Starfield layout: A ceiling with randomly  placed stars throughout does not look like a real starry night. It looks like a lot of little lights. To create a realistic starfield one must use artistic license. This can be easily done creating the milky way in the starfield and having it dimmed down from the constellation stars. This creates an impressive starfield with depth of field. Randomly dimming some of the constellation stars adds additional interest.

Fiber manufacturer: The fiber should be PMMA plastic for long life and best light transmission, manufactured by Mitsubishi or Toray. Other manufactured fiber may be brittle or not of consistent diameter.

Star brightness: Real stars are of all different sizes and brightness. Their size and brightness is also affected by their distance from Earth. One can try to mimic the real star differences by using either multiple fibers or different size fibers to do the same. However, this makes the installation of the fibers much more difficult and time consuming. To best create the disparity, with the least work, use one size fiber and at the light source, dim the appropriate fibers with an assortment of neutral density filters.

 Special Effects

TWINKLING: This effect helps create the realistic starfield. But to be effective it must also be realistic. When one looks at a night sky the “twinkling effect” is not stars going on and off. It is random stars dimming down a little and brightening up with each star twinkling every 5 – 7 seconds.

SHOOTING STAR: If you have ever looked for and seen shooting stars you know you really have to look for them. They are not really bright or large. Therefore a shooting star in your ceiling should be similar and should travel very quickly across the entire ceiling, not just a few feet. You should also have more than one shooting star and have them go in different directions, otherwise a single shooting star becomes monotonous.

COMET: Real comets are not seen very often but are very impressive when viewed. Even though they are travelling very fast, they appear to be stationary in the sky, because they are so far away. A star ceiling comet should stand out with a bright head and animated tail and fade out not turn off.

DEFINING CONSTELLATIONS: If you are really interested in the stars you may want to consider outlining certain constellations in dark blue. This will show that your starfield is accurate. The outline can be on a separate lamp so you can turn it on or off at will.

The illuminator: There are many types of starfield illuminators on the market. Most are fan cooled halogen lamp and twinkle wheel systems. Usually these illuminators need to be in a different room because of the amount of noise created by the fan. This also adds cost due to the additional fiber needed to remote the illuminator. Also these illuminators are designed to accept a bundle of fibers. Bundling of fibers prevents a single illuminator being used to include all the above special effects. To light a starfield with the milky way, 2 shooting stars, a comet and the constellations you would need 5 halogen illuminators.  The ideal illuminator is one with a low wattage HID lamp and no fan that is capable of creating all the above effects in one illuminator.

Drilling template: Having a full size color coded drilling template makes all the difference when installing a star ceiling. It saves a tremendous amount of design time. Most kit manufacturers do not include drilling templates.

Installation Methods

To choose the best method of installation one must first determine if there is an attic or crawl space over the entire proposed starfield area. If there is, then the best place for the illuminator (option 1 ) is in this space in the center of the starfield because the fibers will be the shortest, saving material. If there is no attic, then the best place for the illuminator (option 2 ) is as close to the starfield as possible such as a soffit or closet.

 There are 3 basic installation methods for these 2 options.
(A) Use the existing ceiling, (B) use a large panel system, or (C) use a suspended ceiling system.

 (A). This method has the lowest material cost,  but is the most difficult installation because the installer is crawling around the floor joists in the attic in option 1, or, if it is new construction with another floor above, option 2 can be used to install the fibers before the floor is put down. Many holes need to be drilled into the sides of the ceiling joists for the fibers to run to the illuminator.

 (B). Large light weight MDF panels are available in 4ft x 8ft, 5ft x 8ft and 4ft x 10ft. Panel thickness should be either 5/8in. or 3/4in. to allow for leveling biscuits to be inserted between panels. This method allows for most of the work to be done on saw horses instead of crawling on the joists. The panels can be attached to the ceiling in a number of ways as long as at least a 3/4in. space between the panels and the ceiling or joists is created to allow the fibers to reach the illuminator. This method can be used in both option 1 & 2.

(C). A 2ft x 2ft or 2ft x 4ft suspended ceiling system is also very easy to install because it can be done on saw horses and the panels are small. Some people do not care for suspended ceilings because the track is visible. Usually you can install the illuminator in the center of the starfield between the ceiling joists instead of in a soffit or closet in an option 2 situation.