How to Make a Constellation Spinner

Open the celestial map in your preferred graphics editing program such as Microsoft Paint or Adobe Photoshop. Erase the black background at the corners of the image and the direction tags. Resize the central circular image to 4-1/2 by 4-1/2 inches. You will now have a circular map 4-1/2 inches across surrounded by white.

Print the celestial map on a sheet of cardstock. Cut out the round map, leaving a 1/2-inch white border around the entire image. The final measurement of the circle will be 5-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches. This is the bottom circle of your constellation spinner.

Divide the celestial map in half vertically with a ruler, drawing a line in pencil from the top to the bottom of the circle. Next, divide the circle in half horizontally, using the ruler and pencil again. Continue dividing the circle into equal parts until you have 12 equal slices.

Locate the Sagittarius constellation on the map. In the white border around the map, write the word "January" with black marker on the slice that contains the left end of Sagittarius.

Label the other 11 slices with the remaining months of the year, moving counterclockwise from the January slice. Set the celestial map aside for now.

Divide the smaller, 5-inch circle using the ruler and pencil, into 24 equal slices.

Label the lines between the slices. Unlike the bottom celestial map layer of the spinner where every slice is named, the smaller top layer of the spinner needs the lines between the slices named instead. Name the centered line at the bottom of the circle "noon." Continuing counterclockwise from "noon," name the next line "11 a.m." Progress in this manner. The center top line will wind up being labeled, "midnight," with the evening hours continuing from there all the way back to "noon."

Draw an oval lying on its side centered above the "noon" layer on the top layer of the spinner. The oval should be 2-1/2 inches high and 3-1/2 inches wide. Cut out the oval using the utility knife.

Poke a hole with the utility knife at the center point of the top layer where all the slices come together.

Poke a hole with the utility knife at the center point where all the slices come together on the bottom layer that contains the celestial map.

Place the top layer over the bottom map layer and align the holes. Insert a brad through the holes from the top and fold the brad flat on the bottom to hold it in place.