After encouraging results with my first Arudino project, Deb and I teamed up with Arduino again for our entry in Cube Gallery’s Nocturne show, a group exhibition dedicated to the beauty of the night sky.
As the only electronic artists in the show, we built a triptych of animated light boxes representing the stars of Orion’s Belt.
Using an Arduino to control a TLC5940 LED driver chip with Alex Leone’s awesome library, I wrote the software for the project to “randomly” fade a set of 16 LEDs inside each fixture, creating an ever changing field of fast/slow, long/short, many/few twinkling stars.
Here’s the ubiqitous “Arduino + LEDs in a breadboard” shot — testing the driver chip:
After successful breadboarding, custom Arduino + driver chip boards were soldered together:
After a lot of sawing, sanding, and painting, the frames were stuffed with the LEDs and mirrors for the final products:
“Nocture” runs @ Cube Gallery from 20 May to 30 June 2009.
Here’s the official write-up for the pieces:
THE BELT OF ORION
The Latest Artists (Andrew + Deborah O’Malley), May 2009
17” x 17” x 5” (x3)
Wood, mirrors, LEDs, custom electronics
With gracious support from the Ontario Arts Council
Orion, often referred to as “The Hunter,” is a prominent constellation – one of the largest, most conspicuous, and most recognizable in the night sky. Its name refers to Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. Orion’s brilliant stars are found on the celestial equator and are visible throughout the world. THE BELT OF ORION, known by many names across ancient cultures, is comprised of three stars: Zeta Orionis, Epsilon Orionis and Delta Orionis.
Zeta Orionis is a triple star some 800 light years distant in the constellation Orion. Zeta Orionis is the left-most star. The primary star is a hot blue supergiant with an absolute magnitude of -5.25. It is the brightest class O star in the night sky with a visual magnitude of 1.70. It has two bluish 4th magnitude companions.
Epsilon Orionis is the middle star. A large blue star, it is the 30th brightest star in the sky. As a blue-white supergiant it is one of the most luminous stars known. Within the next million years, this star may turn into a red supergiant and explode as a supernova. It is surrounded by a molecular cloud, NGC 1990, which it brightens to make a reflection nebula. Its stellar winds may reach up to 2000 km/s, causing it to lose mass about 20 million times more rapidly than the Sun.
Delta Orionis, is a star some 900 light years distant in the constellation Orion. Delta Orionis is the right-most star at the western end of Orion’s belt. Delta Orionis has a magnitude 7 star about 52″ away from the main component and an even fainter star in between. The main component itself is also double, consisting of a class B giant and a smaller, but hotter class O. The stars orbit each other every 5.73 days. These two stars are both about 70,000 times as luminous as the Sun with a mass of some 20 solar masses.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Naturally, animated light sculptures are best documented with a video:
Seems the temptation to combine Arduino with LEDs was just too great 
THE BELT OF ORION
Orion, often referred to as “The Hunter,” is a prominent constellation – one of the largest, most conspicuous, and most recognizable in the night sky. Its name refers to Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. Orion’s brilliant stars are found on the celestial equator and are visible throughout the world. THE BELT OF ORION, known by many names across ancient cultures, is comprised of three stars: Zeta Orionis, Epsilon Orionis and Delta Orionis.
Zeta Orionis is a triple star some 800 light years distant in the constellation Orion. Zeta Orionis is the left-most star. The primary star is a hot blue supergiant with an absolute magnitude of -5.25. It is the brightest class O star in the night sky with a visual magnitude of 1.70. It has two bluish 4th magnitude companions.
Epsilon Orionis is the middle star. A large blue star, it is the 30th brightest star in the sky. As a blue-white supergiant it is one of the most luminous stars known. Within the next million years, this star may turn into a red supergiant and explode as a supernova. It is surrounded by a molecular cloud, NGC 1990, which it brightens to make a reflection nebula. Its stellar winds may reach up to 2000 km/s, causing it to lose mass about 20 million times more rapidly than the Sun.
Delta Orionis, is a star some 900 light years distant in the constellation Orion. Delta Orionis is the right-most star at the western end of Orion’s belt. Delta Orionis has a magnitude 7 star about 52″ away from the main component and an even fainter star in between. The main component itself is also double, consisting of a class B giant and a smaller, but hotter class O. The stars orbit each other every 5.73 days. These two stars are both about 70,000 times as luminous as the Sun with a mass of some 20 solar masses.
(Source: Wikipedia)
