DIY Constellation LAMP

“The darkest nights produce the brightest stars.” Why not try to make a personal indoor gazing night for our little born stars to dream big, relax, enjoy and have a calm sleep every night. This activity is to make a DIY Constellation Lamp for kid’s bedtime with simple and easily available supplies.

Introduction:

Stars at night are a beautiful and pleasing sight to watch. It gives a vibe of positivity, calmness and increases our focus as well as concentration levels to a great extent. Making a personalized one will bring peace and placidity for kids along with an exercise to make one for themselves. They will also learn about constellations and increase their capability to analyze things along with finding the hidden aspects.

Requirements:

• An empty glass jar

• Disposal aluminum foil pan

• Light

• Silver Color Sharpie

• Pin

• Scissors

Steps:

1. Cut a rectangle strip of the disposal aluminum foil which should be long enough to cover the jar from top to bottom and wide enough to cover the entire jar from inside

2. Using a silver color sharpie, draw the constellations on the rectangle aluminum strip

3. Now using an awl make holes for the dots of the constellations

4. The remaining part can be filled with smaller dots which would be the surrounding stars

5. Roll the aluminum sheet until it fits snug inside the jar

6. Now, put the encircled aluminum sheet inside the jar

7. Switch the light on and place it inside the jar and close the jar with it’s lid

8. Take your jar into a dark room and enjoy your very own personalized star gazing in your room!

Learning Opportunity:

• Stars are huge and glowing balls of gases

• The star which is the closest to our Earth is the Sun

• Stars vary in size, temperature, color and brightness

• The bluer stars are usually hotter, while the redder stars are cooler

• A constellation is a group or rather a cluster of stars that create a shape

• Constellation comes from a Latin word “constellatio” which vaguely is translated as ‘set of stars’

• Till now, there are in total 88 constellations across the sky

Time Required: 30 minutes

Cost: < $ 5

#elementary #astronomy #constellations #steamEducation