The Home Planetarium Association Blog

Sanctum Sanctorum - Overrun!

2011-10-25T04:10:00.000-07:00

Sanctum Sanctorum - Overrun!

2. An inviolably private place: The clubhouse was their sanctum sanctorum.

So last night my Sanctum Sanctorum was overrun. And I was allright with it all, indeed, I had invited them in. But it felt like a passage - wasnt I the only one who had seen it - labored on it for a couple years.. took a sledge hammer to a wall when it needed expanding, cursed when its roof wouldnt stop leaking? Wasnt I the one who had a bed out there, sleeping in it, so I could rise before the dawn and test my latest drillings quickly. Hadnt I spent countless silent summer afternoons on off days tweaking, soundtracking, photographing .. dreaming .. it didnt seem real. Two weeks ago a small group had come to be the first and that still felt private, as did my small family's visit. I could give small groups a look through my keyhole .. but last night was different .

They came in waves .. the first group precisely at six .. 8 of them, not too bad but one had a father who had lectured in his high school planetarium .. they were asking to see constellations .. wheres the lady in the chair one small child asked, startling me .. yet one husband exclaimed as he exited .. 'Im VERY impressed, you dont get this level of detail at a public planetarium' ... we did a standup runthru of my history theater, this I was more unsure of .. but they seemed interested in the pyramids and castle and even the titanic .. they laughed at the mummy in the big pyramid .. this was encouraging .. they left happy

But then the waves started. The second group arrived one van at a time .. home schoolers with their parents ... I had to put them in the barn .. first there were 6 .. then 4 more .. then 8 more .. the room filled up ... wait, theres more coming they said .. finally I had a crowd of over 30 big ones and little ones buzzing about me .. would they fit? They fit .. somehow.. they spilled out onto the floor, the kids did .. they were polite, asked good questions .. my sanctum sanctorum suddenly a church with a hushed multitude behind me.. it wasnt perfect - I bumbled with my constellation flashlights .. I spoke as much about building it as using it .. the history of it .. HPA .. the whole picture .. they drank it all in ..

Then came my own moment of truth .. they piled back into the Star Theater to see the pyramid show.. and here I was .. the stars I knew I could do, but a stage show - ??? - a sinking ship ... a castle with a comet .. a ghost in the machine .... I did it though ..and they laughed.. they gasped on cue when the mummy emerged .. they made 'jack' jokes when the titanic music played - this wasnt perfect either - I got out of sync with my music and had to stall - I just admitted it and laughed, told them this was SHOW ONE for this place and they seemed happy to be part of developing it .. there were no expectations .. just happy people there in my sanctum sanctorum ..

We went out and it was clear and saw the real constellations .. they were interested in everything .. a small boy uttered the quote of the night .. all of about 7, he looked up at me and uttered ... now I know what I want to study in college....

I hope he does. But even if he doesnt, I told them that Halleys comet would be back in exactly 50 years, 2161, and they might see it. And if they did, I asked them to remember this night in their distant childhood, and maybe a little comet dust would come up out of their memories.

There may be many reasons I built this sanctum sanctorum. but this was surely the best.

Titanic Survivors - Lifeboat 15 - Elisabeth, Eleanor, and Harold Johnson

2011-10-22T05:37:00.001-07:00

Mrs Oscar W. Johnson (Alice ?Elisabeth Vilhelmina Backberg), 24, was born 24 January 1885.

Elisabeth was Married to editor Oscar Walter Johnson and lived with him and their children Harold Theodor and Eleanor Ileen in St. Charles, Illinois.

She and the children were returning from a visit to Oscar's parents home in Ramkvilla, Småland, Sweden. They travelled via Malmö (where they bought their tickets) and Copenhagen. They boarded the Titanic at Southampton.

Elisabeth and her children got into one of the last lifeboats on starboard side either lifeboat 13 or 15. A man, probably Gunnar Tenglin stepped out of the lifeboat to offer a place. After that he found there was still room left in the lifeboat and stepped back in.

In New York she was quartered on St. Lucas Hospital, where Red Cross gave them an unknown sum of money and a new trunk. 24 April she travelled via Chicago on her way home to St. Charles.

Her husband died in 1917, she then married Carl Peterson who died in 1964. Elisabeth Peterson (late Johnson, née Berg) died 19 December 1968.

Notes
Another source suggests she was in Finland visiting her dying father.

References
Claes-Göran Wetterholm (1988, 1996, 1999) Titanic. Prisma, Stockholm. ISBN 91 518 3644 0

Contributors
Phillip Gowan, USA
Leif Snellman, Finland

Travelling Companions (on same ticket)
Master Harold Theodor Johnson
Miss Eleanor Ileen Johnson

Sir Fulke Greville - the ghost of Warwick Castle

2011-10-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

he atmosphere of magnificent Warwick Castle is redolent of secrecy, mystery and intrigue, and to enter the spooky, fourteenth century Ghost Tower is a somewhat scary experience. Decorated in Jacobean style, with a gateway leading from the base to the river, this tower is said to be haunted by the restless spirit of Sir Fulke Greville, who was murdered there by his manservant.

A prominent Elizabethan-Jacobean courtier, Greville lived from 1554 to 1628 and was a gifted poet. Warwick Castle was granted to him in 1604 by James I, and he was at one time Chancellor of the Exchequer. On leaving this post in 1621, he was raised to the peerage and given the title of Baron Brook.

The castle had fallen into a state of advanced decay, and from the date he acquired it until his death, Greville devoted his time and fortune to its restoration. The gardens he planted were said to be unparalleled in this part of England, though during the Civil war they were dug up for gun emplacements by the garrison defending the castle.

Inside the gloomy Ghost Tower, creaks, groans and mutterings emanate from dark doorways as one explores the two rooms, one up one down, in which Greville lived whilst the castle was undergoing repairs. As one climbs the stairs to the bedroom, low voices, recounting the chilling tale of the murder, penetrate the inky blackness. They tell how, while Greville and one of his man-servants are away in London, an argument breaks out between the two men. It concerns the contents of Greville's will, Ralph Heywood, the manservant, being convinced that his master, however generous in his plans for the restoration of the castle, has been less so towards himself. Believing that Greville has not bequeathed to him his rightful due he draws a knife and stabs Sir Fulke; after which, realizing the enormity of the deed he has committed, he turns the blade on himself and dies immediately.

Greville, however, lingers on in agony, until after 27 days, despite the efforts of his surgeons, he too succumbs. His body is brought from London back to Warwick Castle, and he is laid to rest in St. Mary's Church in the town. His ghost, it is said, still haunts the tower that was once his home; for dying an unnatural death, his soul is said to be unquiet. On his death, Greville being unmarried and without heirs, the estate goes to his adopted heir, Robert Greville, the second Lord Brooke.

Under Historical Skies - Warwick Castle, Great Britain

2011-09-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

Pursuant to the last post, a portion of my Under Historical Skies planetarium show shall feature Halleys Comet of 1301, as SEEN from Warwick Castle in Britain .. It would have been easily visible, this was around the time the castle was being rebuilt from wood to stone (although this may have been completed about 1315.

Warwick Castle (i/ˈwɒrɪk/ worr-ik) is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a bend on the River Avon. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century, when Sir Fulke Greville converted it to a country house. It was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978.

From 1088, the castle traditionally belonged to the Earl of Warwick, and it served as a symbol of his power.

The castle was taken in 1153 by Henry of Anjou, later Henry II. It has been used to hold prisoners, including some from the Battle of Poitiers in the 14th century. Under the ownership of Richard Neville – also known as "Warwick the Kingmaker" – Warwick Castle was used in the 15th century to imprison the English king, Edward IV.

