the HPA Newsletter

19 in 15 years? Yes but I took 6 years off. 19 in 9 years. That sounds better.

They arent really news.. they were in the 90s before the Net. Nothings news anymore when you are online. HPA newsletters are rather then .. reflections.

Like of all things ... baby formula. They look small. A quick bottle. But the way they grow organically .. until common themes and random chance bind them together into some kind of song from out THERE .. they nourish. They nourish me, I keep the latest issue for months at my side to savor the things people have written, or caused me to write.

And all of this without even mentioning the subject. Its because our subject has an undertow of spirituality. Of beauty. Of restless curiosity. Of fascination with what the human hand, eye, and mind can build.

the HPA newsletter isnt a newsletter.

I dont know what it is. All I know is when one writes itself in its own time .. it becomes timeless. gare

I Always Liked Oats - Short Planetarium Fiction

I Always Liked Oats .. a very short planetarium story from HPA

time for supper! announced mom .. and GARY .. COME OUT OF THE CLOSET

gary winced - a 17 yearold kid like him liked to be secretive, but it hadnt been easy .. he'd been in the large converted pantry all day doing 'something' and couldnt help but come out once or twice for black construction paper .. staples.. glue.. tape

all through dinner Gary seemed preoccupied .. Dad intoned his ususual tale of his day .. the girls (garys sisters) giggled about this boy or that.. as soon as supper was cleared away, Gary returned to the entranceway of the pantry, but turned and said loudly

SHOW IN 30 MINUTES!

show? asked mom? she was still puzzling why gary her son had emptied the quaker oats box after breakfast that morning .. it had disappeared...

show? asked the sisters .. yet they curiously were ushered into the large pantry and sat on the flloor.

last came dad.. his glasses perched on his nose .. and mom joined him

gary drew a curtain over the entrance and confronted his dubious family on the floor .. shutting off the light he unvelied the quaker oats box .. it had hundreds of holes carefully punched in it .. a light was within ..

before his family could react .. a gasp was heard .. the oats carton exploded into pinpoints of light ..and the closet ceiling .. transformed into a makeshift dome with paper and glue ..

revealed the glory of the heavens

how did you do this son? his father asked from his place over by the entrance..

well started gary

I always liked oats ....

Life in the Rear View Mirror

Life in the Rear View Mirror

In any endeavor of our hearts, the quick passing of time renders them quickly in the rear view mirror. Cars are so much of our culture, that analogy needs no explanation. But some rear view mirrors said OBJECTS MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR

And we are taught by drivers ed .. or uncle ed. or mom or dad... always check the mirrors before passing ...

Thats good advice. Because arent we always passing ... onto tomorrows new adventures or trials ..

So how to apply this general statement to Planetariums. Home Planetariums. It might apply to model railroads. Or groups who meet to discuss ...

Museums are rear view mirrors. Newsletters are rear view mirrors. Anything we write and preserve. This very board we are posting on .. want to see what we said about lenses in 06? Its here somewhere ..

Want to see what an STP looks like? Its here .. Want to see when Dick Emmons said before he passed? Its here. Want to see all those who came and contributed but now we cant find them? They live on here. Want to see childhood influences? They live here.

In the rear view mirror.

But take it deeper. Want to go back to 1963 when you were young and sat enthralled? Its here. Want to relive incredible accomplishments that our ancestors came up with? Here. Want to feel joy you might have not felt for decades? Maybe it lives it here. Filtered through decades of 'life'

Life in the Rear View Mirror. We cannot live nor dwell in the past.

But what a treat indeed it is to preserve it as we do. HPA has its archives of lectures, newsletters. The Museum has incredible works of engineering. Our friends and associates around the globe have an incredible collection of experience, stories, knowledge. Thats when the Rear View Mirror can become the Future View Mirror.

the Future View Mirror. or Ahead View Mirror

Remembering the past why cant we take the best parts and build upon them. Learn from the mistakes and then forget them.

Life in the Rear View mirror isnt really living in the past. Its storehouseing the accumulated wisdom. A well one can dip in for fresh inspiration.

Objects may be Closer than they Appear

I wouldnt have it any other way.

Planetarium Expectations

Expectations.

