Night Sky Automata

Materials - Clear tape, cardboard box, wooden skewers

Cut two six inch by four inch pieces of cardboard and two eight inch by four inch pieces

Attach a 6x4 piece with two of the 8x4 pieces as shown above

Use the final piece of cardboard to complete the box

Cut a strip of cardboard that is the height of the box and tape it in the middle of the box to support it.

Cut three cardboard circles of similar sizes.

Poke holes in the 2/3 of the way up the circles with the wooden skewer.

Insert the wooden skewer through the circles to that they all have different heights and securely tape them to the skewer.

Insert the skewer with the circles into the box with the skewer sticking out through the side of the box.

Cut three pieces of cardboard approximately one and half inches by three inches and tape four inch skewers to the center.

Poke holes in the top of the box above each circle. Insert the skewers with the cardboard rectangles into the holes so that they rest on the circles at different heights.

Cut a circle to represent a planet, a star, and a moon from your cardboard box. Attach thin pieces of cardboard to the bottom.

Tape the ornaments to the top of the wooden skewers. Now twisting the rod in the center will cause the ornaments to move up and down at different times.