Since its construction in the 11th century, the castle has undergone structural changes with additions of towers and redesigned residential buildings. Originally a wooden motte-and-bailey, it was rebuilt in stone in the 12th century. During the Hundred Years War, the facade opposite the town was refortified, resulting in one of the most recognisable examples of 14th century military architecture.

In the 17th century the grounds were turned into a garden. The castle's defences were enhanced in the 1640s to prepare the castle for action in the English Civil War. Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke, was a Parliamentarian, and Royalist forces laid siege to the castle. Warwick Castle withstood the siege and was later used to hold prisoners taken by the Parliamentarians. The Tussauds Group purchased Warwick Castle in 1978 and opened it as a tourist attraction. It is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument[1] and a Grade I listed building.[2]

Under Historical Skies - Halleys Comet in 1301

2011-09-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

The text is written by an anonymous astrologer from the collection edited by Lynn Thorndike

Latin Treatises on Comets between 1238 and 1368 AD . My translation from Arcana Mundi- Antologia del pensiero astrologico antico (BUR, 1995)

Many thanks to Eddy in Skyscript forum, who checked Halley ephemeris for 1301.

In the year 1301, in the first day of September, a comet appeared in the West and was visible for a month and more. Because of its circular motion it was evident for experts that it was moving because of the motion of the vault of the sky, from East to West. Now, the cause of its motion was in the place it was produced, i.e. the upper part of air, because the comet moved from East to West in a contiguous space between the Air region and the Fire one, in this way, because of motion of the Primum Mobile, the elements of the upper spheres move.
In the last day of September 2 hours and 40 minutes after the sunset, I started to study carefully its motion.

I took the turquet (1) and determined the map of the sky on the ground of three stars I recognises Abramec (2), Alfecam (3), and Altayr (4) so I found that the longitude of the comet, by signs and degrees, was at 20 Scorpio and its latitude at 26 degrees north. And Mars was in that moment at 20 degrees of Scorpio, direct in motion, so Mars and the comet were almost in conjunction, if we consider their places not along the circle passing through the World Poles, but along the circle passing through the Zodiac Pole.

Going on with the observation for many nights, I found that the comet, in addition to the mentioned motion carried by the Primum Mobile from East to West, it moved from North to South. And the day 6th of October, the feast of Sancta Fides, in the same hour after the sunset, I found its longitude to the 1st degree of Sagittarius and its latitude was of 10 degrees north.
Now, the cause of the motion of this comet from West to East according the order of the signs can be reasonably understood like delay and weakness of its motion in respect of daily motion. Since the virtue of the Primum Mobile is absorbed in a weaker way by the lower and more distant things from the Primum Mobile, so the Fire and the Air, in its upper part, can be left behind the daily motion of the Sun, so the Comet which is generated in those regions, make its revolution together with the Fire and the Air, but it is slower than the sky’s motion. For this reason the comet is behind the other celestial bodies which are in motion and so it seems to move against the sky motion, from West to East with a motion similar to the planets, but just because of its delay and the weakness of its revolution.

About the comet motion from North to South, I believe it’s the attraction motion, i.e. the Comet is attracted by Mars, from which was generated. Mars in fact, which was not exceeding the zodiacal southern latitude, was in aspect with the Comet, whose latitude was more than 20 N degrees. For these reasons the Comet seemed to move from North to South toward East, so its eastern longitude grew and grew while northern latitude decreased and decreased.
In the same way and for the same reasons its tail moved. In fact in the beginning of its appearance, its tail stretched toward North and following its motion moved Eastwards, inclining towards South to the stat which is called Altayr, i.e. Vultur Volans, which has a longitude of 21.15 Capricorn and a latitude of 29.25 N. And in this way, slowly, it moved towards Mars.
So, after having carefully considered the nature and the temperament of the producing planet and of the receiving sign of the comet and its motion and every other detail about its nature, which I omit in order to be brief, I will go to the judgement.
So I say that this comet, for its different and several causes, it means several accidents.
It means in fact strong winds and earthquakes in the regions which are in familiarity and sometimes a dryness of the air preceding profuse rains, but this because of “accidens”, i.e. because southern and western winds, which will cause clouds and rains.
And because of the corruption of the air, death and plague, famine and illness to the genitals, to the bladder and lungs and pains for parturient women and miscarriages and difficult deliveries and plenty of visions.

It means that there will be many fights between powerful people, wars and murders, and the religion of Moors will be weaker, and on the Earth thieves and robbers will be more and more.
It means wars, quarrels and massacre, the death of the kings, princes and nobles, the coming from the West of a King’s enemy and the King violence on his people and his lust for money. It means at last the destitution of courters and the unfairness of their acts that will correspond to a great hardship for them. So, Mars was in Scorpio, in which it has many rights because it has here the triplicity and the domicile: having 8 points (5) will make stronger the meaning of the comet.

These judgements are based on the most important astrologers, Ptolemy and Albumasar and Aly Habenragel.

And many poets talked about the meanings of a comet. Virgil in facts wrote in the ninth book of the Aeneid:
“Sanguinei lugubre rubent de nocte comete”
Lugubre, gloomy: he used the name as an adverb. And he calls the comets “sanguineos”, bloody because they mean bloodshed.
Claudianus adds, talking about the comet:
“Et nunquam celo spectatum impune comete“

A comet was never seen in the sky without a disaster.
And Lucanus, talking about the wonders when the war between Pompeus and Caesar was near, says that the appearance of a comet means a change in the kingdom.

(1) a medieval astronomical instrument designed to take and convert measurements made in three sets of coordinates: Horizon, equatorial, and ecliptic ones.
(2) Arcturus, alpha Bootis
(3) Alphecca, alpha Coronae Borealis
(4) Altair, alpha Aquilae
(5) 5 because of domicile and 3 of triplicity

A Tale of Two Windows

2011-08-24T04:25:00.000-07:00

Picture two windows .. hanging in space before you. There is a candle in each window, with but a subtle difference. In one, the candle is on the inside of the window with you. This is your life. Inside your safe and warm room, illuminated from within, looking out only occasionally. Your room is your life, boxed into four walls.. Now look at the other window .. this is what a planetarium will do for you .. the candle is still on the inside .. but YOU are on the outside, glancing back in. You are now free to look up and see not merely what the small window showed you from your room, you are free to see all of the cosmos. Which will you choose?

To stay in and look out? Or to go out and look up?

Its Done - I Am A Star Cylinder Builder!

2011-08-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

The Likert Star Cylinder is more or less complete, the only other two I know of are by Steven Smith and Charles Miller. This is a very select group of strange people! I will be publishing more on its construction and use.

Variability - Vary Vary Interesting

2011-08-19T03:41:00.001-07:00

Even more than permanent 'quirks' in your own sky, I am fascinated by 'variability'. If we live in a dark desert location, the sky might look the same every night. But mine never does, it varies each time I go out due to conditions, moon, partial clouds, light glows etc. With a home planetarium we can vary the light source, I get different effects with the LED than with the bulbs .. the advantage of a cylinder over a sphere is, you can vary the HEIGHT of the light source (with the cylinder upright) - to see the stars at different heights in the sky. Having a sky right down to the floor is necessary, another change Im finding has really paid off in making the sky seem bigger - much more sky is there before the inevitable curve gets intense towards the ceiling. The top part of a planetarium sky always looks the most unrealistic to me, theres just no sense of 'distance'. If you put your horizon glow on a dimmer, you can simulate different city conditions (mine looks like Im up on a mountain looking out and down. And lastly, we can vary projectors, starballs ..... we can literally have a different looking sky for every show if we have this variability, this flexibility built in.

My Unicorn's Brighter Than Yours!

