r/interstellar

Last week I bought my first watch in like 20 years for my 40th birthday. The plan is to give it to my daughter (currently 10) when she graduates college or some similar milestone and sets off on her own.

After the episode where Hannah showed her large obsidian sphere, it sparked an idea for me. I pretty much instantly got online and sourced a small 1.5" obsidian sphere, with the idea that I would make a base for it mimicking a black hole. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was making a mini black hole night light for my daughter. I still need to find a nice knob for the switch, and polish it up a bit (literally and figuratively), but I think it came together nicely considering it was just a random idea that came to mind while watching the podcast.

For those that are interested in more details:

-I designed and 3D printed the body in multiple parts. The transparent orange accretion disk, an underlying clear inset piece to the accretion disk (just to give a bit more detail to the disk), a top and bottom arch (I call this part the "light ring"), and a small dished base for the sphere to rest in. It took some trial and error to get the fit right.

-I didn't originally intend to light it, but after looking at it, I knew I had to. I happened to have a nOOd LED from Adafruit in my spare parts and it was pretty much the perfect length! It took some time to find the best way to wrap it around to give the right look, and I struggled a bit to adhere it (rtv silicone ended up being the best), but it really takes it from a small desk ornament to a functional (and more accurate imo) display.

-The LED just connects to a small PWM dimmer component I happen to have a bunch of, and the power is a 3V-1A (3W) DC wall supply - just snipped the barrel jack off the end, connected it to the dimmer, and voila - 3V DC from a nice clean, safe wall plug!

-The last part was a laser cut black acrylic box. I used one of the many online tools for generating SVG files for boxes (MakerCase, Boxes.py, etc). I went with a 2.5"x2.5"x2.5" cube but I used one of the variants that adds a little angled piece on the front, where I hope to put a small nameplate for it. I cut the box on my laser cutter, drilled a few holes, fit everything up and hot glued it like crazy!

If any of you attempt to replicate this yourself, message me! I'd be happy to help you out! :)

Lol

Either my watch is broken or Cooper is trying to send me coordinates from the 5th dimension.

Anyway, anyone know morse code? 😭 I wanna decode it

My BF took the 1in tall TARS and CASES I made him as a prom gift with him on his trip to Yellowstone