J. Evans

A "Must Have" for the Astronomy Beginner, 12 Jan 2013

This is an excellent first book for Astonomers. Whilst at first glance, it lacks interest (there are no spectacular colour images or photos from the Hubble telescope), if you take the trouble to look in more detail, it is a fascinating tour of the night sky.

Everything is clearly laid out, starting with a section on the moon, followed by the planets, and finally stars. The main body of the book is organised by season so you know exactly what is in the sky when.

Each starmap is described with 3 drawings - one naked eye sky view, one finderscope view (upside down and back to front), and one telescope view (sometimes with higher power insets, back to front), exactly how… Read more

Seriously sophisticated Lego, 15 Dec 2012

Expensive, but excellent value for money. There is enough here to keep any teen or adult who is interested in robotics occupied for years. My12 year old hadn't quite mastered the programming, but purchasing one of the unofficial Lego Mindstorms guides soon fixed that. The programming format of using blocks is quite simple, but sometimes has unexpected consequences. Debugging takes patience. The instructions are a bit limited, and there are only a few models, but there is plenty of support va the internet community. The models are really only there to demonstrate the basic functions, and show what it can do. The idea is to create your own robots or machines.

A fabulous toy,… Read more

The most fun you can have for £5, 15 Dec 2012

More powerful and accurate than the other more sophisticated Nerf guns, for a fraction of the price. The wife brought one as a secret Santa present for someone in the computer department at work, only to find hey all went out and bought on, and now have regular battles in the department.

There is no shame in being a big kid. What are you waiting for? Get one.