2011-08-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

My Unicorn, the constellation Monoceros to be exact, is way too bright compared to the real one. Sue me. But I made my own planetarium, overdrilled the holes of this normally very obscure, faint constellation, and its way more obvious in my own 'night sky' than in mother natures. And I've come to think maybe thats a good thing. This realization hit me after I drilled and drilled starholes into my cylinder projector, waited about a week, went out to my theater and ... I got lost in my own sky. I realized then I really only knew a handful of 'greatest hits' constellations.

So my sky isn't perfect. Its got quirks, like its creator. I suppose these conversations never take place about planetarium night skies anymore, if indeed they ever did. I know I've never seen comparison charts on how this projector and that projector's Orion look, side by side. Today I doubt if most would know if an entire constellation were missing. But when I start giving shows, I want to assume the kids know Orion. I want to teach them about that unicorn, and he needs to be easy to see. Not too easy - I wont project up some fanciful picture over the stars .. but my stars will be a little easier in places to identify. I can't take credit really - I overdrilled them and left them as is.

So my unicorn might be brighter than yours. And thats not a bad thing.

Beacons in the Night

2011-08-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Does anyone here listen to the radio anymore?

I'm not talking about TV, or downloading music or even CDs. Im talking about spinning a radio dial. Even surfing cable with a remote isnt the same, because like as not youve got a TV guide available somewhere to guide your way. And we dont wonder where each cable channel IS, or where it COMES from .. a TV channel is just like a restaurant menu item, its just there for the choosing or leaving.

Not so with a radio. Or the stars. A radio is blind .. and stations are SOMEWHERE .. and they are broadcasting into the ether. Radios are blind, they just listen .. one can spin their dial at night say, and pick up who knows what .. much more at night actually, for the waves travel much further. Like the stars.. we can hear more.. and see more .. at night when we tune it. Radio stations waver in and out, like starlight. They require clear reception and can be blocked or interfered with, like starlight. These beacons in the night .. how we perceive and receive them varies with several things .. how powerfully are they transmitting? How far off are they? Station by station we may slowly turn the dial. But only one station at a time can be listened to..

Not so the stars. When we tune in with our eyes, this long distance radiation comes to us all at once.. all the beacons are visible together in the night sky .. some bright because they are near, some near and faint .. some bright because they are powerhouses, like some superstation in Chicao .. But its all long distance radiation thru the ether .. thru space .. to our eyes and ears ..

So some clear night, flip the dial of a radio .. listen to the din .. and realize too that the signals captured by your ears now are also radiating into space towards those same stars whose light rays you are receiving .. light and sound .. the waves will pass each other

Beacons in the night. They are out there. All we have to do is look. And listen.

Dont Build it for the Background

2011-08-04T03:22:00.000-07:00

I see it all the time at the cellphone store where I work, the moment a new device is purchased, we must accessorize! We must download a dozen new apps .. before we even know how to turn the device on. How many features on how many products have we never heard of, never read the instructions for (instructions? they went out with the box and receipt)... the 'thing' we bought quickly recedes into the background .. the cake disappears under the icing. Now maybe Im just an icing man but

The same seems true of building/restoring/acquiring a planetarium projector and dome. Im fighting it right now with my biggest ever star projector hand made - that 'ok its done, the stars are there.. now what' feeling. I need special effects! I need software to go with the hardware!. the Stars are Never Enough it seems. Im having to reel myself in and think .. I didnt build it for the background. Isnt that whats happened to most planetariums?

Why arent the stars good enough? Why isnt Rigel and Antares just as important as .. (insert 20 special effects and videos here). Is it because our imaginations have been replaced?

So I say, dont build it for the background. Keep the stars in the foreground. Effects, other subjects .. icing ... can be done of course in other ways. But enjoy what you so painstakingly have produced - the night sky.. first. It may be enough.

Its Bigger and Fainter Than You Think!

2011-07-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

Finally drilling a big star projector is a revelation all its own, revealing for instance Ive never really LOOKED at the constellations in relation to one another. By that I mean, yes, Geminii is bigger than Orion, just fainter. The three Orion belt stars arent as bright as I thought, they just are hard to miss where they ARE.. and no, they are NOT in a straight line, they bend a little .. Sometimes I think I've looked at too many starmaps and books and not enough of the real thing. Orion has an upraised club right? I see it in every atlas. Have I ever seen it in the real sky? That would be .. umm no. I dont know where it goes ... its just .. up there over his head someplace .. and his shield .. the shield is problematic .. its very faint and keeps appearing brighter in my newly organizing sky .. I guess stars together or in a special place seem brighter, just like some brighter constellations seem bigger when they arent! Creating the sky maybe means understanding the skys true appearance. Like the stars themselves, its a very humbling experience. Ive spent a week on Orion and Geminii. And they still arent quite THERE yet ....

Just Work Down, Thats Whats Up

2011-05-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

As builders of our own sky, sometimes ironically, the sky IS the limit .. in less cryptic words, we cant go up any further. Zeniths might be higher than our ceilings, our shed roofs, or in my case, how high my original-yet-inept carpentry could take me (limiting factor, my ladders and my sense of equilibrium, neither which are too good)... So what to do .. when you cant work up anymore, try working down!

Lower the horizon .. the projector .. the chairs .. I havent dug into the ground yet but the thought has crossed my mind .. seen in the accompanying picture, I needed more sky due to my not high enough roof in my remodeled main theater .. so I napoleanized it (a new verb, you heard it hear first!) - I shortend everything. it should look good in the dark, and now Ive got more sky for the same price!

So keep looking up, but dont forget to look down too. For as they say, space really has no direction. Just ask the guys standing upside down in China !

Black Vinyl, YOURE FIRED!

2011-05-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Ive had it up to HERE (well maybe, here... ) with black vinyl. I have bought my FINAL VINYL. Ive finally gone spasstic over plastic, excuse me if thats a politically incorrect term nowadays. I have bought enough black vinyl plastic to cover Delaware . over my home planetarium years for all manner of purposes... and in two massive trips to the Sumner Landfill today, I swore off black vinyl! I used it to make rooms dark ... but it doesnt really unless you buy the 4 MIL .. the lower versions let light right through! And with my carpentry, the wind ALWAYS brings down the corners .. there arent enough staples in Staples to hold it .. I'll have star shows when it gets dark if I have to .. go back to nature! but BUT then my biggest folly - use it to fight roof leaks!! But what happens over and over is .. it merely amplifies and funnels leaks into a torrent of rainwater in some corner .. while HIDING the sources .. then it sits around outside and collects rainwater, which hidden in the folds grows rancid .. the wind blows it all over the yard .. its goes everywhere, disposing of it means taking a shower in said water .. and so

black vinyl .. YOURE FIRED!!!!

i feel better now

'Making' Planetariums

2011-04-15T04:21:00.000-07:00

If I were to sum up what I've learned, 'making planetariums' means alot of different things to alot of different people. What IS a planetarium anyway? To some its a projector of the stars. To others, its a domed theater. To even more, its a model, functioning or static, which depicts the heavens or some aspect of them. Its childhood memories, and its teaching children of all ages. Its expressing that love in related art, reading related books, and writing related articles. Its maintaining and restoring the old, its inventing and reimagining the new in technology. Its combining scientific laws of optics, mechanics, geometry in ways that can be enjoyed from private lazyboys to public forums. Its bringing physics and romance into a garage or spare bedroom. 'Making' planetariums is finding new uses for old 'junk' or commonplace items. Its learning mythology and biography, and meeting people both deceased and very much alive today.

If I were asked, what do you mean, 'making planetariums', I'd actually be more hard pressed to say what it isn't.

