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.
For extra entries you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each that you have done. Extra entries are optional.
– Subscribe to She Scribes and/or Connect with Google Friend Connect. Both options are found on the right side bar.
– “Like” Klutz on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/KlutzBooks.
– “Like” She Scribes on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/SheScribes.
– Follow Klutz on Twitter, www.Twitter.com/Klutz.
– Follow She Scribes on Twitter (www.Twitter.com/She_Scribes) and tweet about this review/giveaway. Be sure to inlude @She_Scribes in the tweet so I may see it too. This is limited to three tweets per day.
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– Share this review/giveaway with others (Facebook, Digg, Technorati…). Be sure to tell me what you did and provide a name and/or URL so I can verify.
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.
Radtke Customs says
What fascinates me is how much we still don’t know about our solar system, much less the universe. I think this is a fantastic giveaway because my tiniest is in love with the moon. She’s 3 and every time she sees the moon, she smiles and has a conversation with it. We are planning on studying the moon this summer, so it would be a perfect addition.
Radtke Customs says
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I tweeted about your awesome giveaway.
Thanks for the opportunity.
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Jingle says
The sheer vastness of it is what fascinates me the most! I love just imagining all that could be up there!
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tiffany lane says
How many stars there are actually.
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Christine Jensen says
I am most fascinated by the vastness of our solar system. It his really hard to even visualize how large it really is.
Christine Jensen says
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Lori A. says
What fascinates me is that we can see stars that have been gone for a long time!
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Denise B. says
I amazed at how God created it all.
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Steph says
Everything fascinates me about the solar system. The kids and I love looking at pics of the planets and learning about the differences in each one.
Steph says
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I follow and tweeted
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Jennifer says
It’s hard to conceive that the universe never ends…and somehow is expanding…as is our solar system.
Kristie says
I’m fascinated by how vast and complex it is! 🙂
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Lori A. says
tweet #2
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Diane R. says
While there is a lot to be fascinated by, I am intrigued by the possibility of life on Europa which is one of the moons of Jupiter.
Deborah Wellenstein says
I am in awe that as huge as our solar system is, it is but a speck in relation to the universe. Thanks for the giveaway!
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I follow you via GFC as dwellenstein.
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Steph says
Daily Tweet
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Kimberly says
I think it is interesting to think of all there is out there that we don’t know about
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Lisa says
I think what fascinates me the most about our solar system is that
there is so much that we don’t know about it.
Lisa says
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Please delete my previous post. Part of my subscribing email address was not posted. It should be email subscriber at: altern147 [at] yahoo [dot] com
Steph says
Daily Tweet #2
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Debra Hall says
i think the way the planets are there could be life on another planet
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Steph says
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domestic diva says
I’m amazed by its immense size.
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Beth @ TheAngelForever says
The constellations have always fascinated me. Thanks for the fun 🙂
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Christine says
What facinates me most is how HUGE space is … it is impossible to even imagine it! Thanks for the chance!
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LTHH0t mwlguqvaflzm, [url=http://uwfvqrciddqc.com/]uwfvqrciddqc[/url], [link=http://vvuasesbyovh.com/]vvuasesbyovh[/link], http://jtwcftmjisog.com/
Steph says
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Teressa M says
fascinates me that there is so much out there that we don’t know about..
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daily tweet 5/23
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Christine says
Tweeted at http://twitter.com/justicecw/status/72707108881174528
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daily tweet 5/23
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Teressa M says
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Christine says
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daily tweet 5/24
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daily tweet #2 5/24
https://twitter.com/ljatwood/status/73183504409694208
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Susan C says
It fascinates me that stars are so ancient.
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I follow you on GFC as sweetsue.
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phxbne says
how people figured out space travel
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Tabathia B says
I love trying to identify the constellations
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Jessie S says
It fascinates me that there’s still so much more we don’t know!
Lori A. says
daily tweet 5/27
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Jaime P says
what fascinates me the most is the unknown out there
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Lori A. says
daily tweet #2 5/27
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Daniel M says
always liked saturn for the rings
Lori A. says
daily tweet 5/28
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daily tweet #2 5/28
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tomato says
The moon has always been fascinating to me.
Lori A. says
daily tweet 5/29
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April Bever says
It is amazing that they more we learn about it the more questions we have regarding it.
Lori A. says
daily tweet #2 5/29
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Tabathia B says
tweet
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Darcy B says
What fascinates me most is that we are constantly learning –discovering new info-what we thought were planets aren’t really planets what we thought was unique (our galaxy) is one of millions etc
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Tara says
It fascinates me how everything just floats in space and how planets were made
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Erin Cook says
what fascinates me are the constallations in the sky
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Diane Baum says
I’m fasicinated by the stars and that the planets hold so much information
mom2girls says
I am facinated by the unknown of it all, I love that it is so huge, and there is still so much that is undiscovered, there is not allot that we do not know about our earth anymore – so that is pretty amazing to me.
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Lindley A says
My son wants to know what is so special about Venus that we can’t explore it- good question!
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April Grimm says
The moon is what fascinates me most. I love the full moons!
Tara says
tweet 2
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Vicki D. says
It’s the unknown!
Tara says
tweet 2
https://twitter.com/#!/deallieb/status/75299415933464576
Debbie Kennedy says
I am fascinated that we can see things in our solar system that are so many miles away, yet we have difficulty seeing things on earth that are much closer.
Gianna says
It’s so large compared to our little planet.
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