OK I've made changes. And changes. And CHANGES. But I've got ALOT of exercise. Run up several enormous Lowes balances. Bought enough black vinyl to cover Chicago. Hauled so many strange loads to the county landfill the guy who works there runs over and laughs at my trailerloads... WHAT have I been looking for? You know how something looks effortless? Just RIGHT. Like something you whipped up in 10 minutes. Like an iphone maybe - Wrigley Field... something thats the end result of countless moving around designs etc that finally just CLICKED. Thats what I've been trying to do. Maybe.
So after I had a little 10 foot dome in a lean to addition on the back of my huge old barn - well actually briefly there were several OTHER domes in that same barn .. thats another story .. I decided to build 'the big one' out back of the barn. I already had another leanto building and a building further out. So there was a space in the middle that would hold THE BIG ONE. So I built this round building with a flat metal roof. Inside went a curved cheap thin paneled dome, because thats what I had used for the 10 foot. The projector pointed west in real directions. Light got in the door though, so I built onto the front of this a 'light trap' tunnel. This lasted a year, I only had one visitor during this time, a guy from the local astronomy club, who was never heard from again. This theater bugged me though, the roof was too flat, it was too clausterphobic. So I blew out the southern wall and built an addition. This was cheaply done, using a canvas roof and fence sections as walls. Now I had half a dome (the better half of the paneling), which began a neverending debate about which was better in a small place, half or full. In a full small dome you have stars right over your shoulder etc. I started putting the dome all the way to the floor by adding large commercial white posters I got from my job. I had a couple shows in there.
It leaked bad. The paneling started warping. I added a little office with a computer, the first of several. This is where, famously, a large snake was seen crawling down a 2 by 4. I then began another neverending debate was to whether my theater should be pitch black or not. Pitch black theaters are great for day shows, but not so great to hang out in, as a hobby person tends to do tweaking things. So I made this second configuration pitch black a while. Thats when I found a snake under the carpet - same snake probably. No matter - my old theater featured a bat hanging from the summit occasionally. Country living. I had elaborate things in here - I hung windows with candles in them - I hung large speakers .. this was my theater! I even slept in it a couple times. I had a couch. I began loading music on the computer in the little office - I built a little roof over the computer so it would be safe. I shot some music videos in there. Looking back, it was my favorite interim theater. But it didnt last.
It leaked so bad, right where the additions met the original round building - and the flat roof bugged me. So I ripped the roof off and made it taller and more rounded - no easy task with flat roofing sheets. Except inexplicably I left a sagging section. For over a year I had no faith this roof would stay up by itself so I had a single support 2 by 4 'just in case'. I also had put a support beam up above the 'dome', which sagged quite a bit over the years. No matter. Now I had a taller roof dome, but the paneling was rotten so it got ripped out. I now changed the orientation from north looking (in real directions) to east looking, to take advantage of the tallest section of the roof in that direction, and the sloping down of the land in that direction. I bought dozens of foam craft board now and used them as the dome surface, stapled to some lattice I nailed up on the underside. I tore down the old office and the old light trap entrance. Large messes just kept coming - walls, roofs, tunnels, offices, domes .. all had now come and gone .. laboriously. But I strove on! I built a NEW office and entrance - the addition now had become an entrance way, with the office at the rear.
I gave a couple shows in this one, but it seemed tight so I added a little alcove at the rear. But it still leaked - the foam boards began warping. The alcove was too small. I never used the office, even after I opened up a window in it looking into the theater. But the foam paneling wasn't working, and there was that flat spot in the roof. I tried to hide this with a lantern at one point - it didn't work. That part of the roof had to go. Off it came, another mess. Out came the foam paneling - another mess. Now I found plastic insulation panels and put them on the walls and ceiling, hand spraying them white. And I went back to a full dome - I was tired of half domes. I moved in a church pew to join the couch. I vacillated between full chairs and short 'gare' chairs. Couldnt decide. The support beam disappeared and the new better shaped ceiling looked good. I put a new door over in the north side and converted the front part of the entrance addition to an office, putting in the music computer - briefly this had a wrought iron door looking into the theater. This is where things stood when I did the 'lighthearted tour' video. But I wasnt done.
The dome surface itself bugged me because of the indentations in the insulation panels .. plus I couldn't get it white enough . By this time it was fall 2014, and my 2 week fix the ceiling project was taking all year. I pulled the ceiling out creating another large mess and put up black plastic. My dome material you see had to be water AND light leak resistant, since I'd decided finally I needed a pitch black theater. Night only shows just weren't making it, I'd had 2 school bus loads come out the summer before and couldn't even get them IN the star theater because it was day (I gave other presentations in the barn instead). So I had a planetarium where I wasn't showing stars. So I connected the new door with the lean to behind the barn and built a tunnel between the two .. now people could sit in the large barn area and then walk into the theater. I got a paint sprayer and turned the black plastic now overhead white. The rest of the former addition, where a couch had sat, now was screened off and some LED dippers added to provide a focal point. A small lighted village (the second, I had one in the original round theater) was added, the pew was removed, the couch moved to the west wall, the orientation of the projector now pointed south in real directions - it has now pointed in all of the 4 directions. I'll have to do another full post on projector mounting. It changed just as much as the theater.
So now I have a pitch dark theater, a focal point screen area, a couch for parents and short chairs for kids, an entrance tunnel - an office round back with music .. a back room behind the panels .. I still have the large barn area (the Sumner Star theater, the subject of yet ANOTHER post, since its gone through dozens of changes). .the barn area is now however more of a 'making planetarium' workshop. More on that.
So I think I'm stopping now. Its new, it incorporates most of what I've been striving for. Is it perfect? No. It doesn't leak anymore, I put reams of black vinyl overhead. I like it.
I think I'll keep it. Maybe.