Astro Enhanced Art

2011-03-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was frustrated, I couldn't find astro art that satisfied that odd mixture of science and emotion. Sure there was Starry Starry Night by Van Gogh .. stars dripping through the Paris(?) sky but where were my own mental images? Where was the secluded cove at Lake of the Ozarks watching the Cross slip into the darkened hills, time for Dad to fire up the 5 horse outboard and take us in. Where was Crux over south seas unimaginable as I stood for a few brief days on Maui and realized just how much larger the world was than my TV screen .. no art captured these emotions .. I found some pictures in old dusty shelf astronomy books and this brought the idea ..

I'd create my own .. enhance pictures I found that were ALMOST there in my mind .. the sunset, the sky .. the lake, the ocean . the scene .. how hard would it be to dab in some impressionistic yet realistic stars? Stars dont have to be pinpoints always .. we see them in our minds eye more a watercolor sometimes .. So I tried it .. I may make a collection .. just small additions

But is adding the cosmos to a scene small in any way? Or is it dreaming big?

I Might See my Future, and it Might Not be a Dome!

2011-02-25T12:07:00.001-08:00

Ive got dome-fatigue you know, Ive built them out of sheets, posters, panels, displayboards .. and they arent ever tall enough, or smooth enough, or domey enough .. or big enough, or white enough, or light tighted enough!

So I mused as I lay in bed and gazed up in the dark at my square victorian bedchamber, 12 foot ceiling lost in dim haze and I thought .. I want kids to build star projectors darnit! Or buy my little one, my cakebox, if you will .. and use it where? where gare? Why in their bedroom of course .. nobody but my beloved geeky friends (i fly my geek flag high) are going to ever build a dome, or buy one ... I need stars on the ceiling ... And other folks are already selling these (see picture)

So I might see my future, and it might not be a dome..

I might need to build a bedroom out behind the barn to give shows in .. it might ought to be square not round ... pie r squared.. isnt that math?

Stars on the ceiling. As I lie there in bed ..

DeClutter, but don't DePlane!

2011-01-26T02:50:00.001-08:00

Anyone whose lost a parent goes through it .. their 'stuff' remains behind ... I once visited a tragically killed amateur astronomers observatory at the invitation of his mother. What about our 'stuff' when we're gone? Its an invitation to declutter . to weed out things we wouldnt want to burden loved ones with ..

But if we take it too far, arent we deplaning? Getting off the aircraft that flew with our dreams? Destroying a little of who we ARE for a time when we ARENT anymore?

I say declutter and find out whats really important to you. Make a will, a list of where things should go in the event you do.

But keeping flying. You havent landed yet. Long may we fly.

Stars and Guitars (Back Then)

2011-01-20T04:11:00.000-08:00

I used to be much more interesting. Back Then... I was all stars and guitars.. maybe I could be again.

Pouring over the charts, it was dark at 5 on these long winters eves .. a telescope in the basement by the washer.. M42 after supper .. a sears silvertone on my bed, and new Black Sabbath to learn .. stars and guitars . I kept notebooks .. I wrote little songs .. my best friend had a big telescope and his own guitar and we'd play in the garage .. duane (allman) and ritchie (blackmore) we were .. chords and lead .. comets and galaxies .. it was so much more exciting than jobs and babies and houses and bills .. I bought them again but they sit unused mostly .. Black Sabbath is Ozzie in rehab .. the stars out back are the glow from the stores along the strip in my town .. my best friend has kids and grandmother sisters and I have college bills larger than house payments .. wherefore art thou, stars and guitars?

I used to play chess .. cruise to the music shops.. buy things secondhand .. I used to be so much more interesting .

Back then

all stars and guitars

Maybe I could be again...

You've Got To Build a Story

2010-11-23T04:44:00.000-08:00

You need to build a story. You need to develop content

I found this quote in an article, of all things, on getting a job in todays hyper competitive job market - extreme interviewing if you will .. but it hit home for planetariums at home too ..... it hit home that no matter how many gadgets I built, collected etc, people would probably say 'thats nice' and surf on to the personals on Craigs List ..

What compels us? Compel is my new favorite word, its been the subject of our sermon series at church these past weeks, and stories compel us. Content compels us. I realized that I have a tendency to just go on building forever, when I should be writing and performing in my vehicle. Its like building a record player then having a 1 record collection. A TV with only one channel .

I know, just when Im done I knock out a wall .. I turn a visitor center into a stage theater, I push aside my pyramids and start on a castle ..

Youve got to build a story - but there are many stories about these planetariums, about these stars, about these people who look at them. It should be easy right?

But its not .. there are so many stories out there in the ocean, I tend to stay on the beach ...

HPA Makes a Video

2010-11-13T03:18:00.000-08:00

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy1eKmyq1w0

It came about not because I always wanted to, or I even had a video camera. Sitting looking at my ancient digital camera one day, I found that it had a 'movie' setting I'd never tried. This only worked for a few minutes, but then it occurred to me that I had another better camera unused I'd won in a contest, and it took longer videos! So I did this in one take after having done a version of it the day before. Most of it was coincidental - the CD playing had just been done of the Big Bang, something I generated with music software 2 years previous, edited onto the beginning of a show tape. It was Tuesday and I was off. The Nasa stickers were from Owen and his museum of planetariums. This isnt even my planetarium, its in the barn proper and I just love theaters so made one with my egyptian theme. The light bulb at the end just happened to be there. The voice seemed like Hitchcock meets Masterpiece theater. Very strange but fun.

From WOW to WIN

2010-11-04T04:21:00.000-07:00

How do dreams get accomplished? First of all, do we have dreams? Pipe dreams, sleeping dreams, or waking goal oriented dreams, they all flit in and out of our minds eye like butterflies. But do we realize them?

Planetariums are like that for a few .. half remembered trips .. WOW like memories, but how can they go from WOW to WIN .. in other words, how can we realize these half glimpsed urges, visions today?

As much as we like to be eccentric backroom hermits, celebrating our oddities and workshops and tattered old catalogs, we really cannot do it alone.

The secret of going from WOW - remembering the wonderful feelings that the stars and planetariums evoke in us .. to WIN, holding these things in our waking lives .. is to surround ourselves with supportive people.

So that when I build an aurora projector out of a coke bottle, I do not get the blank stares, or apathy or even negativism (why are you wasting your time with this) . I get positive vibes, enouragement, more dreams and suggestions ..

It seems to me the only path from WOW to WIN is through others .. for a passion shared is a passion that will endure.

the hunger

2010-10-16T18:01:00.001-07:00

i have a hunger.

i want to sit beneath a projected sky and forget about all my troubles.

i want to sit and look at a horizon like adler had .. imagine the city i live in

i want to see stars as i would from the amazon basin. i want to see what i would see from the top of everest

i want to see what increasingly its hard for me to see

i have that hunger. to see what magellean saw as he sailed south along the s. america coast

i have that hunger. to see the southern cross like

i have that hunger.

i dont know why i am even to type this into a computer. it must be a strong hunger

what do YOU have a hunger for in astronomy ? planetariums?

it defies categories.

its just a HUNGER ...

its ok. we have it too gare

Nothings the Same except (the Stars)

2010-10-07T06:49:00.000-07:00

I read the Time Machine as a kid in the 60s, and unlike HG Wells grim depictation of time travel, I thought it to be the ultimate fantasy. And somehow, alot of it has come true for me!

The internet is a time machine. Pining for that old neighborhood, golf course, baseball field - Google Maps takes me there, albeit from above. Wishing I'd seen Uriah Heep in concert in the summer of 72? Youtube takes me there, front row. Wondering about that longlost Jr High friend? You can probably find him. I've done all three of these things in the last week. Time travel.

But what was it REALLY like? What can we see that is virtually unchanged since Cromwell saw it - the stars really (I know, sky phenomena change, pollution dims, some stars change positions quicker than others) .. but for all practical purposes, I can see the stars the same as Cromwell did.

