarium: a lamp behind a pierced disc that casts a recognisable star field, with the real constellations in their real positions, sometimes with a motor turning them at the rate of the sky. It is a teaching object and a genuinely useful one — a child who has found Orion on a ceiling finds it outdoors faster. The second is an ambient light projector, usually a laser that scatters points and a nebula-like cloud across the room. It is a decorative device, it makes no claim to represent anything, and comparing the two on astronomical accuracy is comparing a globe to a lava lamp. Once the kind is settled, the figures follow. For a planetarium, read the number of stars on the disc and whether additional discs are available, since the disc is the instrument. For either, read the brightness control, because a projector with no dimmer is unusable in a bedroom, and read the timer, since these devices are most often left running at bedtime. Then the unglamorous ones: the room size the maker quotes, how much fan noise the unit makes, and whether the focus can be set for a sloped ceiling. We compare projection method, star field accuracy, light source, brightness and colour control, timer, noise and quoted room size.
Room projector · timer to 4 hours · remote control
A room star and aurora projector with adjustable brightness and speed, a remote control and an auto-off timer settable from half an hour to four hours.
Best for: A child’s bedroom, or a room where the effect matters more than the accuracy
≈ €19
Room projector · 13 discs · 3 m optimal distance · 12–70 m² coverage
A disc-based galaxy projector supplied with thirteen projection discs, covering 12 to 70 square metres at up to five metres, with a focus knob and a 360-degree rotating head.
Best for: A bedroom or a room where a changeable, focusable image is wanted
≈ €25
Room projector · 15 colours · 15 sounds · Bluetooth · 3 modes
A galaxy projector and bedside lamp with fifteen colours, fifteen built-in sleep sounds, Bluetooth audio streaming, three projection modes and a radio remote.
Best for: A bedroom where the sound and the light matter equally
≈ €34
Any figure written into the body of this page was true on the day it was written. The amount shown next to each instrument is requested from the retailer as the page loads, and it is that amount, not the text, that stands.
