The Art of Being Subtle - (and Bulb Busting)

I've noticed in my own planetarium a few things .. actually everytime I sojourn in there I notice more things. Im at the years long tweaking stage now .. its all about being subtle (or is it suttle). And this is first taught when we note once again (I think I mention this in It is a Feeble Light) .. that a real tendency for home planetarians is to bust bulbs regularly. Because we go in there and look at our stars not for an hour at a time .. but in and out .. and this does not allow our eyes sufficient time to dark adapt . therefore, we tend to forget how subtle starlight is .. and turn it up! Turn it up to 11. Thats better, innit. If we were but to wait the proper time, we'd see that the stars arent supposed to BLAZE. And blazing stars lead to busted bulbs.

Where have subtle pleasures gone? I find myself overlooking so much beauty because I dont look. I wait to be hit over the head. I do this constantly in my little woods out back. Instead of walking round wishing it was 20 acres instead of 5, I determine I havent looked at any of the trees I DO have .. looked at the immeasurably subtle bark on any given tree .. subtle pleasures overlooked waiting for the next bigger and bigger bang.

I do not believe people have lost the art of subtle. I believe it merely sleeps, and can easily be reawoken. Ah what pleasures then await.

Astronomy used to be about self-managing expectations. I was always happy with whatever I could see. The past 20 years brought so much innovation however, it seems easy NOT to be happy anymore with those subtle pleasures.

But we still can be.

Why Atmospherium?

Atmospherium is a term that never took off, but if one wishes to build the sky, why do it only half way? A planetarium depicts (or used to) the night .. the starry realm, and wondrously effectively. This is of course back when planetariums majored in stars. They've long since relegated the stars to the background - we can see black holes revolve, we can go to alpha centauri or see the Earth being born. But no child anymore will strain to recognize that star pattern rising over the coop .. is that Cepheus or Cassieopiea? But we look up in the daylight too . the sky is never idle .. I thought and thought and decided, I liked my sky busy

Pristine darkness - the deep blue of that rare cloudless day were appealing yes. but most of my life there were other things happening .. overlooked .. the moon .. airplanes .. clouds .. glows on the horizon .. rainbows . who's even heard of zodiacal light and the gegenshein . no two snowflakes alike? try no two sunsets are alike .

So an atmospherium shows everything in the atmosphere or above it.. satellites .. vapor trails.. meteors . raindrops .. thunder and lightning

Much more difficult to reproduce? In some ways, but in some ways easier -

but just as universal to the human experience.

So why Atmospherium?

Because thats whats really UP there.

What No One Else Is Doing (Between the Cracks)

I long struggled with WHY.. WHY I like to build and show home planetariums, in fact this was the subject of my very first essay, Issue 1, of the HPA (where 'wanting it, we turn it on', just like our stars. The only answer I could come up with at the time was 'because it will be fun', and that resonates still today 16 years later. This internalizes as I age, for now two mothers have been lost, and when one sifts through the lifetime belongings of someone so close, many of the things were personal in nature, and one can only conclude 'mom had this collection of plates, or this ballroom jewlry from the 30s, because IT MADE HER HAPPY. Nobody else. But her.

So home planetariums make me happy. And others too, or potentially so. But theres another reason behind all of this. Im a Beatles freak - and I was reading George Martin, their famous producer, got started and got where he was because in the beginning, he couldnt make it in regular music producing. Those bases were all covered. He decided he wanted to do something 'between the cracks' .. something NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING .. so he began to produce comedy records (Peter Sellers, the Goon Squad) which no one thought would sell. And eventually they did.

Im not thinking eventually Home Planetariums will sell like the Beatles! No, but I like them even more because at least HPA's brand of build everything and tie in every passion imaginable fits with this - nobody else is doing it like we do.

And it makes us happy. So if you are bored, if the paths seem too well trodden, find something no one else is doing that makes you happy. Something between the cracks. You wont regret it.

As my son entered college, we sat in the schools theater and the President strode among us, nervous freshmen and parents alike and said two words ... over and over

He looked at all of us and said .. no regrets .. no regrets.

GO for it.