This subject I've heard comes up in Planetarium discussions all the time, with the usual lament being that to wit: Kids and Adults today suffer from expectation overdrive. Special effects in the digital realm have rendered the star projector obsolete goes the refrain! Just visit any major facility and you'll maybe get 5 minutes of stars, and the rest an explosive 3D movie no doubt narrated by either William Shatner or Mark Hamill. Expectations are WAY TOO HIGH for a simple home managed planetarium to overcome. Woe is me! Why bother, who can compete!

This is what I've heard anyway. But to my mind it may be the exact opposite if you look at it the right way. Thats right. Expectations dont run too high. They run way too low!

I submit that this may be the case because todays audience .. todays kid if you will.. is probably oversaturated with effects. Jaded even. Blockbuster after blockbuster ups the ante until the ante cannot be upped anymore, and where might that leave an audience? Hungering perhaps for substance? A real story? Real myths .. real facts .. real stars! Expections may be lower than you think .. a millenial kid coming into a dome is just waiting for the explosions .. the black holes .. the singing and dancing molecules, and they may actually be pre-yawning. Not expecting anything to sink their teeth into. Not ready to be challenged with natures true majesty, which requires no adorning digitially. Not ready to be asked to imagine pictures in the stars above.. these low expectations may well be shattered and a new love and awakening achieved. Precisely because todays 'seen it all' kids havent seen it all. Chances are they have NOT seen the stars in their glory. Their low expectations may play right into your hands, and they may leave with more awe, more wonder, and more questions (and a few answers) than they ever did leaving the latest superhero extravaganza.

Perhaps the lesson is this .. never assume your audience has even imagined what you are about to show them. And its something they may struggle to see again anytime soon in todays world.

Go in imagining you will raise their expectations, not try to meet them. You just might be surprised.

Night at the Museum

Imagine Late Nights!

In the museum .. when humans sleep and the fantastic may come alive.

A blue light appears as if by itself. the faint music of 2001.. a Space Oddyssy... begins but then a faint whirring sound obliterates all ..

In the Museum.. Late Nights!

Stella comes alive and beams Arcturus over to a sleeping Mercury.. this awakens him with a start! Mercury shakes off sleep, whirls about slowly, and casts his Aldeberan into Emmons slumbering eye.. Emmons turns grudgingly at first.. his is an everymans pipe fitting mount, not the polished bearings of his companions.. yet he is among peers and kin and he blazes from within... and sends his best Capella up to his giant Minolta brethren ..

The Minolta giant comes alive .. in the museum.. Late Nights!

Minolta beams everywhere at the same time ... the Spitz Dodec hums with power, having been energizes, his 50's circuits beaming.. a slow whirring dance commences .. and faintly at first..

The 2001 theme begins anew, playing as night has fallen in the museum and the projectors have awakened each other .. and dawn here will only come.. dawn here will only come... when they say so.

Imagine Late Nights! in the museum

(dedicated to Owen and his Musuem of Planetariums

This is For All the Lonely People

This is for all the lonely people

Stars were what they had at the North Drivein up in St Louis county when I was a child in 58 . Stars were what they had at Levi Jackson state park in 68 when dad drove us from Detroit on vacation towards eventual rain rain rain at Greenbo Lake in kentucky (according to my log).

But this is for all the lonely people for whom stars are the background like they used to be for me. Maybe they were to speak secrets to. In Tolkien they always blazed outside a glazed window, or in a forest cathedral. Sam even saw one from the reek of Mordor, and knew that there was high beauty forever beyond the reach of shadow.

Right now Carly Simon is singing ANTICIPATION, and I remember waiting for my first telescope.. and staying up camped in the backyard all night from suburban Chicago, in Ohares flight path no less, splitting doubles. No one told me about light pollution.

I remember my mother telling me abouat 71 not to go observing on New Years eve, .. we in Detroit drove 20 miles west out around Wixom for better skies - now thats a close in suburb.

Carly just sang THESE ARE THE GOOD OL DAYS. I wish I could believe that. I wish I didnt know now what I didnt know then.

This is for all the lonely people who dont look at the stars.