This I admit is part of the fascination of the plaetarium for me .. I can go to the north pole and look up, I can get in a lifeboat and paddle out northeast from the Titanic . and see the same stars. We are bonded with the past by that. Yet who bothers to wonder?

Time machines are now on the screen before me. But theyve always been in the sky above me.

Its 2015 .. and in the past 5 years I've ....

2010-09-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Recently I've learned that an adventurer, and thats what we're SUPPOSED to be in life among other things, should start with the end in mind. A vision. A goal, but a detailed one .. in focus. It doesnt mean it cant and wont change, but you are more likely perhaps to stay on course if working towards a detailed picture. So here goes

Its 2015 - and in the past five years I've ....

become somewhat of a well kept secret in the Nashville area among school and scouting groups. I began in late 2010 with a standing ad in the local paper which at first attracted only a few random calls of interest, but once word of mouth took hold I get a couple calls a month for show appointments. This I had to keep flexible due to my shifting retail schedule, and at first I underdid it, with only 1 per month or so. The following summer I tried an advertising blitz and found I overdid it, I couldnt run this as anything more than a hobby and I've since found I have to be comfortable for it to be enjoyable, and found about 1-3 shows a week to be optimal for me.

At first I had grandios plans for workshops, planetarium kits, souvenirs, cd sales etc but found after about a year of failed experiments that I was basically in the EXPERIECE business - give visitors an experience they could only get in my barn. It was all about something different, and that wasnt hard if I followed my own heart, played to my own strengths, and had no expectations. After some time trying to emulate commercial shows I'd seen, shows Id watched, I finally settled on just being me

I found I needed some prerecorded things I could 'play' for visitors - some times I was too tired to talk, some times I imagined people viewed this more as an event or 'show' since I billed myself as a theater with stars just as much as planetarium. I also found I needed to talk and improvise every time too to keep it fresh and unique. I found I really couldnt know what to expect, some times questions were everywhere and sometimes the silence was deafening, with the adults obviously waiting for it to be over.

I ran it year round the past five years, most people could sit in an unheated place for 30 minutes without too much discomfort. I ran into things I hadnt bargained for - people needing to use the house bathroom .. people parking all over the yard .. kids running round the property in the dark ... I had to safety proof as much as possible I never charged admission, being fearful of 'business' liabilities and taxes etc ..

I continually developed new shows, going against my first impulse to develop a couple elaborate shows and 'run them into the ground' .. this got boring quickly and it was essential over the years to keep ME interested, this couldnt be a job. I was much happier when I completely divorced money from all my thoughts.

I found the public side of this weird hobby to be hard to balance with my previous, private 'HPA' side, building, writing about planetariums etc .. but over the years I thought both were worthy of attention and so kept them both as valued things in my life and hopefully the life of some others.

I didnt build what I thought I'd build .. I got lazy in that regard .. I built one other projector and was sortof happy with that .. never say never though

Over the past five years I've tried to remain philsophical about it all - Ive never rekindled the amateur astronomy thing, I never developed an interest in a portable planetarium traveling around, and I never really pursued my publishing dreams. Perhaps I am saving them .. its 2015, Im only 63, theres time yet (I hope)

Ive currently no plans to escalate this into a fulltime 'retirement' job, but I plan right now to keep it going indefinitely, as long as I can 'see' stars the thrill is still there, and I think right now it always will be

written Sept 30, 2010

Institutionalize!

2010-09-30T03:22:00.000-07:00

(From HPA Newsletter Issue 20)

We've all heard the old saying.. whether its a million dollar shortstop, the orchestra conductor of 30 years, or the guy who mops the floor for time immemorial... they're an institution. But how the word has changed.. museums are on thing, but its not the Smithsonian Museum, its the Smithsonian Institution. Colleges, Universities, they are ongoing institutions of higher learning, not fixed in a point of time, but preserving and growing at the same time. But theres a dark side..we placed him in an institution... A dead end.

So which is it?

What do you want to be with your planetarium? A hobby maybe, thats just you and invited guests - private. A shrine? Thats a static display with no living parts. A business? That invokes endless repetition of a formula designed to milk dollars. No I say, be the good kin of institution! Be the kind that has both ivy on the walls and children running in the doors. The kind that has generated lasting memories, and is planning future ones as well. One that has annual records on the shelf going back decades and also exciting visions to come. One that shares a legacy of joy, learning, and great times will go a long way towards your own satisfaction when you're hopefully rocking on that porch some day. Knowing you were involved. Knowing you were there.

Knowing you were an institution.

Stories and Myths and Facts, oh MY! Stories and ..

2010-09-27T03:17:00.000-07:00

It occurs to me, now that I have three places I can give 'shows' to the public, that there are roughly three categories of 'show' to give ..

Stories .. fictional or science fictional voyages concerning the stars
Myths .. the stories handed down from those cave paintings and Chaldean shepards and greek/roman dudes
Facts ... as Elton sang, and all the science I dont understand, its just my job five days a week (from Rocket Man)

Most planetarium shows I suppose mix and match these elements. Little of this, little of that .. Heres Cygnus the Swan of antiquity, Deneb is a blue supergiant, and kids, imagine the swan getting its tailfeathers wet in the milky way!

Im almost leaning towards using my 'childrens' dome for the stories - my own stories, I once wrote my own starmyth concerning the bears .. myths and history in another .. pyramids, castles, dragons, sinking ships in another .. with the stars as background and inspiration .. and facts, science etc in the third ..

a tripod if you will of interests, creative outlets, educational opportunities, inspirational venues ..

stories and myths and facts, oh my! stories and myths and facts, oh my!

Serendipity

2010-08-22T04:27:00.000-07:00

MM asked 'why do we do this'. Thoughftul answers have ensued. It strikes me that the few of us here, that have STUCK here are thinkers as well as tinkerers. Collectors but doers. Writers as well as engineers. Poets really in addition to opticians and electricians. Teachers in addition to artists. Musicians and scientists. Each in our own way, doesn't matter what we do for a living.

So why do I do it? I've seen Ron and Owen and Ken eloquent on this question, I see MM and Charlier equally eloquent. Recently someone new asked a similar question.

I keep coming back in my own mind to word I head George Martin use in his biography of recording the Beatles. Serendipity. A Blue Nun bottle left on a Leslie speaker cabinet begins vibrating at the end of a White album cut and they leave it in .. that sort of thing

Serendipity is a propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated.

Coined by Horace Walpole (1717-92) in a letter to Mann (dated Jan. 28); he said he formed it from the Persian fairy tale "The Three Princes of Serendip," whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of."

I wasnt in quest of any of this when I went to Adlier in 1964, or the Abrahms in 74 and heard the band in the starchamber. Those same weeks I probably went to movies, plays, classes, stores etc. When I projected stars in the closet I wasnt in quest of writing and giving shows, stuffing barns full of strange objects. When I bought a plant light I wasnt in quest of an aurora projector, it was just a yardsale trinket. When I had a Sky and Tel in my hand reading about a star cylinder in Arizona I wasnt in quest of HPA, I was looking at telescopes and planning on seeing M42.

Its like I'm exploring a cave and new undiscovered chambers keep opening up, dark at first but filled with wonders if I but shine in a light. Its like everything I do links in.. everything I remember. everything I ever loved or wanted to do keeps popping up

Why do I do it? Its my lifestyle now. I cant NOT do it.

