Space Viewing Box

The 'space viewing box' is a box full with planets, stars and other spacey things to look at through the viewing hole. It's a craft made using bits and bobs or any spare scraps you can find. You can add as many extra details you want to make it more interesting, such as: constellations, other planets (maybe some dwarf ones), an astronaut, or a rocket ship.

Part 1. - Box

• Large card board box (or a wood one)
• Piece of thick card board or Ply wood
• Standard butt hinge x 2
• Black spray paint or normal paint
• Foam (I used plumbers foam roll)
• Glow in the dark paint

Part 2. - Planets

• 8 x Ping pong balls
• A tennis ball
• 2 x skewers
• 4 x toothpicks
• Hot glue gun
• Paint (colours depending on what planets you choose)
• 1 x dome nut (sealed top)
• screwed in bolt for handle
• wooden cog (we cut our own)
• 2 x nuts
• 2 x washers
• threaded steel rod
• 12 - volt battery
• basic light electrical circuit

• PVA glue
• News paper ( or your own way of making paper mâché' )

First find a cardboard box or a wooden one and make sure it has one end open. Grab some thick card board for the door at the open end (must be the same size as the open end), I used some ply wood I found hanging around which works just as well. Take your 2 hinges and hot glue them on, (to attach the door to the box) leaving some space between them. Now you should have something like the picture above.

Cut a hole in the door so it's big enough to look through into the box. Grab your foam and glue it around the edge of the view hole. Doing the foam is optional, its just to make it comfortable to look through!

Find some black paint (spray paint is best) and paint the inside of your box black. Then get your choice of colour for the outside, I used silver as it kinda had a intergalactic look to it. Now paint the outside. Wait for those to dry, then grab your glow in the dark paint and flick it all over the inside of your box for a starry look. You could always use a paint brush and paint little stars if you want.

Gather your tennis ball, Paper mâché supplies, and your red, yellow orange, and white paints.

Drill a hole down the middle of the ball and put your steel rod through that. Screw on a nut, then a washer. You should still have 2 nuts leftover, these will be used later.

Poke 2 skewers through the middle of the tennis ball too, leaving an even amount on each side of the ball.

Paste 2 layers of your paper mâché onto your tennis ball. Wait for that to dry, then paint on your yellow, orange, and red to make it look like the sun. Smudge the colours together. Once that dries put some little streaks of white on it too.

Before I painted my ping pong balls I did some research on the colours of the planets I chose, and sketched them out on some paper. You can do this too as it's quite helpful.

Once you've painted them and let them dry.

Grab 4 of your ping pong balls (planets) and stab them on the end of your skewers. You may need to secure them with hot glue.

Take your 4 toothpicks and stab them into the leftover ping pong balls. Then add those into the ping pong ball attached to the sun. Once again you may need to use glue to hold them in place.

Get your cog and attach screwed in bolt, for a handle.

Next put a hole in the top of your box, right in the centre.

Thread the top part of your sun's steel rod through this hole from underneath. Then place your cog over that from the top, and use your leftover nuts to secure it in place.

Poke another hole in your box wherever you want your light to shine down. I think it gives a better effect in front of the planets.

Using a basic light electrical circuit, attach to a 12 - volt battery.

Turn your light on to check it works!

You can add any extra details you want to personalise your space viewing box.

We added small feet to the bottom of the box. I added a moon picture on the very back wall, which looks cool too.

Good luck if you give this a go, and thanks for reading my instructable!