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'Urban Stargazing' gives city folks back their stars (images)

Designer Oscar Lhermitte uses LEDs, fiber optics, nylon line and giant slingshots to beat back light pollution and reconnect people with the aeons-old mysteries of the night sky.

Edward Moyer
Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.
Edward Moyer
'Urban Stargazing'
1 of 8 Oscar Lhermitte

'Urban Stargazing'

The constellation you see in the upper right of the photo isn't real. That is, it's not made of stars. But though it's only fiber optics, an LED and a structure of nylon line, it's meant to reconnect people with the very real, and ancient, bond that humans have traditionally had with the glories and mysteries of the night sky.

The "Urban Stargazing" project was created by London-based product designer Oscar Lhermitte in response to his frustration over the light pollution in that great metropolis. Lhermitte wanted to give the city back its stars. In the process, he hoped to generate awareness and debate about light pollution and its effects.

Triangulated structure
2 of 8 Oscar Lhermitte

Triangulated structure

Here you can plainly see the structure of one of Lhermitte's constellations. After trying various approaches -- lighted balloons tied to rooftops, kites, parachutes, lasers -- he settled on triangulated structures "made of clear 0.6mm nylon line, 0.2mm polyethylene braid, 0.75mm fiber optic and a solar powered LED," according to Lhermitte's Web site. "During the day, the battery is recharged by the solar panel, and the circuit switches on the LED when it is dark enough to observe stars."

Slinging stars
3 of 8 Oscar Lhermitte

Slinging stars

"In order to have the constellation in the air, the team uses a telescopic catapult to fix the structure on top of trees," Lhermitte's site continues.

We love the jumpsuits. And the heroic pose (after all, some might say Lhermitte's effort is heroic).

Star chart
4 of 8 Oscar Lhermitte

Star chart

A diagram of a typical structure.

Lhermitte and his team installed 12 constellations in London last summer, some of them re-creations of actual starry patterns, others invented. None of them remain aloft, but Lhermitte told Crave in an e-mail that he'll be doing a "one-off" reinstallation of one of the pieces tonight. He's also in negotiations with several municipalities about installing new setups that would allow the constellations to be rigged between buildings.

A familiar ladle
5 of 8 Oscar Lhermitte

A familiar ladle

Here's one of the re-creations: the Big Dipper.

Map to the stars' homes
6 of 8 Oscar Lhermitte

Map to the stars' homes

During the initial installation, Lhermitte made a map available, listing the longitudes and latitudes of each constellation (the image above is a detail). People could enter the coordinates into a Web mapping application and go on a stargazing walk.

You can see some of Lhermitte's made-up constellations in this image -- "The V2," for example. He says the pieces referenced old and contemporary myths about London.

Starhenge
7 of 8 Oscar Lhermitte

Starhenge

Here's "The Ring."

Equine shine
8 of 8 Oscar Lhermitte

Equine shine

And here's "The Horse."

"Urban Stargazing" isn't Lhermitte's only project. You can check out other work by this graduate of the Royal College of Art at oscarlhermitte.com.

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