8.34 Sunset/Starry Sky
Here's another one of those "always wanted to do it" effects. Although I made a nice sunrise/sunset effect for the White River & Northern IV, a starry sky has always posed a problem for big permanent layouts: the backdrop is invariably part of the room's walls, which doesn't provide the opportunity to install stars (other than UV paint/light tricks, which aren't very convincing). But the Mountain Vista is a totally portable layout having a freestanding backdrop with which I could do just about anything.
For the sunset, banks of various colors of LEDs would cast a warm glow across the horizon that would slowly dim to reveal the stars. Basically it would be just one portion of an otherwise impractical full day/night light cycle.
For the stars, my thought is to embed short fiber optics in half-inch Gatorfoam, and mount 0402 SMD LEDs on the back side of the foam. I'd use different sizes of fiber to create a variety of star sizes/brightnesses. Using discrete LEDs would also provide the opportunity to employ modified flickering circuits to imbue the stars with a subtle twinkle effect. Also, I'd use transparent paint to lightly tint the LEDs so I wouldn't have all the same color stars.
I think between the starry sky and the field of fireflies, an almost dreamlike environment could be created. But, we'll see; it's still early days, and I'm not totally sold on the idea yet.