The Klutz Guide To The Galaxy (Giveaway)

I have always been intrigued by our solar system. When I was a little girl I wanted to be an Astronomer when I grew up. An Astronaut would have been cool too, but I thought that was too cliche’. Many kids I knew wanted to be an astronaut. I wanted to go beyond that and learn all there was to know about the planets, stars and the universe.

When I was around ten years old my father got me a telescope. Oh how I loved my telescope! My brother-in-law even purchased a lot of Astronomy books and guides for me for Christmas one year. Although my telescope is long gone (I hope to get a new one some day), I still have all universe related books that I had growing up.

One of my favorite places to go is the Planetarium. If you are ever in New York City you would make time to visit the Planetarium at the Rose Center, located in the American Museum of Natural History.

My son seems to have caught the Astronomy “bug” from me. He has an interest in planets and the stars too. He is full of questions about them. I’m glad that I am about to answer some of his questions based upon things I have read about over the years. Whatever I can’t answer we look up in one of our books.

We recently received a new book from Klutz called The Klutz Guide to the Galaxy. OH!!! This is an AWESOME book! I have A LOT of books related to space and our solar system, from children’s books to grown up books, and I must say, The Klutz Guide to the Galaxy is probablyly one of the most comprehensive, easy to understand and FUN space related books I have seen.

The book is written in such a way that anyone who reads it will know some basic things about the solar system in easy to understand way. This is not a high tech book filled with scientific mumbo jumbo, but rather a book written in “layman’s terms” that anyone can understand.

The book is divided into different sections with easy to access tabs along the side of the book. The different sections are:

- Sun Time

- Tour the Moon

- Explore the Planets

- Steer by the Stars

-What’s Where When?

I love that the book is filled with fun experiments children and families can do together. They really are FUN. It’s hard to believe that you are learning something at the same time.

This book comes with something extra special to make star gazing and moon watching even more fun. The Kutz book come complete with a telescope, sun dial, flashlight key chain (red light), star maps, a lunatic wheel and at steer by the stars quadrant.

I was pleasantly surprised by the telescope. Every thing you need to make it comes in the book. It’s made by folding heavy card stock pieces and inserting the lenses. It took me about 15 minutes to put it together. The step-by-step directions were really easy.

I honestly didn’t think that a cardboard telescope would be anything worth using, but this telescope is actually really good! I’m shocked! Especially because it’s made from cardboard with plastic lenses. You can even pull it open and close to focus better on the objects in the sky. My kids use it to look at things while on our balcony like birds and squirrels. I wish the book came with two so the kids wouldn’t fight over it.

Also included is a working sun dial. We got this to work if we put it out on the side walk. The sunlight we get on our balcony doesn’t seem to make the sun dial work properly. It might be the angle and the fact that we have an overhang blocking some of the direct sunlight. The kids found it interesting that this was how people used to tell time.

The star gazing maps are really cool. We’ve been having a lot of fun working with those.

The kit also came with a small key chain size flashlight. Instead of a white beam it has a red beam (the book tells you why star gazers use a red light). Since we have lights in our parking lot it doesn’t get dark enough to need a flashlight. Instead my kids have been using it as a laser light for the cats to chase around.

This book is awesome and my family has had a blast using it.

To learn more about this fun book please visit this link on the Klutz website, http://bit.ly/hjI91h. For more information about the galaxy, check out this page,http://bit.ly/gqdEO2. The book and extra accessories (telescope, flashlight and sun dial) can be purchased on the Klutz website too.  

Other awesome Klutz products can be found by visiting www.Klutz.com.

THREE lucky readers will each win a copy of the book, The Klutz Guide to the Galaxy, compliments of Klutz ($19.99 value). Thank you Klutz!

To enter please comment on what fascinates you the most about our solar system.

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This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents and will end on May 30, 2011 at 11:59 PM (EST). The winners will be chosen at random using  a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winners will be notified via e-mail and will have three days to reply with a name and mailing address or a new winner will be chosen.

Other great giveaways are found on the right side bar under “Win It”.

Kimberly

*I received a free sample in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinons expressed are my own. Klutz will be providing the prize.

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