Do Not Fear the Birthing Broth

2010-08-06T03:58:00.000-07:00

After spending 3 days with my retired father in Florida, I returned to my farm and drew comparisons. His is a pristine house, after losing mom 7 years ago he has functioned with signature frugality that I admire in so many ways. Returning to my farm (we've both been in the same place 25 years), I noticed a complete difference. Being a boomer, I don't know the meaning of 'frugal'. I have sheds full of stuff, and when they filled up I built lean tos onto lean tos, new sheds rose up .. and filled .. Now its true my father has his garage with an odd mixture of his fishing, hunting, mining (geodes, saphires) gear .. lawn care .. washer/dryer - typical garage fare .. but neatly arranged. Contrast the tiny covered work area I built onto the back of my planetarium - junk is piled in random piles .. and this despite innumerable trips to the landfill, a dozen yardsales .. the problem may be I keep bringing it IN ...

But I've come to call my junk 'the birthing broth' .. for where else can I find exactly the strange part I need to hold up a pyramid, or clamp on a twilight lamp. I gaze in awe at the cast metal fittings on commercial planetariums - I'd have used a coat hanger there, and a hose reel there .. but out of my stuff comes dreams.. they are birthed by ideas that lie in the woodpile so to speak

So whether you live in suburban pristine-ness .. or on an old country estate .. a friend of mine has stuff in airplane hangars .. another in an old tire shop .. or an apartment with a storage cage .. do not fear the birthing broth. Who knows what lurks there, what idea will see light .. today.

Dare to be Boring

2010-06-05T03:51:00.000-07:00

A friend the other sent a planetarium program he had written and produced on DVD .. I praised it, but he responded .. it was a bit boring, I'll do better next time. But shouldn't.. mustn't education be at least a LITTLE boring? Can education always be riveting?

If we accept education and entertainment as one in the same, boring is a problem. But reality all too often IS boring, and if we as planetarium builders arent a little geeky, we probably are in denial. Perhaps its time to embrace a little bit of our inner geek, and dare to be boring sometimes. Will this not lend a little dignity to the proceedings? Make clear this is education too, not just thrill a minute.

Include some arcane details in your show .. not too much, but for those present who are looking for deeper waters, an invitation to dive in cannot be such a bad thing.

Console-ation or the Odd Ballet

2010-06-03T03:49:00.000-07:00

To console is to make feel better - and I'm definitely needing some consolation in my home planetarium as my first show laboriously comes together - an hour to write and 5 years to produce! To wit - I dont have a console .. a control console, a place where all my switches may be conveniently switched. Surely this is universal in live performance - how do they see in orchestra pits. behind stages .. in the dark... but surely all their dimmers and faders and such are marching in glowing rows in front of them, ripe for the tweaking.

Not so the home planetarium such as me. For each effect - from the star projector on down .. has been home built. Some are electric .. some battery .. and they are mounted everywhere. Some are in the center on the projector support, where they hang like my parakeets to the side of their cage .. others are off to the side, precarious and hopefully pointed to where they will need to show a ghostly Orion etc .. some are not mounted at all - they will need to be grabbed by me at the opportune moment

And where are those switches? Some are on the side of duct taped flashlights .. one is inside a blackened tin can .. commercial laser levelers have tiny switches on the bottom.. some are knife switches .. some are 50's vintage variacs .. at points in my show I must reach in between five other effects to flip on a power strip which the whole star cylinder rotates upon ..

Is it any wonder the creation of these things took X time, now the placement is taking Y time, and then the actual smooth operation will take Z time. X plus Y plus Z = ?

So the next time we admire modern commercial anythings, let us take a moment to admire that organizing console - or better still, that remote control .. every at our fingertips.

I dont have console-ation.. rather I will be performing a rather odd ballet in the dark. Excuse me, for I must go now .. its time to hit the next switch .. and its way in ............. HERE ...

Where Time Disappears

2010-05-17T04:44:00.000-07:00

I've noticed a new Einsteinian effect when I'm working in my planetarium - time disappears! This is counter intuitive at first, for if I am master of my stars, my season, with the very night and day at my command, how can there BE no time?

Shut off from the outside world, hours don't seem to pass. Perhaps we have such easy access to time in the outer world .. we are never far from cellphones, watches, computers, the very sun itself in the sky .. that we always have an innate sense of what TIME IT IS, or at least how much time has passed .. its getting dark.. morning is wearing on .. the mailman just went by ..

But in the pristine chamber of our secret theater .. time stands still. I will go in to fiddle with a speaker or try a new effect .. and emerge after an imagined 10 minutes to find 2 hours in fact slipped by!

This is neither good nor bad in itself I suppose. But .. are we not happiest when we detach from time? Is that not the floating suspension of sleep .. the universal feeling of love, of having FUN .. the best times of our lives seemed to be timeless. Thus it is in my planetarium.

Therefore .. it is good!

It Really Is All About You

2010-03-23T03:56:00.000-07:00

What is a home planetarium?

Nobody KNOWS, because its undefined really, perhaps thats part of the charm. In my current introduction, I say something to the effect

Anybody here have hobbies? passions?
Anybody have more than 1?
Well, youre sitting in a combination of ALL of mine I wanted to share!

planetariums. history. astronomy. modeling. drama. music. construction. special effects. making things yourself. writing .

Picture the old one man band, with cymbals between his knees .. sortof that image

I think if I defy expectations, then its impossible to fail expectations. Maybe one group is silent and I feel lousy .. another is bouncing and want to hold the laser pointer and pass it around . thats why I keep insisting to myself you HAVE to pick up a guitar and play something during a show - alot of preachers down here in the bible belt even do that .. show people who you are ..

Its not supposed to be about US in life .. but somehow in a home built planetarium .. I kind of think theres no escaping that it IS about us

Because nobody else is this crazy

IPS Recognition!

2010-03-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

There has been a remarkable resurgence of the "Home Planetarium Association". The Home Planetarium Association (HPA) is the world’s first organized group of Home Planetarium builders, collectors, and enthusiasts! Founded in the mid 90s, HPA helps keep the dream alive of having your own star theater at home through a combination of how to tips, networking, and archiving. The main supporters are Ron Walker, a film producer, (walkprod@att,net) and Gary Likert who began this group. (mrgare5050@hotmail.com) Members communicate through an electronic magazine with a readership of over two hundred or more. http://www.planetariumsathome.com/

HPA has been somewhat detached from IPS for the past few years as our remarkable Observatory Central based resurgence has been a 3 year juggarnaut of activity, which has seen the rise of the Planetarium and Science Museum (to which HPA donated the first and only homemade planetarium, the Emmons/HPA projector made from one of Dick Emmons hand drilled starballs. As we look into the future, perhaps IPS looms larger again in our writings and networking!

Home Planetarium Quotes

2010-03-09T04:15:00.000-08:00

All my life I had dreamed of it, but it was absurd - nobody had the stars in their garage, their basement, their barn. But people do. Now I do too, and so can you. Dream. Dream BIG

For what is a dome really, an impossible yet impossibly graceful construct of curved nothingness that must be strong to contain the bowl of night, yet support only the unfathomably tiny pressure of the myriad starpoints

The HPA Philosophy: Make it don't buy it, convert it don't throw it away. Some junk is good junk. Upon dusty shelves may lurk treasures. Blessed is the messy back workroom. Its all about the gasp when someone whispers.. I see stars!

Ah good Professor! Its almost as if we spent so much time in the archives, we looked up one day and were amazed to find that we now WERE the archives....

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 thir portals onto infinity

quotes by gary likert

Home Planetarium Specs

2010-03-09T04:10:00.000-08:00

Drill Bit/Needle Sizes

mag hole size bit number
0-1 .076 - .089 48 - 45
1-0 .046 - .063 57 - 55
2-1 .040 - .033 68 - 60
3-2 .028 - .025 71 - 70
4-3 .0225 - .020 76 - 72
5 .0125 80

Lense your Star pinholes

The 9mm by 265mm lense sold by Anchor Optics
is currently the best lense for pinhole stars,
provide these for at least your 1st magntitudes for best results!

How Many Stars?

