Halogen downlights are an optional extra for the Galaxy. The recommended modification has 20 watt low voltage halogen lights in every other rim tile, replacing half of the standard zodiac tiles, giving a total of six lights.

Galaxy in the Big Apple

A customer in New York has exploited the wealth of surface detail and textures in the Galaxy to produce an attractive paint scheme with gold and silver paint against a dark blue background.

Interestingly, he has chosen gold as the primary colour, with silver detailing - exactly the opposite to that of the Galaxy at Slough's Pinewood Hotel (at left). We particularly like the silver on the wings of Pegasus and Cygnus and in the water flowing from Aquarius's jar. The Galaxy is a focal point in the family's new Home Cinema room, and the ceiling has been painted to match. Click on the Images to see larger versions of these photos.

Galaxy in an Indian restaurant, London

Here's another Galaxy that has been given the gold-on-blue treatment, although this time the rim has been left white. Our client - a London company that specialises in restaurant interiors - has added an interesting feature in the shape of a glowing ring around the Galaxy rim. The glowing ring is created with the use of UV light tube.

The Galaxy Gallery

The Galaxy below was hand painted and is on display in the lobby of the Pinewood Hotel, George Green, Slough.

This blue and gold Galaxy was hand painted for inclusion in a home cinema room for a customer in New York.

Gold and blue galaxy

This next set of photos is of the first Galaxy delivered to the Southern hemisphere, in Brisbane, Queensland. Before the Galaxy was installed some gold paint and gold thread was added to provide some accent to the plain white disk. Firstly, the engraved names of the houses of the Zodiac were painted with gold paint.

The circles of latitude on the surface of the disk itself are also engraved and the Brisbane customers took advantage of this to add more gold in the form of gold thread. A thin coating of glue was applied to the engraved circles and the thread was simply pushed into the recess. Once again, the photos don't show the gold colour, but the effect is said to be very pleasing.

This is a pretty minimalist approach to customising your own Galaxy. If you have the time and the budget to spare you could give the entire disk (or selected features) a metallic finish by applying gold or silver leaf to the surface. Or you could simply coat it with a metallic paint of your choice.

Alternatively, you can take the multi-colour approach. Draco (the dragon) offers tremendous possibilities in terms of how his scales are painted. You could even apply your own scales - using sequins for instance - or add glitter for a scaly, shiny look.

In short, the default white finish is just one option.

Click on the image for a larger, full-face photo.

Photographing fibre optics always presents a challenge, but this photo illustrates quite well the difference in star brightness, which is one of the authentic features of the Galaxy. Not only are the stars in their correct positions, but there also five different levels of brightness to more accurately represent the actual night sky.

The Galaxy at night

This enhances the decorative effect and also makes the Galaxy much more useful as an "educational" tool.

Views of the new optional halogen downlights in the rim of the Galaxy. Adding half a dozen of these to the Galaxy means that it becomes an optional source of ambient lighting, rather than simply decorative effects lighting. The downlights should be installed on a separate circuit so as to be independently switchable.

Generally, our Galaxies go into private homes where potential customers can't view them, but anyone living in the Midlands can now see one in the very impressive showrooms established by AV Acoustics in Cannock, Staffs.

This is a specialist home cinema and home automation company and, having seen their main home cinema room all we can say is that we want one (two actually!). AV Acoustics has also used Starscape optical fibre and lightsources to make a couple of attractive star ceiling panels in the bathroom area of their showroom. See our Projects Section for photos of these.