Free Philips Planisphere

[Cjg]

Heads up!

The Sunday Telegraph are claiming that they are giving away a free Planisphere with every copy of the Sunday Telegraph if purchased from WHSmiths or a One Stop Shop. Details on their site. Am a little wary as the site says check the paper for details. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/10587528/free-star-chart.html

Worth a look tomorrow.

Chris

[bingevader]

Ooh nice. Made the mistake of clicking on the "Click here for list of participating stores" 

Shame you have to buy the Telegraph though! 

Cheers

[Ken31]

I spotted that and was about to alert it too.

The Philips Planisphere was something I wanted as a teenager but always found a bit too expensive - I can't help thinking it cost more than £10 even then (35-40 years ago). It's rather old-hat now I have planetarium software in an iPad, but I guess I'll brave the weather tomorrow to track one down for the cost of a Sunday paper.

[Ken31]

Participating stores:

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02801/Planisphere_Partic_2801819a.pdf

[L8-Nite]

Sounds like a great deal, I'm wondering if its the standard 11.5" or the mini 5" model they are offering ?

I've got the standard size Philip's model, which is great for seeing what's up on any given night to plan an observing session. With the Phillip's model, I find the white stars on a black background are too difficult for my eyes to see in the dark, but the " Chandler " version, with black stars on a white background is easier to use; you can check this one out on our sponsors site.

[Ken31]

I'm wondering if its the standard 11.5" or the mini 5" model they are offering ?

Ha! Do you really not have a clue? Now I realise why it's "worth £9.99" when I had its big brother in mind.

[cosmological]

When I clicked on "Click here for list of participating stores" nothing happened thanks to my ad blocker must have been a lucky escape.

 I don't think I can bring myself to buying the torygraph, I'd rather spend 9.99 on a planisphere from a bookshop safe in the knowledge that I've not bought a tory loving newspaper.

[L8-Nite]

Ha! Do you really not have a clue? Now I realise why it's "worth £9.99" when I had its big brother in mind.

When I bought our 11.5" Phillip's planisphere several years ago, it was only £7.99 at Barns & Noble . 

Not sure what they cost now ?

[Pig]

I just saw the front cover at the local newsagent, I saw the word "Token" and put it back on the shelf

[Cjg]

I just saw the front cover at the local newsagent, I saw the word "Token" and put it back on the shelf

The token can be swapped immediately at a WHS or One Stop Shop - got mine this morning - two thoughts;

• The Sunday Telegraph is not  a "nice" newspaper - there really is an agenda
• My Sky Safari App is more intuitive and a lot less hassle to use.

Suspect that the Planisphere will stay on my bookshelf gathering dust...

[Ken31]

Mission accomplished. I took a ride to Cwmbran where the car parks and shopping centre are mostly covered and you can get around out of the rain. I arrived at WHSmith shortly after 10 (opening time) and I don't think they had handed out one before me - so I still have my token if anybody would rather spend money on petrol to come and collect it than £2 on (what is perceived to be) a Tory-biased newspaper you could use to line your bin. Offer expires today, collect from most WHSmith or One Stop Shop while stocks last.

@Pig: most newspaper freebies are only collectable from specific outlets these days, the corner newsagent isn't supplied with them and you can (in theory) hand your token over at one of the participating outlets. Might as well buy from a participating outlet in the first place. It's when they advertise "token collect" that you need more than one day's token and might have to send off.

Yes, OK, the ride cost me £2.50 in petrol, but as it happens I found Shell was 2p a litre cheaper in Old Cwmbran than in Newport so that saved me a pound, the bread I use was 35p cheaper in Asda than in Tesco, and the cheese I buy was also on offer - and I had a bacon roll and mug of tea in the Asda cafe, so a day when I didn't expect to go out of the door turned into quite a pleasant morning.

It is the LP size planisphere, not the small one I suspected.

@Cjg: what did you expect? A planisphere traces its origins back to the astrolabe, and before the ready availability of computers was the only quick and easy way to check what is above the horizon at any particular date and time. Like I said in my earlier post, it's old hat compared with planetarium software on a tablet, but when I was a schoolboy astronomer in the '70s the Philips Planisphere was an object of desire that I somehow never got around to acquiring - it was a significant cost then (no doubt manufacturing techniques have made it much cheaper to produce), and I was the kind of hobbyist who could have a crack at making one (like I did multiple solar screens, solar disk grids, Mylar sun filter, etc). This give-away is of value to me as a treasure, and now I am wondering how much an original '70s one raises on eBay.

Today's give-away is a 2012 edition, made in China with a horizon guide set for 51.5°N (good enough for at least 5° latitude either way). It credits the star chart to Wil Tirion, so it must have been updated since the '70s although I can't imagine why. Planet tables are included for 2012-2020. I note in the explanatory notes "The figures in the tables refer to the scale of degrees round the outer edge of the planisphere." Around please.

Why the give-away? Speculation: either they have a large stock prior to introducing a new edition, or the rise of tablet and smart phone apps means they think the market has collapsed. The relevant newspaper item also pushes Philips' other astronomy publications, so they are trying to get something out of it.

[happy-kat]

I find using one of these faster for a quick look at what will be up there then faffing with the tablet.

[L8-Nite]

I find using one of these faster for a quick look at what will be up there then faffing with the tablet.

Yeah, me too.  

[Charky]

I personally use the skymap app on my phone, it's not the most accurate thing in the world when it comes to location, but pointing it upwards gives you a good enough idea what the brightest stars are and you can work it out from there

[Crebles]

I'm no lover of the Torygraph but it might get a few more people, even accidentally, looking upwards - and that can't be a bad thing!

[LaylaMC]

I got my copy but didn't realise you were meant to cash in the voucher today as well. Luckily i rang my local one shop and they said they hadn't handed many out so they were happy to save one for me so will picking it up tomorrow. I also usually use my iphone but at my local observatory open sessions they have a red light policy so not always ideal to get my iphone out so this will be ideal in it's place.

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[LaylaMC]

*one stop shop

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