Lots of Shows, or Lots of Show....

Well then THIS seems to be whats 'sticking' to the wall for you then! Let maybe the Christmas show be your anchor from which you grow - find out who these people are - give them a gift, lavish them with fun, talk to them and find out what would bring them back - ask them what they would do with the pointer as it were, what are they interested in. Maybe this IS your niche - if it plays in January, why wouldnt it play in February? etc - 

Seems to me we've been throwing all sorts of things against the wall to see what sticks

I said these words to a friend running his own planetarium, and finding his Christmas show was by the far the best attended.  


Should we give alot of SHOWS, or alot of SHOW - one big one that plays continuously

This seems to be the final question on Home Planetariums.   What keeps them going?  Do people come to see the spectacle regardless of what is actually playing, or do they come back again and again to see different content?   I favor the one super show approach, whereas he seemed after this exchange to continue programming different things each month.   There is no right approach of course, and maybe most of it is what satisfies the planetarium builder and owner the most. 

My problem with the multi show approach is, there isn't time for word of mouth to build for the February show before its gone and on to the March show.  And the one that really 'wows' them only comes around once a year, way too long a period for any momentum at all to build.   I favor the approach of having one incredible show that is always there, allowing momentum to build and repeat viewers.  It must be informative yes, but interactive, fun, and include takeaways.  The visitors must be pleased and kept track of to invite them back.  Counting on them to post to a facebook page on their own isn't enough.  Its been tried.  You get one chance to wow them.  You'd better wow them! 

I favor charging a LITTLE.  Like the old drivein theaters maybe, a buck a carload.  The Father of Home Planetariums, Richard Emmons, said he charged 'to lend dignity to the service'.   Perceived value has to be there, and if its totally free its easy to be totally ignored. 

These are my final thoughts on actually running a planetarium sustained mainly by word of mouth - advertising is such a drag!    

Ray Worthy and Letting People See What They Want to See (Planetaria Obscura Dec 16)

Ray Worthy Indeed Was 

Worthy.  Here’s Mr. Ray from HPA Issue 4 

The pictures in the sky are simply what you want them to be. You can get as many interpretations as there are observers. In one show with some six year old children, I showed a constellation and asked the children what they saw.  Immediately one little girl said, it’s a shopping trolley!  I gave her the pointer and sure enough she showed why it WAS a shopping trolley. One of her friends then took the pointer and explained that what she saw was a dolly’s push chair. I think you might call it a stroller.   So with this introduction, I explained to the class that in times past, when the main industry in England was farming, what people saw was either a plough or a horse drawn wagon. The plough, of course was the type pulled by one horse or bullock. You can see the handles, which were guided by the ploughman, and the main body enclosed by the four main stars is the actual ploughshare, which is half under the ground.  For the wagon, the main four stars become the body of the wagon, or ‘wain’, and you have to imagine the large pair of wheels. The arm of stars which were the plough guiding handles, now become the shafts for the horse or pony. It became known as ‘Charles Wain’. Later, I explained that in North America their books call the group of stars the Big Dipper, a drinking vessel hanging beside the water barrel that the cowboys would use when they came home to the the ranch house after a dry day’s riding. In the southern States it is sometimes called the drinking gourd, and escaping slaves fleeing to the north would be told to ‘follow the drinking gourd’. In order to travel to the free states in the north.  In other words, the pattern is whatever you want it to be. The only restriction is that there has to be some consensus in the naming so that others can know what part of the sky you are talking about.

We danced about the maypole and in the hazel copse, till Charles Wain came out above the tall white chimney tops (Tennyson)

Those bright starres, which English shepherds, Charles his Waine, do name (Taylor)

 Even though 2016 ends in some doldrums, and with Ray Worthy gone, let us find comfort in his words and perhaps look at home planetariums from a different angle.  From the outside, looking in rather than our traditional roles of ‘well I built all this and now what’  Or ‘should I build this, because then what‘.  Or ‘should I keep this, because why‘.. Maybe in Ray’s piece there is an answer.  What did he do - he handed the pointer to someone else and let them see what they wanted to see, let them define a star group as they saw it.  Then he made the point that what they had just done was no more than what humanity had done down through the ages - see what THEY saw in it.  Not what anyone wanted them to see.  How many people just aren’t going to ever see a bear-driver, or herdsman, but they are going to see a kite.  How many people hear the word planetarium and have no real image anymore of what that means.  Maybe instead of us defining it for them, we let them define it for themselves.   Maybe instead of pointing out things, we let them point out their own things. People have unlimited choice these days .. Why don’t we give them some in a star theater.  What does THAT mean?  Its going to take some reflection, but what if more of a DIY (do it yo-self) approach could be contemplated.  I’ve toyed with projects, kits, make-it things.  What if the whole show were that way?  What if the guest lecturer was the kid in the 2nd row.  What if the guests were asked, what do you want to learn - here’s some possibilities.  Are we now not like a restaurant where you come in, sit down, and they decide what burger you’re going to eat? They don’t do that - they hand you a menu.  Just some thoughts to explore as 2017 dawns, as new years have a way of doing.

We have the luxury of not having to make money, isn’t this why most small businesses fail? They never find their niche enough to be self-sustaining. We don’t HAVE to do that, but its instructive if we want to achieve whatever nirvana means to us in this arcane pursuit.  Money may still come into it, what exactly is ‘perceived value’, but right now I’m trying to wrap my head around the next step.  Running out of time?  As Frodo said to Sam when he handed over the Red Book, there’s room for a little more.  We aren’t out of pages just yet.