The Night Sky in a Shoe Box

I know its been far too long since my last update, however we all need a break every once in a while.

According to the polls, a slight majority of readers wanted more posts on Astronomy, which honestly surprised me. So, I took a look at what I could do that would be fun, interesting, and relatively easy so readers at home could follow along.

I decided to use the concept of using LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) to represent stars, and put that idea to the test. You can take any star constellation you wish, but I choose the Big Dipper because of its fame, and it could be done quickly and efficiently. I chose these little green LEDs because they don't break or blow out as easily ans others, and they are extremely inexpensive. I bought them from Mouser Electronics (see them here) for $0.06 each, but that's partly because I buy by the hundred.

You will need to solder for this project, so please follow the safety instructions here. I burned a hole through my rubber glove doing this project, so please, for your sake, do not skip the safety part.

So, let's get started. You can print out any astronomy picture you want, but make sure you plan where you want to put the LEDs ahead of time. This makes constellations ideal, and many of the LED locations are already marked for you. Also, be sure that the LEDs are not too far away from each other, otherwise you will need to use additional wiring to connect the LEDs.

Glue your image onto the top of a shoebox, make sure you have plenty of room for the LEDs and wires. I tried to use the tip of my soldering gun to puncture holes in the box, however I ended up using my trusty dremel tool to drill the holes.



Place your LEDs inside the holes, facing outward. Be sure to test each LED before inserting them in, I ended up having to replace a few after I soldered, which can be a real pain.



Make sure each anode and cathode are aligned (positive and negative). You can do this easily by remembering to connect them from the short leds coming out of the LEDs' bottom to the next LED's long one. Short-to-long, otherwise it will not work at all. Before soldering, use a glue gun to make sure the LEDs will not fall out.

Solder the LEDs together one by one (remember short-to-long). Once again, please work with adequate protection against the fumes and the very hot soldering gun. As stated earlier, instructions can be found here.





I chose to use alligator clips to connect to batteries. Be sure to experiment with different power supplies based upon what LEDs you used and how many.

Now, you can package it all up into the original shoebox and flip it on.



Be sure to let me know what you want in future posts by voting on the poll!