You might have to come here to see them. I've thought of recreating a Drivein. Paul Newman just went up into the sky .. think you used enough dynamite there Butch?

But this is for all the lonely people who sat up at camp late .. who went out into the snow . who like me in 68 went up a hill and tried to see Perseids ...

this is for all the lonely people

The stars are confessors.. as are comets.. they tell no tales of what they hear

Messengers. Harbingers

As I age the stars still really have no answers, but they never said they did. But they help us ask the right questions.

Im still one of the lonely people. But with the stars, indoor or out, not too alone


They can be yours too

You never know until you try

Objects To Be Used in the Dark

This quote has been enshrined in the Planetarium Museum in Big Bear Lake California, the hall of fame of classic projectors if you will.


Objects to be used in the dark .. can be of fantastic and unlikely shape and hue ..
for they aren't really there anymore when they open their portals onto infinity...

What other created 'thing' boasts these advantages? Exotic projectors, if home built or saved from the classic period, require exotic solutions .. but most products we build, we aim for sleek lines .. hide the workings, the innards if you will, where no one can see them .. stuff the wires .. compartmentalize the switches into a remote .. simple and elegant .. and true to form the modern trend in planetarium projectors is just this, simple globes that inspire no awe .. for in building or preserving the planetaria of yore, the instrument is as much part of the mystery as the projected sky .. hand in hand they walk in creating an impression never to be forgotten .. IF .. IF .. they themselves are not forgotten ..

In The House

IN THE HOUSE

Youve bought one, a toy, an antique, youve found one at a boutique in the shape of a mewing kitten perhaps, or a valuable relic like a Spitz Jr. Either or, whether you have an a rare Cosmorama or Zoo or something built for the kids, youve got a plantarium in the house IN THE HOUSE

you are now an educational institute, whether you know it or not. you COULD give an educational 20 minutes to a group of kids and they'd walk away babbling about a couple constellations. whether they saw them on your stove pipes and macrame hanging above the fireplace or on a sculpted dome.

you are adler, a field location. hayden . you are in the fraternity of star projectors. once you project a dipper.. a shining belt .. you qualify .. its not hard to get IN THE HOUSE ..

but as those of us who have collected.. lovingly restored.. driven uncounted miles in trucks .. worked yearss.. can attest.. its getting some wide eyed kid that 'last mile' to see your canis minor .. your canis venaciti.. your dogs of the stars. that may prove to be the hardest mile

collect your stars to be sure.. get them IN THE HOUSE> .. those few of us who do applaud and congratulate.. now join the rest of us wondering how, once collected, we can give those stars BACK

weve got them in the house.. now its time to give them away .. gare

A Thousand Hours of Thought

Have you ever viewed something that looked so simple.. so elegant .. you thought.. now why didnt anyone think of that before? Or .. whats the big deal.. I could have built that in 30 minutes with a trip to wal-mart. Such is the lot of many planetarium effects and projectors. They look elegant .. simple graceful lines.. yet I have built the HPA Emmons projector in the Museum, and it took me 3 years to dream up those simple lines. Years to think of, months to find the ingredients, and hours or less to assemble.

A thousand hours of thought. Go into the precise but elegant instruments of the stars. Consider that well as you watch that purveyor of the fantastic fade into to night, to give birth to the reason for its existence.. the backbone of the night.

And think occasionally of those dreamers who dreamed it up. Those engineers who engineered it. And help those children to their excited seats to see it come true. for they are the recipients of the Thousand hours of thought.

And who would have it any other way?

30 Minutes of WOW

30 Minutes of WOW

The very good question was this: what should be on a planetarium website, be it professional, school, or home?

I'll use a phrase I hear alot from my teenager. What shouldnt be? EVERYTHING should be! But.. lets concentrate on two elephants in the living room we somehow seem to ignore by putting lampshades on their heads. The projector, and gasp.. the stars!

Its a very interesting question, and I couldnt agree more that pictures of the PROJECTORS are oft neglected. What we tend to forget is, people take technology for granted now. Everything comes from Best Buy as far as my teenager is concerned, and 'just get it' and 'hook it up'. Everybody today 'hooks it up', whether it be big screens or dates.

