However, by inserting a sufficiently high number of LEDs into the circuit and extending the variety of colors fairly evenly across the visible region of the spectrum, this approximation should be sufficient.
With only a finite number of different colors of LEDs in the circuit, the light source would serve as an approximation of moonlight. The technique chosen for developing a light source mimicking moonlight was to wire a multitude of colored LEDs together such that the number of each color was proportional to the relative intensity at that particular wavelength in the spectrum for moonlight. Moonlight does, however, play a vital role in the novel, as Durin’s Day is, “when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together.”
In the story, the protagonists are given the following clue to enter the Lonely Mountain and reclaim their treasure from the treacherous dragon, Smaug: “’Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks’, read Elrond, ‘and the setting sun with the last light of Durin’s Day will shine upon the key-hole.’” The last light actually alludes to the setting sun in the book the movie embellishes the riddle by declaring moonlight alone to be the last light of Durin’s Day. This idea of unlocking doors with moonlight stemmed in part from the wondrously entertaining, magical adventure novel, The Hobbit by Tolkien. For my final project, I have assembled a moonlight illuminating staff with the power to unlock a door. Staffs, if not too ornate, provide their owners with a lethal weapon that many observers would regard as an ordinary walking stick. Historically, one of the oldest references to a magical wand describes the supernatural item in the form of a staff.