Star of Bethlehem

[sien]

Hi All,
We've kicked off our planning for our Christmas Nativity and would like to know what are some ideas you all have for projecting a Star of Bethlehem?
I've found a star gobo from Rosco and our team has thrown up some ideas of hanging a star (but we don't have any point to hang it off) or using an LCD projector. So what do most people do?

[mstone133]

We've used an ETC S4 zoom to project a large variety of gobos, but we've also used a projector when we didn't have the foresight to get a gobo.

However, I have to say that we've done before is likely not relevant to your situation. A lot of options are available to project a pattern. What will work best for you will depend on the throw distance, size desired, brightness needed, how sharply focused you want the image, and whether or not effects are desired to make the star twinkle, change color, etc.

[sien]

Thanks mstone!
We don't want the star to twinkle or change colour. I guess a focused image would be nice.
Throw distance from the balcony is about 25m. I guess the size could be about 4ft tall. 2 ft wide. We are running a darkened room, so brightness should be enough for people to see it. No other lights will be on.

[mstone133]

With that throw distance you will need a narrow beam ellipsoidal and a custom gobo to get an image that small. A projector is not going to work unless you have one with a very narrow lens installed.

[D.R.HADDOCK]

A video projector would be the most convenient way,
Cause you would be be able to easily find pictures to use !

[jkiddy]

I have used two ovelapping gobos in the past with great success. One smaller and smaller one, overlapped by a large more elaborate one. I then pulse the larger one using a dimmer and this creates a glowing star effect. Both gobos are made by Rosco I believe.