But we have a unique opportunity, and more so in that we deal with not only legacy technology (hows that for a cliche), we deal with things nobody has seen. We have one foot in the planetarium industry, and one foot in those 'build it yourself'' competitions you see on TV, 'rube goldberg' contraptions built on ingenuity, passion, and duct tape. But I've been to shows where the projector doesnt even emerge from its 'silo' until its dark. And rarely if EVER is it even mentioned. Hows a kid going to get interested if they dont hear about it?

But the stars are also no longer the stars alas. The only reason my ridiculously simply HPA website doesnt have star pictures yet is that I dont have a camera that takes them yet. I have longings other people dont have apparently, HPA does.. I want to compare Orions ... I want to discuss the relative merits of how Spitz's Geminii compares with Emmons Geminii - I want to have a Pleaidies competition - whos got the best? And at least one star picture ought to be on a planetarium website. We have all this bathwater, but we lose the baby. Why are the stars forgotten in planetariums? Why is the projector forgotten?

Because .. we somehow take both the foreground AND the background for granted, and seem to want only diversion, entertainment - 30 minutes of WOW and then on to the next gadget from Best Buy, or video on You Tube .

People want flash, they want pink, they want WOW.

I think today we are just looking in the wrong places.

Where No Home Planetarian Has Splashed Before

Ol Sumner Skies Planetarium has a new problem related to 'space' - I came into my theater after 3 inches of rain and found half the rug on the floor soaked! Then I noticed a stream of water coming down the wall in the northwest.

Now the problem is, I built the dome right out to the walls and roof - in other words, I enclosed a space as big as I could and then built the dome inside as big as I could, resulting in relatively inaccessible areas around the perimeter - ie.. where the leak apparently is!

So now I face choices .. do I attempt to locate and repair the leak from above? Options range from trying to tar the seams, to stretching 4 mil plastic sheeting over it, or even building another whole roof over the existing roof. This isn't a roof you can climb up on mind you - I used metal trailer skirting sheets over a thin frame. Possibly I might have to tear out a wall and try to see where its coming IN and perhaps spread plastic sheeting across the roof from the inside, diverting the trickle of water to the outer wall. I hate the thought of that!

Infrastructure didn't concern me much, now im paying. Fortunately no equipment is in the line of fire, but for an amateur out in the elements, it may well be wise to consider NOT leaving your equipment uncovered when not in use. Expect the unexpected in other words.

I didnt have this problem with the lean to shed (in my earlier 9 foot theater, attached to the back of my large old barn) - it had a much steeper angle and was straight, not round. Round roofs bring new difficulties it seems.

So there are practical lessons here - accessibility - infrastructure - building something with an eye to the ability to repair it should (and when) things go wrong. I even know I've had animals in there - the evidence has been unmistakable. Anyone whos ever had to try and find a deceased racoon in a barn knows what I'm talking about.

So the bottom line is this as I contemplate going after the intruding water. Beware inacessible spaces, roofs, tight places. Try not to build something you can't reach later, because invariably, you'll have to !

Some areas it may not so good to pioneer, but the leaky roof home planetarium seems to be one I'm boldly splashing into.

Where no home planetarium has splashed before!

Elusiveness

Elusiveness

We can spend our lives in so many pursuits, it makes the ancient world pale in comparison. So why do we yearn BACK to the ancient world?

Try to imagine the original 7 wonders. Who among us wouldn't give anything for a digital image of the Colossus at Rhodes?

Yet would it do well on the strip of Vegas today?

I've been blessed to win two trips to Hawaii. It brought home the concept of elusiveness. For it is to me, a midwestern boy who was taken to the Rockies once growing up, was taken to Florida once in his youth, and finally flew to California in his dream job (now long gone, a victim of downsizing) So Hawaii for me joins California, Yellowstone, Panama City, in my memories of elusiveness.

Hawaii! Who knew the world was this big?

To stand upon an island and gaze south, and know there is no land until Antartica.

This is heady stuff for a boy from Illinois.

Its like those crossroads Tom Hanks stands upon at the end of CASTAWAY .. turn left and its Japan etc

And the images from that movie linger - one day I was sent a sail .. some wings ... and I flew..
who gazes on the Magellanic Clouds and wonders why Magellan had to die on a beach in the phillapeans?

