This month’s project is an artificial star - a bright, pinpoint source of light, resembling a real star in the night sky - that can be used to test the alignment and quality of your telescopes and camera lenses. Real stars work perfectly for this sort of testing, but with an artificial star you can test your equipment whenever you like, including the daytime, saving the best nights for observing!
Our ‘star’ is produced by shining an LED torch through aluminium