Build a Constellation!
You will build a 3-D representation of a constellation that shows (among other things) how far apart the stars
are in that constellation and how they look from Earth.
Materials:
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Marshmallows (various sizes)
Wooden Shish-kebob skewers
Foam base
Wire coat hanger
Paper
Markers/ writing utensils
Tape
Key ring (or other small ring) TP roll
Methods:
1. Research a constellation to identify all of the key stars that comprise it. Find the distance from Earth for
each of these stars.
2. Use these star distances to determine how to space the shish-kebob skewers and marshmallows. There is
a worksheet on the back of this document to help with this calculation. Complete this worksheet now.
3. On the foam base, draw lines that correspond to the ‘distance (cm)’ calculated by the worksheet for your
stars. Your stars will be located somewhere along these lines. Label each of the lines with the name of the
star that will be located at that distance.
4. Cut a shish-kebab skewer in half. On the “Earth line” mentioned on the star distance worksheet insert the
cut-in-half skewer at the point that is the exact center of the line. Attach the key ring to the top of this
skewer. This key ring represents the end of a telescope for any Earth-bound observer.
5. Bend the wire coat hanger into the shape of the dark black lines in the image to the right. This
will be the support for the background of your model. Really you could use any sort of
support here, as you will be holding up a sheet of paper. You may need to improvise if
wire hangers are not available.
6. Find an image of your constellation that includes all of the key stars and print it out as
large as possible, so long as it still looks good. Attach this paper to the wire backing from step 5 so that it
can be easily seen when looking though the key ring. This image will serve as the guide for where to place
your stars within the vertical plane above the lines you have made on the foam board.
7. Carefully place the stars in their locations. (marshmallows on skewers) That means that you need to align
them along their distance (cm) line and align them so that when viewed through the key ring they align
with the location on the constellation image of step 6. This will likely be a slow process. Take great care to
make sure that the right star goes into the right place within the 3-D space.
8. For added excellence, color the marshmallows with markers to match the type of star (red giant, white
dwarf, etc) or use different size marshmallows to represent differently sized stars.
Side view
Star Distance Worksheet
This worksheet is intended to help you convert astronomical distances to a scale that can fit within a
reasonable human-scale space. This document is intended to function similarly to a worksheet for taxes.
Fill in the boxes below with information that relates to your stars and where you need to represent them.
Astronomical distance of stars from Earth. (Make sure that all distances are in the same unit.)
Star 1 name
Star 2 name
Star 3 name
Star 4 name
Star 5 name
Star 6 name
Star 7 name
Star 8 name
Star 9 name
Star 10 name
Distance
Distance
Distance
Distance
Distance
Distance
Distance
Distance
Distance
Distance
Determine the largest of the distances written above. Divide all of the distances by this value. For each star you should
get a number that ranges between the values of zero and one. (This is essentially a percentage of that longest distance.)
Write the number (ratio) that results from the division of star distances in the boxes below.
Ratio 1
Ratio 2
Ratio 3
Ratio 4
Ratio 5
Ratio 6
Ratio 7
Ratio 8
Ratio 10
Most distant star
Earth line
Now we need to prepare your foam base. Orient the foam base in front of you so that the
longest sides are horizontal (sideways) in front of you by your observation. Now, on the left
side (one of the short sides of the foam board) make a vertical line that is no more than 1.0
cm from the left edge of the foam base. Mark this line with a marker and label it with small
text “Earth line.” Repeat this process for the right side of the foam base, and label that line
in small writing with the phrase “most distant star.” Measure the distance between your
“Earth line” and “most distant star” line and record that distance here: ___________cm
Ratio 9
Distance of stars in model. Multiply the ratio for each star (above) by the distance from your earth line to most distant
star line. These distances will be lines that designate how far away you will place the stars in your model.
Star 1 name
Star 2 name
Star 3 name
Star 4 name
Star 5 name
Star 6 name
Star 7 name
Star 8 name
Star 9 name
Star 10 name
Distance (cm)
Distance (cm)
Distance (cm)
Distance (cm)
Distance (cm)
Distance (cm)
Distance (cm)
Distance (cm)
Distance (cm)
Distance (cm)