Homestar Portable

Description

Planetarium Creator Ohira Takayuki Kanshuu Homestar Portable is a PlayStation Portable adaption of Sega Toys' popular Homestar series of consumer planetariums. The Homestar systems are portable planetarium projectors made by SEGA, intended for domestic use, and retail for around 20-25'000yen. The main restriction with gadgets like that will always be how brightly they can project over an average size room. Homestar Portable for the PlayStation Portable doesn't have this problem. It's not a game, but an astronomy tool for the PSP generation. The view of the heavens depends on the position of the observer on the Earth. This can be set manually, or automatically by the PSP GPS unit (sold separately at almost three times the price of the software). Up/down and left/right on the D-pad control the altitude and azimuth respectively, allowing the player to change the section of sky they are viewing. The shoulder buttons zoom in and out of the star field, and the analog nub can be used to get more information about particular objects. There are numerous options, including changing the threshold for the stars that are visible, adjusting the rate at which time passes and the position of the viewer on the Earth. Some novelties have been thrown in as well, like the night sky on Easter Island the day the Moai statues were discovered, what the sky was like during the last ice age, etc. Novel but not particularly useful - the Easter Island one is basically the sky with some Moai statues on the land.