Mag Number
-27 1 (the big yellow one)
1 20
2 58
3 82
4 530
5 1600
6 4800

Starball Size

Fair 10 inch globe
Good 12 inch
Better 16 inch
Best 20+ inch

Light Source for starballs
Good 2.47 Volt Flashlight
Better Minimag LED
Best Stinger Streamlight LED

A Brief Planetarium Show - Act 3

2010-03-01T06:15:00.000-08:00

Act 3 - The Sun

Now that we've seen a few of the classical constellations of antiquity in our skies, we gracefully set the stars in motion as they wheel past and the night wears on. The later the hour becomes, the more we begin to see the evening constellations in the seasons to come - by dawn, we are seeing a preview of evening constellations almost 6 months from right now. Lets stop now just before dawn's light begins interfering with our starlight. Before we see our own star at close up range after its nightly absence, an experience we more commonly know as 'morning', lets stop to consider for a moment, what exactly is a star? Many people don't realize the sun is a star, and the stars are suns. There are many variables in why the two seem different - the most obvious being distance. Our sun is 93 million miles away - most stars we see are dozens or hundreds of light years away. Light can travel around the Earth 7 times in one second, so imagine how far it travels in a year! Though the stars may be far larger and brighter than our own sun, and most are, they are so far away they appear as tiny bright pinpoints sparkling in our sky.

Most people also don't realize that many many 'stars' we see in our sky are actually the combined light of double or multiple stars. These cosmic partner revolve around each other in an endless dance, having formed together in the distant past. Mizor and Alcor are just such a pair in the Big Dipper. Watch now as a red dwarf star dances around its yellow giant partner - its a sight seen only in telescopes and in slow motion - imagine how majestic such a sight would be from a nearby planet, as depicted here.

What is a star? We go back to the creation of the universe. The elemental building block of nature is the simplest of atoms - the hydrogen atom. The most elemental force of the universe is gravity, the attraction of two bodies together. Albert Einstein proved early in the 20th century that a body, or mass, creates a distortion in the very fabric of space which causes objects to be attracted, much like a ball rollilng down into a drain - this is how gravity works. Gravity attracts hydrogen atoms together - if there are enough of them, they compress and heat up. If enough heat builds up, nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium begins, which releases tremendous amounts of heat and light, then a star turns on and burns millions or billions of years. Each star you see in the sky is a giant nuclear furnance, turning hydrogen into helium and releasing heat and light. Einstein's famous formula tells us how much energy, E=MC squared. The E, or energy released will be equal to the enormous product of the Mass itself, in a stars case the hydrogen atoms, times the huge number C squared, the speed of light times itself! The bottom line is this - nuclear fusion releases enormous amounts of energy, and a chain reaction like this in a star can last billions of years. And so the stars burn on, revolving in their galaxies, as their spinning galaxies fly ever further apart from the Big Bang.

Now, without further facts or science or cosmology, perhaps the next time you witness the most predictable event in our very lives, the sun coming up, you will appreciate that which made our planet and our lives possible - the sun! And hopefully you'll remember where it came from, what family it belongs to, and where it is headed. The next time you see our sun come up, appreciate it! It is the founder of our feast here on Earth. We are its children. Hopefully it gives a whole new perspective to the well known phrase . good morning!

A Brief Planetarium Show - Act 2

2010-03-01T06:14:00.000-08:00

Act 2 - the Basic Constellations

Welcome to Sumner Skies Planetarium! Hows that for an entrance. Nothing like retracing the birth and evolution of the whole universe to set the stage for the stars in all their beauty and glory. We're looking at the sky you can see tonight from middle Tennessee, gorgeous isn't it? But actually, this is the sky you could see if everything was perfect outside after dark - no clouds, no moon, and no light pollution. Everyone knows you can't see through clouds, and the brightness and romance of the moon are actually hindrances to seeing the multitude of faint objects we see here. But clouds and the moon can be avoided. Its the third enemy of the stars, light pollution, that not many people know about. Its easy to understand though when you consider how much development there has been around these parts. As brightly lit cities sprawl outwards unchecked, as lights shine not only down where they're needed but up where they're not, the horizon glow gets brighter and brighter until our beloved sars are all but lost in the glare. This sadly is the state of affairs in all metropolitan areas now, including here in Gallatin. There is a movement towards low sodium, top shielded outdoor lighting, but it may be a losing battle. Still, we can drive to the country far away from the city and see the stars as they were truly meant to be seen.

The sky we see above tonight is virtually unchanged from the sky seen by our distant ancestors 2,000 years ago - stars move ever so slowly across our skies not because they themselves move slowly, but because they are so distant. So tonight here in the planetarium you are looking at virtually the same stars the cavemen saw as they struggled for survival. Today of course we have the thousands of yearold legacies of the constellations, or star pitctures - patterns in the sky in which the anicents thought they saw all manner of legendary and everyday beasts, birds, and objects from their world and myths. The beautiful cards encircling the walls of the planetarium depitc thse trantastic imaginings. More recently, we have star classifications applied to the brightness of the stars we can see above - from the brightest zero magnitude stars to the faintest 5th magnitude stars. We see the famous Milky Way, a faint band of light that one must have truly dark skies to even see at all - sightings from Gallatin now are reserved for the darkest, clearest nights. This is our own galaxy seen from within, the one we saw born out of the Big Bang when we began. The Milky Way is not milk at all, it is the co-mingled light of billions of stars too far and numerous to be seen with the naked eye. Ancients referred to the Milky Way as the 'backbone of the night', and its easy to see why.

The stars at night appear to move from east to west across our dark sky, much as the sun does across the brilliant skies of daylight. This of course, as in the case of the sun, is the result of the earth's rotation, not the stars movement. The stars do appear to rotate about the north celestial pole in the sky, a point directly over the North Pole of Earth. Marking the North Pole is the famous pole star, Polaris, tail star of the Little Dipper. The Little Dipper is faint, in the dead north of the sky, and it takes a clear night to make out. More famous is her big brother, the Big Bear, circling nearby. You may know her by her most famous portion - the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper is visible most nights of the year - note how the so-called pointer stars of the Big Dipper point to the North Star. Joining the stately Dippers of the North are the King and Queen of the night sky, King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of mythology. Cepheus looks like a house shaped figure skirting the Milky Way. Cassiopeia is shaped like an M or W flying round the pole. Need help seeing these four famous figures? Now can you see them? (at this point utilize constellation projectors and demonstrate other seasonal points of interest)

A Brief Planetarium Show - Act 1

2010-03-01T06:13:00.000-08:00

Act 1 the Big Bang

In the end, the question of where the universe came from, in the beginning, is a matter of belief. What came before the universe is impossible to view with our own eyes, and what happened at its actual birth happened billions of years ago. All we can see and wonder at is what the universe shows us today, not the end produce but the evolving form of the universe at this particular moment of its history. But even what we see out there is misleading, for we see each object as it was when the light reaching our wondering eyes left on its journey to Earth - in the case of distant galaxies that may be millions of years ago. Looking out into space is looking into the past. Observing what has happened since the brief dawning of our own astronomical observations, we can only project back to the beginning. Back to what the evidence supports might have happened. Back to the origin of the space/time/mass/energy mix we find ourselves in on Earth, and in our beautiful night sky.

Most scientists today believe in the Big Bang Theory of the creation of the universe. They believe that everything that was to be was originally compressed into a single point, a singularity containing the very basic building blocks of all that came afterwards. We represent that singularity here with a single point of brilliant light. What happened next happened with inconceivable speed and power. The singularity, say scientists, must have exploded in an unimaginable outpouring of energy and subatomic particles in every direction - and the universe was born. The outward bound particles began combining according to the ingrained laws of nature, growing ever larger and cooling as they sped apart at unbelievable speed. Gradually the universe began cooling, leaving a swarm of outbound proto-galaxies as hydrogen atoms formed, grouped, and turned on as the first stars, pinwheeling about themsevles in clumps to the eternal song of gravity, the most pervasive of the underlying forces. The galaxies were born as the expansion wore on towards infinity, their combined starlight shifting to the red end of the spectrum as they receded.