But I'm talking about elusiveness.

FIND IT in your own life if you can.

It will enrich you. A planetarium allows that. Suspends disbelief

Takes me back to that kid sitting in Adler

Where does it take you? What is elusive in your life?

Pink Floyd sang it best ...

When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse
out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown the dream is gone

Let us not, as they went on to sing
Grow 'comfortably numb'

Let us chase that 'city on the hill' gleaming there
Frodo saw it .. the moonset over Gondor .

Our stars have it .. we can see the Northern ross sink upright into long ago seas

Peltier saw his observatory slit give way to a kitchen window of long gone skies in 'Starlit Nights
'
let us forever if we can and God allows

Chase 'elusiveness'

and may we never quite catch it.

you know why

Reaching Out as Civic Responsibility

The Home Planetarium Association oft times takes a philsophical bent when it comes to this obscure pursuit of Stars at Home. Its not because we are the only group out there - the 'Observatory Central Planetariums as a Hobby' group revels in the practical as well, the engineering marvels, the history, the restoration of classic technology. Another group celebrates the video revolution. We all have our parts to play, in what just 10 years ago was a very lonely pursuit. We even mix at times with the planetarium professional community, although I suspect we are viewed with somewhat raised eyebrows. How many professions have hobbiests mirroring them at home? Think about that!

But the interface between private passions and the public has fascinated HPA from the beginning, and I begin to mingle these thoughts with my spiritual growth as a Christian. And that means wealth is meant to share. Give away even. So it is my civic responsibility I have come to believe, that demands I reach out and share these stars of mine.

We in HPA and OC have grappled with the fears, the difficulties, the paradign shift - if you will - even if you won't :), that comes with taking a hobby where we would probably be content to 'tinker in the dark' forever, and coming out of the dark to bring the public into the dark.

My 4th grade english teacher - Mrs Sherfy - by the way, she has a memorial website! she touched THAT many lives .. is cringing probably!

But I am endeavoring to reach out. Its hard really. Everything in a local community just seems to be humming along by itself. Ive even run a local newspaper ad. Gotten visited by my local Astro Club. And yet ... the silence is deafening. Therefore I believe I must do the reaching out.

Its civic responsibility. Its biblical giving.

They say you know (just between you and me).. the REAL satisfaction is in the giving away.

Time magazine just pondered this dilemma at a macro level. If to accumulate great wealth and not share it is a sin, what shall we say of Bill Gates? Only ... now he is sharing it on unprecedented levels.

On our own micro level, are we not little Bill Gates's.. if we build a temple to the stars.. and project them. do we not have a responsibility to share them?

For the betterment of all.

I think so. gare

Light a Cigar

LIGHT A CIGAR

Love your projector?

Its an antique you say. A work of art. Yes.

Do this then friend. Light a cigar.

You know. I know you don't smoke. Buy one at Mapco. As you pay your 3.50 a gallon. Fire up your legacy projector. and light up. approach it. blow smoke at it. And you wil see streamers of light poking out from it. and you will understand its not a star projector. its a purveyor of light. subjectively. you feed it the light. and it streams it out as it wishes.

Natures grandest spectacle. Light a cigar and blow it at your star machine. Then you will understand it doesnt belong to you. God built it so he .. He. She.. could show you what He. She built we dont build them. They just sort of come by themselveswe are privileged to know where the off/on switch is . Light up a cigar. Approach the instrument. the Machine. Blow smoke.

And see the star streams.

Then perhaps you'll know why you came this way.

Orchestral Manuevers in the Dark

Makers of their own planetariums have a unique opportunity. We paint in light yes. Tiny lights, bright lights.. recreating natures splendor. But we have another palette from which to create - the palette of sound. And a unique ability perhaps unprecedented anywhere short of a cavern ..

We can banish all the light. And paint in the dark.

With sound.

We have the ability to plunge ourselves into TOTAL dark, so that ONLY the sound is there.. Nobody else has that.. NOBODY! Even the cave guides dont have sound other than perhaps drip drip drip - people dont experience total dark anymore - (well I did in my youth camping, my father would put us in our tent so tightly you couldnt see anything) but...

