Glow in the Dark Stars

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Sometimes you’ve just got to bring the Universe home and set it up inside your house. One of my favorite teaching tools for my children are glow in the dark stars. These are luminescent plastic stars and planets that have a sticky adhesive so you can stick them to your ceiling and see constellations when the lights are out. Whether you decide to actually recreate the night sky accurately, or just stick up stars randomly, glow in the dark stars are good fun.

Probably the best source for glow in the dark stars is Amazon.com. They sell a variety of packages to fit any sized ceiling.

Here’s a set of 50 glowing mini-stars with sticky backs. I like the mini-stars better than the bigger ones because they look more like real stars. I wish they didn’t have points, though.

On the other end of the spectrum is this Star Explosion Glow in the Dark. It’s a huge box with more than 500 glow in the dark stars, galaxies, and planets. Some of the pieces are pretty big.

But if you’re going to put glow in the dark stars on your ceiling, do it right. This set, called Nightscapes, gives you glow in the dark paint to make the stars yourself. They give you accurate star charts and show you how to make different sized dots to match stars of different brightness. This is a way to really make the constellations on your ceiling.

We have written many articles about stars here on Universe Today. Here’s an article about the biggest star in the Universe.

If you’d like more information on stars, check out Hubblesite’s News Releases about Stars, and here’s the stars and galaxies homepage.

We have recorded several episodes of Astronomy Cast about stars. Here are two that you might find helpful: Episode 12: Where Do Baby Stars Come From, and Episode 13: Where Do Stars Go When they Die?