Stargaze II - Visions of the Universe

Edition: DVD Price: $21.99 Genre:  Documentary  Movie  Music Video - New Age  Visual Arts

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Editorial review:

Stargaze II doesn't deviate much from the previous Stargaze DVD, and that's a good thing. Galaxies, nebulae, and other astronomical elements simply float across the screen in brilliant clarity, fueled by New Age music by Opus 27. The images are mostly from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with some unique mosaics from several sources. The bigger your screen, the better for "plasma art" that could serve as the background at a party or a valentine to any star freak. You can even view the program in high definition if you have the right media set-up. Sometimes the images float in front of a wallpaper of stars that causes a 3-D effect or looks kinda hokey, depending on your point of view. You can find out what you are looking at by activating subtitles or by clicking a menu button that goes to a page-by-page detail about the subject and how the image was rendered. With literally out-of-this-world colors and textures, the beauty of the heavens is glorious to behold. Produced the same year Congress debates the fate of the Hubble (2004), this program serves record of the extraordinary worlds that are seen only by this workhorse satellite. Lobbyists may have no better weapon to use than the Stargaze DVDs. --Doug Thomas

Customer reviews:

NOT on par with the first Stargaze AT ALL!!!

I bought this hoping for more of the same from the first Stargaze but it didn't take long be REAL disappointed with this product. Again, the video will not loop and requires navigation on the veiwers part, but what really takes this down the tubes is the graphic presentations themselves.

From the outset, there is an extremely cheesy "collage" of photos which I have to think is a LAME attempt at three dimensional vision - it's really BAD! Not natural at all.

As the program "progresses" we're treated to superimposed still images of comets, planets, asteroids and other space objects "moving" into and out of our field of vision (which is a dense starfield). This is done so horribly bad that the only justification for releasing a P.O.S. like this is that it was some rich persons junior high school kid's A/V project...which would only rated a C or a D for what was presented.

Stargaze II has VERY LITTLE HUBBLE material which may be the "reason" for the hokey visuals but as a person that just spent twenty bucks on this garbage, I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!

If you liked the first one, STOP THERE! DON'T BUY THIS TURD AT ANY PRICE!!!! You won't get what you paid for. I just wish someone out there would have given a decent description of this horrible 3D attempt and failure in their reviews cuz I would NEVER have bought this had I known!!

See for yourself why the Hubble Space Telescope is called the mirror of the universe!!!!!

+++++

As in the first StarGaze, this program presents astronomical images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). However, images taken from other sources (examples: CHANDRA X-ray telescope, Spitzer space telescope, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO) are also included. All images are accompanied by New Age music. (A different New Age band is used from that of the first StarGaze.)

Before I say anything else, the images presented in this program are magnificent, awe-inspiring, and jaw dropping. These images should be seen by every Earthling so everybody can experience the extraordinary beauty of the universe.

The main menu for this program is as follows:

1. Play
2. Chapters or scenes (there are 12 chapters)
3. What's that?
4. StarGaze II HD (read the on-screen instructions for this option)
5. Audio and Subtitle Selection
6. Credits (for all images and music presented)

The first item in this menu to go to is "5. Audio and Subtitle Selection". The only subtitle language selection available is English. Turning this on enables the name of the celestial object to be displayed on the bottom of the screen. (It's important to have this on. I'll explain *why later.) For audio background selection, you have two choices. Choose the one that works for your DVD player. (For those people who do not like New Age music, it is possible thus not to have any music by selecting the choice that does not work for your DVD player.)

This program has no narration. Instead when you come to an image, you press the menu button on your remote that brings you to an information screen about the image. (*This is why it's important to have the English subtitles on since they alert you to a new image.) After you've read the information screen, you get back to the main program by pressing the menu button again and the program resumes. All this is explained in the "3. What's that?" part of the main menu. (For those with poor eyesight, I suggest moving close to your screen as the printed information for each image is quite small.) So the idea is to do this "menu-information screen-menu" routine for every image in this program. Sound easy? It is. However, there's a **problem with this that I'll explain below.

The information screen for each image has three sections:

(i) Still image of the object in question
(ii) Five facts about the object: (a) its position (b) constellation its in (c) its distance from Earth (d) the instrument used to take its image and (e) a credit for the image. (I feel facts a and b were unnecessary.)
(iii) A detailed description of the image.

All of this takes time to read.

The fantastic images in the program can be divided into three parts:

(I) Covers chapters (1 to 5) and lasts just over 25 minutes. There are nearly 70 images for this part. Here there are visuals of deep space that include nebulae, distant galaxies, galactic clusters, and other exotic objects. These are static images but the camera keeps moving across them giving the illusion of movement.
(II) Covers chapter 6 and lasts nearly 5 minutes. Here you get composites of the solar system's planets (including Pluto and its moon) as well as a comet, meteorites, and the sun. A 3-D look is created which I found acceptable but some people may find this strange.
(III) Covers chapter (7 to 12) and lasts about 30 minutes. There are more than 85 images in this part. The same types of objects as in part one are imaged but with different instruments to reveal greater detail. Some new objects are also presented.

For those keeping track, there are over 170 images in this program. This brings up the **problem alluded to above. There are just too many information screens to access and read! In fact, I found it impossible (without getting bored stiff and having my eyesight going) to access them all in one sitting. Instead I viewed this program over twelve sittings (one sitting per chapter).

Finally, I think the way to get around the above problem was to have narration that abbreviated the information given on the information screens for each object. You could still have the detailed information screen for each image available as an option.

In conclusion, barring the one problem mentioned above, this is an incredible visual, audio, and educational delight, demonstrating just an infinitesimally small number of cosmic wonders that are in our vast universe!!!

**** 1/2

(2004; 1 hr; wide screen; 12 chapters)

+++++

Better Video

Better than the first video, but still lacks narration suitible to identify images properly.