Tag Archives: Astronomy

Working telescope built from LEGO

LEGO is truly beautiful in the way that it allows people to recreate real-world objects with both form and function. LEGO themselves have made working models of a grand piano and a Nintendo Entertainment System. Builder Victor continues the trend by creating a working telescope in the same style, though slightly smaller than life-size. Needless to say, it is welcome to see such objects completely remade from LEGO bricks, especially ones that function.

The Working Telescope

This model telescope works the same way as a real life one – peeking through the eyepiece lets one see the stars and planets, though not the real ones. Victor solves this problem with pictures printed on small window pieces backlit by a light brick. This imitates LEGO’s light projection techniques in their official sets like the Stranger Things: Upside Down and the Haunted House. Victor also provides four separate interchangeable prints, one of them being an easter egg reference to LEGO’s own Bionicle theme.

The esteemed astronomer and warlock

When I was a kid, my first introduction to Merlin was in the Disney animated movie, The Sword in the Stone. It has remained one of my favorite movies to this day, though I’ve learned that most depictions of Merlin are quite different. Seeing this LEGO build by Jens Ohrndorf, immediately brings me back to that beloved movie and character. The real triumph, though, is that stellar telescope. Using the palm tree trunk element to create the flared end gives it the perfect look.

Any true fan of the movie will know that the one thing missing is Archimedes, the owl. But don’t worry, Tyler Clites has us covered! And if you can’t get enough, we also have many more articles about owls, wizards, and magic.

Historical black hole picture and ALMA observatory antenna accurately built in LEGO

Unless you have been living under a black hole, you have probably seen the historical picture of the supermassive black hole in the center of the M87 galaxy. Chilean builder Luis Peña was inspired by the results of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration to build this new icon of science and the ALMA observatory, located in his home country. Luis loves science, and we have previously featured another historical event in science built by him, the Apollo/Soyuz meeting.

ALMA Observatory Antenna & Black Hole

The mosaic on the left displays the famous black hole radiowave picture, where the resolution of a 16×16 mosaic actually gives an accuracy almost comparable to the original. Speaking of accurate to the original, the dish of the radio antenna (one of 66 antennas in the observatory) is strikingly clean and parabolic, for the perfect focusing of captured light into the detector. The dish is stabilized by a white rigid hose, making a robust and accurate recreation.