Artificial Star with printer nozzle

thingiverse

I wanted an artificial star to align my scope precisely. Rather than buying one, I wondered if I couldn't use a printer nozzle with a precise, known diameter to achieve the same result. This is my attempt. It's designed specifically for my Duracell 350 lumen LED flashlight (with one square LED emitter inside). I stretched a thin piece of white grocery bag plastic over the end instead of sanding the glass and covered the back of the stand with aluminum foil so it isn't glowing from the light. I had to add a small pad to the back of the stand to raise the flashlight up slightly, getting it square (the design could use a small radius adjustment). I'm currently using a 0.2mm nozzle. I figure that with my 132mm, f/7 scope, I should set the artificial star about 150 feet from the scope for best results. But yesterday during the day in my house at only 25 feet or so, you can certainly see it will work. When de-focused, I could tell it was out of alignment and made some rough adjustments to get it close. I think this works. I'll try to get a 0.1mm nozzle so the "star" is even smaller.