Students create ‘projector’ that displays moon phases

Yingjie Bei and Yifan Hu have built a device that shows the phases of the moon. It is possible to choose a date, after which the corresponding moon image is shown on a screen. The control is based on an Arduino board.

The two students from New York University have put the project on their website and with a video they show what their moon projector can do. The device, which looks a bit like a record player, has buttons for adjusting the date. When the desired date is set, the lamp revolves around the moon that is in the middle, to show the correct moon phase. By connecting to a computer, it is possible to show how the moon changes position over time, as can be seen in the video below.

To get the whole thing going, an Arduino development board is used. This controls the motors of the device, which then causes the lamp to move. The software is written in Processing. The two creators themselves have written an algorithm that identifies the correct moon phase based on the date.

The hobbyists still have a number of projects to their name. For example, Yifan Hu has helped with the development of an electric scooter.