Take a sphere and paint both hemispheres of the night sky on it with reflective paint, then use it as a mirrorball. Educational and romantic. Add an orrery for planets.
-- nineteenthly, May 13 2005

What are the dimensions? What's a mirrorball? And what's the airspeed velocity of a laden swallow?

Ahh... just another friday the thirteenth...
-- daseva, May 13 2005


Dimensions: radius of fifteen to thirty centimetres
Mirrorball=disco ball
Airspeed of laden swallow (Hirundo rustica that is): Rarely above fifty kilometres per hour except on migratory flights, when they fly ten thousand kilometres in a month, but i don't know how much they rest during this period, so it could be slower or faster.
-- nineteenthly, May 13 2005


What if it's carrying half a coconut?

This (mirrorball now, not the swallow) needs to be lit from all directions for best effect. Have seen projectors which worked on similar principle but were lit from inside.
-- moomintroll, May 13 2005


Thanks! [19thly]

Though I think lighting a swallow from all directions would have quite an effect as well.
-- daseva, May 13 2005


Unfortunately there is no constellation called The Swallow.
This idea was inspired by a mirrorball in my living room which caught the sunlight this morning, and oddly reflected light onto all the walls and ceiling despite the fact that it was only sunlit from the window side. I have no idea how this happened. Therefore, i think you could get a surprisingly good effect with a single light source, though how this could possibly work is a mystery at the moment.
The swallow could be lit from inside by radon or something, couldn't it? What if it swallowed luminous bacteria?
-- nineteenthly, May 13 2005


Brilliant idea, but reflective paint instead of mirrors wouldn't do it.
-- doctorremulac3, Jan 18 2016



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