A Levitating Lunar Lamp You Can Make Yourself

While “easy to make” might be a bit of an exaggeration, if you have a 3D printer — and ideally a laser cutter — this levitating moon lamp is well within your grasp. Print files for the moon itself can be downloaded here, and with STL in hand, creating physical light-up orb is a matter of setting your print parameters and pressing a button.

Enabling it to float isn’t prohibitive either, and if you’d like to build your own you’ll need to purchase a maglev kit to keep it suspended, along with a wireless power supply module to provide it with power and lighting (if LEDs are included with your unit). The floating power supply is mounted in a 3D-printed enclosure, with lights arranged to shine up through the moon model. Alternatively, you can use a battery-powered module, which has the benefit or being wireless and simple to setup. The drawback, of course, is that you’ll need to charge it once in a while.

The non-floating base section was modded for better lighting and mechanical setup, but this project is mostly a matter of tweaking purchased components to reform them into something amazing. The lamp was constructed by Erich Styger as a fantastic present for his daughter, and in part to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing.

Check it out spinning around in the short clip below!