Planetariums and .. the Beatles?

From Planetaria Obscura March 2016

I fancy myself as a bit of a Beatles scholar.

Slightly too young to be buying records until the very end of the Beatles reign, I’ve spent the years since trying to catch up, reading countless books about them and of course wearing out the LPs.  How is my planetarium like the Beatles?  Well, I’ve read that the studio engineers sat around waiting endlessly while the Beatles ‘got their ideas together’.  Surely my aged barn feels the same way as it watches me spend yet another year endlessly rearranging things till it just seems ’right’.

The Beatles wrote songs in a wide variety of styles, and I can’t seem to settle on any given configuration, show, or even star ball in my planetarium. The Beatles and I both have screamed HELP!

But there are ways that we differ as well.

I’m not a day tripper.

I never let it be.

And rest assured that no matter how dark it gets in there, I decidedly do NOT want to hold your hand.   

I'll Sit in the Door!

From Planetaria Obscura March 2016

Nobody deals with round rooms.

Well some people perhaps have turrets on their houses - Jefferson had an Octagonal Room at Monticello.  But I submit a planetarium owner (all 5 of us) have to deal with no corners in ways nobody else does. This is my preferred explanation for why my floor configuration keeps changing.  Other explanations include no attention span, easily bored etc, so I prefer  the round room difficulty theory.  I have literally returned to my original West looking configuration recently, after going from West to North (these are the real directions), North to East, East to South.  The land slopes West to East, so spectators, if any, have alternatively been looking a bit up, a bit down, or a bit sideways over the course of the past 10 years.  Endless chair configurations have ensued, along with entrances and uses for the addition I put on years ago.  My switch last year to rockers (old ones from the house, I have 7) brought the seats out from the round walls so you can .. rock.

But where should I go?

 It’s a small 15 foot diameter ’room’.  As much as I’ve wanted the console off to the side larger rooms afford, I’m always blocking SOMETHING.  Same with sitting in the middle.  I finally hit on it this morning.  I’ve returned to viewing to the West, with a semi-circular focal point stretch of sky down to the floor (totally circular seating doesn’t work with small round rooms, someone always has stars over their shoulder).  It finally dawned on me there was but one unused place in the room - the doorway.  And I had to secure the door anyway after people were in.  I’ll just put my stool IN THE DOORWAY and not block anything!   A small table to one side for accessories.

But I don’t think Thomas Jefferson did it this way.

A Tribute to Home Planetarium Pioneers

I had samples of only 4 home planetarian lectures - Richard Emmons in the 1950's, Stephen Smith in the 1970's, and Ron Walker (and myself) in the 2016 timeframe.  I put them together in a lighthearted sampler to commemorate these pioneers!

Home Planetarium Pioneers

Do Stars Have Personalities?

When you own your own stars, maybe even more than in real life they can become your friends.  After all, who lets them shine even in the daytime - they don’t even need to provide their own hydrogen, although most real ones seem to have a rather full tank for the next billion or so years.  But stars can develop personalities in our little skies mirroring the bigger ones in the bigger skies.  There’s a term in philosophy called ‘anthropomorphizing’, give or take a few syllables, which ascribes human traits to inanimate objects.  If you don’t believe this, see my pet rock.  Anyway,  who would these stars be if they could?  Who are they in your little world - its ok, we’ll understand.  Probably. Some stars are stuck in side-kick mode.  Procyon will forever be Robin to the Sirius Batman thing going on up there.  But Sirius has his own hangups - is he JUST NOT BRIGHT ENOUGH??  Do you miss that multi-color twinkle?  You ain’t alone.  But back to Procyon… its bad enough for Sirius to be ‘the dog star’, but at least its an identity.  Procyon is either ‘before the dog’, or ‘the little dog’.  That’s worse. Innit.  

Does Pollux ever wonder why it isn’t Pollux and Castor?  I always wonder why duos are named as they are - but I guess Cher and Sonny - Costello and Abbott - they just don’t roll off the tongue quite the same way. Still twins should be considered equal.  Gemini should end with two I’s - but its not me and you - its I and I.  Would Regulus seem so dignified if instead of Leo he headed up the Giraffe?  Is Aldebaran sick of being overshadowed by the Crab Nebula, and those sisters?  Are the sisters sick of the question, well, are there 6 or 7 of you??  Is one of you FADING?? That must be tiresome.  I always look at Deneb and think - you didn’t want to be on the tail of a bird did you, so you just had to come up with that Cross thing to save face.  We’ll do more of these in the future.  They probably want us to.  But I’ll ask them.