Imagine an actual Death Star so large it consumes a large portion ofย theย sky over your neighborhood.
Forย Halloween โย and with the imminent release of Star Wars: Episode VII looming โ that’s exactly what Colby Powell and his kids built, a Death Star as tall as a two-story house, complete with a concaveย super laser dish and correspondingย flashing lights.
Thenย to really sell this thing, Powellย mounted the 23-foot-tall structureย on the roof of his Lafayette, CA house for all to see and fear.
The idea for his build started after Powell’s young kids took a liking to the Star Wars movies. “We had this idea a couple years ago. Hey what if we put the Death Star in ourย back yard, and make it so big that from the front of the house you can see it over the house?” He explains. The planning began then, with some logistical modifications moving the idea from the back yard toย top of hisย house. He didn’t feel that the time was right to actually pursue the construction, however, until this year, with his kids slightly older and the movie about to hit theaters.
To createย his planet-destroying masterpiece, Powell and kids designed and built a 23′ geodesic sphere usingย 1/2″ grey electrical conduit (rather than white PVC, for a closer color match) and Sonostar hub couplers. He builtย the frameย to fit the two grey-green T-10 military surplus parachutes he used forย the shell, something which required a call to theย lead engineer of the parachute manufacturer for dimensional information; the engineerย foundย CAD drawings to determineย seam lengths so Powell could calculate theย inflated parachute height and with that the necessary shell size.
Constructionย of the sphere startedย as a family project until the size of it proved too large for the kids. At that point, something interesting occurred: “I had people drive by and say ‘Hey do you need a hand with that?'” Powell says, explaining that about two dozen people contributed to the assembly despite not knowing exactly what it was. Some thought it was a climbing structure. Another thought it was a biodome. One even joked it was a bomb shelter.
https://instagram.com/p/9Yw5Q_EdcTT26HxiBlHbzS72AoZkuAtItiUXs0/
Getting it onto the roof was as big an endeavor as the build itself.
“I work for a general contractor and we parked a 70 foot boom truck (crane) in the driveway to complete assembling the top hemispheres on the bottom hemisphere and hoist the Death Star onto the roof,” Powell details. “There was a lot of math involved to get the crane in proper position. Think about this โย a 70 foot crane sounds enormous, but by the time you raise a 23′ sphere 10 feet in the air, and then allow enough extra cable (approx. 22′) to ‘lay’ the hook down beside the sphere after it is hoisted so that it can be disconnected from up on top of the roof without climbing a ladder (now it’s 55′ total), you’ve got to get this giant truck pretty darn close to the house to make it all work!”
Powell says that in his research, the largest Death Star he came across was one built at Legoland, which measured about 6′ in diameter โ making his by far the largest he was aware of, although he’s reluctant to declare thatย officially.
Heย expects to leave it up until sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. After that he might store it, or sell it on eBay. He’s also considering sending it to Burning Man.
Final stats:
– 23′ in diameter
– 400 lbs in weight
– 2000′ of pipe, cut into 480 pieces
– 960 screw connections
– 162ย hub connectors
– Six 40′ strands of white LED strip lights
– Three 30′ green LED strips
– Two circumferences of blue rope light for the equatorial trench
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