want to create a "starfield" with electric lights

[I R Baboon]

subject says it all. planning stages of redoing my 3yo sons bedroom. one of the ideas is to put some kind of low voltage light in ceiling drywall to make a starfield look. any ideas?

[MUADIB®]

Sure ,.....Why not. Try stapling christmas lights to the ceiling and then hang dark cloth below it. You could sew some yardage of fabric to any square shape and staple it to the ceiling also. Cheap, and effective.

Remove "YOURPANTIES" to reply

MUADIB®

one small step for man,..... One giant leap for attorneys.

[ADC]

[JerryMouse]

I'd go for a fiber optic PROJECTION system - in other words a LAMP with fiber optic tentacles pointing toward the ceiling.

[meirman]

In alt.home.repair on Mon, 21 Feb 2005 02:32:14 GMT "I R Baboon" posted:

Buy the glow-in-the-dark ones that just stick on. They probably get dimmer with time, and by then your kid should be asleep anyhow. Then they will glow again when you turn off the lights each night.

Meirman

-- If emailing, please let me know whether or not you are posting the same letter. Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

[Tim Zimmerman]

Or

1) Paint the ceiling black. 2) Carefully, glue glitters on the ceiling facing the child's bed. 3) With a dim super bright LED, shine it towards the glitters. 4) Might also work with black light.

[Tim Zimmerman]

1) Go outside, take a picture of the stars on a slide film. 2) Develop it. 2) Run back inside and project it to the ceiling.

[Joseph Meehan]

My son at about 14 years old decided to paint his bedroom. He chose black, then used white paint splattered on it. Frankly I thought he was crazy, but I let him do it. It was a learning experience. I learned to always pay attention to your children. He did a very professional job. I was even able to find a bed spread to match.

I do suggest you skip the idea of stapling Christmas lamps, that is not safe, but your might take a look at some of the commercial special lighting designed for year around use available at a real lighting store.

You could also try the glow in the dark stick on stars. They are not expensive, easy to put up and can be removed with little or no damage. Check out the larger toy stores. I have used them for markers in my darkroom.

[Martin]

Do it the easy way: Look for a Toy Planetarium. We had one set up on a chest. It projected images on the ceiling showing stars and constellations in motion. Put me to sleep faster than the kids. Google shows a bunch of them for as little as $25.

[I R Baboon]

thanks everyone for responding. i think i need to be a bit more clearer. ive used the cheap stick on glow n dark moons n stars. looks ok but i want lights to remain lit throughout the night and to be switch controlled. some mentioned fiber optic but also said it was quite costly. L.E.D's maybe? the ceiling will be vaulted to the roofline with 2x10 rafters. has to be low voltage/heat. smaller room, maybe 10x10ish

[Tim Zimmerman]

I'd never seen one of these work but I assume the fiber optics tips aren't able to focus. So what you get is a blur circle on the ceiling the size a quarter. Instead, this can look like Pluto, Venus, etc.

[Tim Zimmerman]

Ebay was pitching 50 Super bright LED for ($20US.) But you're looking for the flax seed size intense LED found on cell phones, Christmas cards etc. Someone at Sci.electronics.basics might know how to get those.

You might need LED drivers to drive 4-10 LEDS at a time ($3US.) or use a variable current IC.

[ADC]

[Tim Zimmerman]

For example, take a 10 x 10 room with an over all practical star ratio of 4:1. You you'll need 2442 feet of .75mm fiber ($ 162.99) and 814 feet of the 1.0mm fiber ($ 219.99.) Here's some fiber optics fibers prices for your projects.

The filaments look like fishing lines but they are actually Polymethyl methacrylate Fluorinated polymer. If you're not planning on building your own LED illuminators then you'll need an illuminator. Here are illuminators.