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Building a realistic artificial sun (for dark winter days)

DIY Perks · 3.3M views · 2020-10-31 · 19:45

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Overview

DIY Perks builds a realistic artificial sun for dark winters, using a powerful water-cooled LED, a satellite dish reflector for near-parallel rays, and a scattering layer to mimic the blue sky. The video explains the optics behind why most lamps do not look like sunlight and shows the build and its results.

On Hacker News

Whenever HN discusses seasonal affective disorder, myopia, or bright home lighting, people point to this as the most convincing buildable example of sunlight-like illumination.

Recommended by 9 HN people across 8 months · HN mentions 2020–2025

Topics

Home, DIY & practical skills3D printing, CNC & maker projectsEveryday physics & science demos
Search by tags
diy lightingcollimated lightrayleigh scatteringledseasonal affective disorder

What people said

Wistar · 2025-03 · Strong recommendation

I cannot remember if I first saw this here on HN but, here is a detailed video of an incredible artificial sunlight rig build. It's big but the results look, well, amazingly real, at least to the camera. [VIDEO]

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deltasevennine · 2022-07 · Strong recommendation

[VIDEO] If you want one, you can build one following the video above. The result is quite stunning. I've never seen anything like it. [LINK] The one above is an easier build that takes up less space.

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hackererror404 · 2022-06 · Strong recommendation

There's an amazing youtuber/creator I've been following for a while and he does exactly this. Goes into the science of what it takes, and the results are really stunning. I'd love to give something like this a try, just need time. [VIDEO] Also there was a breakthrough a while ago with LED ceiling lights that mimic natural sun. I haven't heard much since their release, so I'm sure cost is still a major issue for these sadly. [LINK]

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Sources

Video by DIY Perks, played through YouTube.

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