This Book Is a Planetarium: And Other Extraordinary Pop-Up Contraptions

Product Information

Welcome to The Planetarium! Home to an incredible collection of astronomical objects from small icy moons to huge swirling galaxies. How big is the Universe? How did it begin? What mysteries does it hold? This book is one to keep and read and LOVE! It's a beauty.' - Angels and Urchins Go on an amazing guided tour of the galaxy with this stunning big-format book, and explore the solar system, the Milky Way and the universe beyond.' - The Week Junior' Recommended ages 7+. Under-5s will not be admitted – Ted's Space Adventure is suitable for younger children. Taste, touch and smell, hearing and seeing, are not merely a means to sensation, enjoyable or otherwise, but they are also a means to knowledge – and are, indeed, your only actual means to knowledge.” Join us for The Sky Tonight, a live planetarium show presented by an astronomer from the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

This collection of cool popup fun makes for the perfect roommate gifts for girls and guys and falls under the following book categories:

A small number of ear defenders will be available to borrow for the duration of the show. You will be able to take a pair after you enter the planetarium. Defying every expectation of what a book can be, this pop-up extravaganza transforms into six fully functional tools. Never has humble paper had such radical ambitions. What can paper do? That’s an interesting concept when you think about it. With pop-ups, it’s possible to create constructions that not only fit in a book but also use their shapes to amplify sound or mechanisms that make it possible to reveal hidden secrets like stars and encrypted messages. It’s all in this book! Kelli Anderson managed to design five solid pop-up spreads that really function as a speaker or instrument. Paper Engineering

I made a ton of paper-gadget prototypes and only a few were published. Here is a full gallery of everything I came up with. Starting just 100 kilometres above our planet, space stretches further than we can imagine, and only now are we starting to unravel some of its many mysteries. Planetarium is a truly stunning book that makes science exciting for all ages, blending art and fascinating descriptions to help communicate the wonder of the universe. Its mix of beautiful illustrations and inspiring science makes is a worth winner.' - Professor Sheila Rowan FRS - Chair of the 2019 adult judging panel for RS Book Prize

Mary Oliver provides these instructions for how to live a life, which resonated with me: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” At my desk, with a giant pile of “doesn’t-works,” I would eventually stumble upon something that kinda did. Often, I felt silently blown away by just-how-little it took to build something capable of performing some minor feat. I don’t know if other people will have this same reaction, but this is the best way I’ve found to share it. It’s a pretty fun book.

This review originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of "Technical Communication", https://www.stc.org/techcomm/2018/05/.... Artist Kelli Anderson contributes enlightening text alongside each pop-up, explaining the scientific principles at play in her constructions and creating an interactive experience that's as educational as it is extraordinary. Inspiring awe that lasts long after the initial pop, This Book Is a Planetarium leaves readers with a renewed appreciation for the way things work—and for the enduring magic of books. For someone who is accustomed to having their fingerprints all over every object they make, mass-production was extremely challenging. It took about 4 months to design and paper-engineer the book and then the publisher and I spent 2.5 years problem-solving with the printer. But we got it done! Both: Totally worth it and I’ll probably never do it again. Then, you end up with a disgustingly soft/crappy handbuilt pop-up. It doesn’t close… or even open, really BUT THERE’S A GLIMMER OF HOPE. Like an addict, you keep going.Defying every expectation of what a book can be, this pop-up extravaganza transforms into six fully functional tools. Artist Kelli Anderson contributes enlightening text alongside each pop-up, explaining the scientific principles at play in her constructions and creating an interactive experience that's as educational as it is extraordinary. Inspiring awe that lasts long after the initial pop, This Book Is a Planetarium leaves readers of all ages with a renewed appreciation for the way things work-and for the enduring magic of books. These shows are presented live by a Royal Observatory astronomer with several adaptations from our normal planetarium sessions, including: There are many books about space for children, and though it’s a subject with enduring allure, it can be difficult to find a book with the right level of text and information for particular ages, presented clearly and with inspiring illustration. At some point in time, you feel sufficiently confident to scan your crappy-paper-form and make “dielines” which can be cut on a plotter. Refine, cut, glue, repeat. In this review we are going to take a closer look at a brand new pop-up book titled: This Book is a Planetarium. Yes, this pop-up book is a planetarium but it’s also so much more! Paper Engineer Kelli Anderson, who also created the pop-up This Book is a Camera in 2015, now takes the concept of pop-ups with real functionality to a whole new level. The result is a surprising and beautiful book with stylish pop-ups that all have different functions like a musical instrument with strings, a spiralgraph, a decoder ring, a perpetual calendar and a speaker that amplifies the sound of your smartphone. And last but not least, a beautiful pop-up planetarium that projects stars and constellations to the ceiling! “What can paper do?”