What fun it will be concocting new sounds - digitally altering them . More good junk to find and bring home - create our own musical instruments .. noise instruments .. out of unusual objects .. wires, boxes, metal things ... Sounds can be generated with anything.. and in the dark.. sound like everything....

Total dark preceeding the Big bang . how magnified that can be with sounds we can create. Music of course, our own, computer generated, or sampled. But theres so much more .. we can run a laboratory of sounds - I dont have a digital recorder however so I'm still trapped in analogs-ville in that respect. But painting in sound and sound alone with nothing visual to distract it .. thats an exciting concept really and unique to us under the dome.

Try some of your own orchestral manuevers in the dark!

Whats in the Backroom?

Whats in the Backroom?

All of us who love the theater, the stars as recreated, and those marvelous machines that recreate the magic, we stand in awe of the stage. That stage is the monster in the center, projecting heaven.. that stage is the very firmament above reflecting the glory that can be within reach. But equally fascinating is the backroom .. backstage - where the fuel for the furnance is kept, developed, hidden away perhaps for years before bursting forth in new uses and combinations to light once again the stage.

I remember well my one visit to Universal Studios north of Los Angeles, I was fascinated with the sound stages and recreated outdoor sets of course, but it was those prop warehouses that were the most crazy to me. Giant lions .. all manner of beasts, columns, facades, lights, and you name it... all silently gathered together remembering moments in the sun or under the stars.

Blessed is the backroom - nurture it.. pile it high with new things and old, and shop there regularly ..

I have an old tobacco/hay barn that serves that purpose .. 2 stories, upstairs it is a cathedral laced by ancient petrofied tree limbs from decades ago .. below its ancient stalls now hold treasure of a different sort . Planetarium museums .. magicians warehouses .. restorers of divine engineering feats of the past - look in the backroom. Go on safari through the these places late at night and listen for the whispers of the exotic and commonplace-turned-exotic. Admire and build the stage yes! But treasure whats behind it.

If you don't, you just may be missing half the adventure!

Incremental Progress

Home planetariums very much require incremental progress on a number of fronts, even if you just go out and buy a Homestar. For unless you are going to use it as a nightlite, you won't be content with turning it onto your celing. You need a place! Accessories! And thus it begins ...

These lessons I learned in early school computer classes. In high school we both machines that required the ancient plug in circuit boards - you'd literally plug a 10 character field with 10 cables to move it somewhere else. They also had an old Burroughs Corp machine that used pin boards to write programs, like pushpins today. The uptown computer at the board of ed (this is about 71) was an IBM 1440. I remember having a program that computed absolute mags of stars. At Michigan State, it was all keypunches, and you'd submit your 'job' to be run. The compiler we had to write as our senior project had to read some language like Fortran, scan it through something they call a lex, then parse it to see if it followed the language rules, then break it down into Control Data (the hardware they were using, I dont think the company CDC exists anymore?) Control Data assembly language called Compass. Then you had to have an assembler that took the Compass and broke it down into binary commands. This was boxes and boxes of cards - I remember waiting hours to get on a keypunch. I often wonder, where have all the keypunches gone?

Then, the compiler had to 'optimize' the code - if it found redundancies, it had to eliminate them. Finally , we had to write program that performed matrix multiplication, compile it, assemble it, and run it. I was like, I just want a job as a computer programmer, WHAT am I doing here? After I graduated from MSU in 75 there WERE no jobs around Detroit so I ended up balancing reports for K-mart (then Kresge) at their HQ on 16 Mile road. What a long strange trip our careers become from those heady days in college!

But that basic lesson stuck long after the details receded into the mists of time, and when Ron Walker mentioned incremental progress, that's the only way a big complex job can get done by one individual. just keep tweaking. Advancing the yardsticks here and there as time, money, or inspiration moves you. I waited 53 years to see the Southern Cross. I waited 10 years to see my stars move from 9 feet to 15 feet. A home planetarium typically takes years, and the road is littered by abandoned starballs and dreams!

You can tell im trying to fire myself up to begin the 32 foot dome. All domes around here begin with a single 4x4 in the ground!

Incremental progress. Do SOMETHING today. It will get you closer to your goal!