Hi, Kathy Ceceri here! I’ll be traveling this week to Rochester, NY, which is part of the large swath of the United States that gets to experience a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. The city is getting geared up for the big event, so as part of my display at Maker Faire Rochester, I created a Solar Eclipse Slider display using Chibitronics White Fade LED stickers and regular white LED stickers.
The display shows how the sun’s corona and stars around it will become visible when the moon slips in front of the face of the sun.
To get the effect I was going for, I used a sliding switch and several layers of cardstock, so you only see the glowing stars and sun’s corona when the moon is directly lined up with the sun. The moon slides back and forth and closes the circuit when it is in the right place.
The templates below include the moon slider and all the layers (except for the sheet of vellum). Some layers can be printed in color, but you can also color in the sun, the moon, and the corona yourself using your favorite markers.
To see how to put everything together, watch the video. And if you’re lucky enough to be on or near the path of totality, get ready to see another fantastic sky show in April 2024!
Supplies
- printable templates
- Chibitronics white LED stickers
- Chibitronics Animating White Fade LED Stickers (heart shaped)
- Chibitronics Conductive Fabric Tape
- Bearly Art Cubies Starter Pack foam tape (⅛” thick squares and strips)
- 3V disk battery (I used CR 2016)