In the vast collection of galaxies was one typical spiral member, a huge pinwheel of stars we know as the Milky Way galaxy. Our galaxy. A spiral of billions upon billions of stars. Far outside in the flar-flung reaches of one spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy a smallish, normal yellow dwarf star was born about 8 billion years ago. Around this star revolved gas and dust, which over endless time grouped together to form planets, most importantly to us the Earth upon which we stand. LIghting our skies by day, this star enabled life itself to spring forth, including us. At night though we can still see, from within, our glorious spiral galaxy and a few of its innumerable stars as we continue our outward journey from the ancient Big Bang to we know not where.

Behold the stars!

A Brief Egyptian Module

2010-03-01T06:12:00.001-08:00

Themed Module 1 - Under Egyptian Skies

It is a leap of many years from our own backyard skies to those of the ancients, yet here is a time machine like no other available to us. Though the skies change slowly, we can still see the stars mostly as our ancient human ancestors saw them, linking us to them. And among those who left monuments and writings behind so that we may see what they saw, none may be better than the ancient Egyptians. For what monuments have stood the test of time like the Great Pyramids? Behold the pyramid of Khufu, largest of the three outside Cairo that hold so many mysteries of the ages. Mysteries of burial customs yes, for the pyramids were tombs, burial chambers for Egyptian royalty .. The pyramids were engineering marvels - we find evidence of whole towns housing laborers, who may have been slaves but may have been paid workers.. who seemingly somehow built these enormous lasting structures. But prolonged study of the pyramids provide many clues of the skywatching practices of the ancient Egyptians, who literally merged earth with sky for all eternity/

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is part of a three pyramid chain of lesser tombs on the plain of Giza, guarded by the famous Sphinx. The resemblance of their layout to the three belt stars of Orion is well documented, Orion represented one of Egypts most powerful gods, Osiris, god of death, rebirth and the afterlife. It is easy to see why, since Orion is such an imposing celestial figure then and now. But there is more ... two thin shafts connect Khufu's actual burial chamber with the outside of the structure ... originally thought to be airholes, they roughly align with Orions belt, and the then pole star Thuban in the Constellation Draco. In 2550 BC when Khufu ruled, the earths skies appeared to revolve around Thuban as they do today around Polaris, our own North Star. The building of these shafts is an engineering marvel in itself given the huge size of the stones .. how they were aligned so precisely to important stars compounds the wonder!

The most famous star in ancient Egyptian skies was Sirius, the dog star, brightest still in our heavens of today. Sirius would rise in the dawn at the beginning of the Nile River flooding season - the Nile was vitally important to Egyptian life, agriculture, and trade. Egptian priests who learned to site Sirius first appearance in the dawn sky could predict the flooding, giving them considerable power and influence. Sirius follows Orion in the sky, and first appears at dawn during late summer. When we view our sun rising with Sirius gleaming fitfully on the horizon, think back about what it must have meant to these ancient, intelligent people.

The Egyptians had many star myths and legends just as we do today. In addition to Orion being Osiris, the Milky Way represented the sky goddess Nut, giving birth to the sun god Re. The stars were represented by the goddess of writing, Seshat, and the moon by Thoth, the god of wisdom. Even the horizon, something we today never think of, had significance to the ancient Egyptian skywatchers. The rising sun was associated with Horus, child of Osiris and Isis. Re was the strong noontide sun - think of the incredible heat and light of the noonday sun in the Egyptian desert and its easy to see why this was their most powerful god. The setting sun however was named Atum, the creator god. It was he that lifted the pharohs from their Pyramid tombs into the stars - the redness of the setting sun was his blood as he died. Egyptian immortality was tied together with this daily birth and rebirth of the sun and sky.

They Egyptians called the northern circumpolar stars 'the Imperishable Ones', for they never set .. but in truth their entire culture is Imperishable for us since they preserved so much legacy and history. Like the stars, their monuments, writings, and memory seem to linger on into eternity.

A Cakebox Full of Stars

2010-02-23T04:25:00.001-08:00

Its Built .. On With The Show

It strikes me as odd that most endeavors in life are not like this .. we fly the airplane as we built it mostly, jobs dont stop as we train .. if we switch jobs/careers there is urgent pressure to get back in the game .. some game... any game like I had to .. I didnt grow up wanting to sell cell phones... most things the signposts come hot and heavy .. exit one mile! college in September! the baby is here in December .... you'll be 70 in X year s...

so into the midst of this built it as you fly it world we seem to live in .. comes this leisurely thing called home planetariums ... and look at me.... i need another year to get my power cords organized ... give me another 3 years and i'll write a show ..

NO MORE! March 1st .. Its BUILT. its refreshing really ... i wonder if broadway productions are like that .. still painting scenery opening night . oh well

somewhere in the back musty corner of whats left of my mind I keep hearing this description of the universe that may fit this pursuit .. maybe it was carl sagan in cosmos who said it

somebody said it .. the universe is finite, but unbounded ...

ive been living in an infinite, unbounded illusion .. time to come to grips with the finite part. Ive still got unbounded to built gegenschien projectors .. but at least I'll have something concrete at last ..

We need markers in our lives, some are given to us .. birthdays, anniverseries.. milestones .. last weekend I visited my son away at college and was stopped in my tracks .. in his dorm room was MY SIGN .. dream big ... I liked that so I stole it! said he .. and then I realized some kind of torch had been passed .. my kid is showing the dream big sign to the future while I sit here on my farm ..

i dug up this picture .. the future, and the past .. the little starbox not only the museum inspired, but that cakebox that started me when I was his age.. the past and the future, taken root in today .. a cakebox full of stars.

The Art of Being Subtle - (and Bulb Busting)

2010-01-20T07:16:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-01-19T04:25:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-01-15T03:44:00.000-08:00

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.

The New Day

2009-12-16T07:44:00.000-08:00

As the planetarium chamber slowly darkened, lecturer Stanley Gardner glanced resignedly around the room. Fifty eager fight-grade chins were already upturned in restless anticipation of the show to begin. It would be Stanley's fourth and final show of the day to be exact, and it had been an unusually busy Saturday at the Science Museum. 'Oh well, better get to it', he thought grimly. 'Maybe one of THESE is the next Newton, you never really know.

With that, Stanley plunged the chamber into complete darkness, resulting in a gasp from the neophyte crowd. 'I see a star!', yelled one junior Kepler, as one by one the children began to note the faintly gleaming points of light in the dark vault overhead. 'Somebody pushed me!', squealed a high pitched voice over to the left - whether it was female or male Stanley didn't know or care. To silence the usual brouhaha that almost always erupted at this point, in the most authoritiative voice he could muster after the long day he began his lecture. And things went well through most of the show. He was quite aware that only a handful of kids were making any real effort to follow the various stars and other sky phenomena he was patiently explaining. But if the rest gained even an iota of curiosity about the universe, Stanley figured he'd done his job. And there was always that elusive 'fun' factor, which might lead a young person to come back if nothing else. Such was the life of the planetarium professional who dealt with student audiences on a regular basis.

Stanley was not quite through this particular lecture however when things began to go wrong. After briefly mentioning the annual Perseid meteor shower, he had turned to the southern Milky Way, where he always wrapped things up with the galactic grandeur. Suddenly a 'whoop' went up from somewhere behind his back. 'Mr Gardner - I saw one!' yelled a boy's voice from the back row. 'There's another BIG one!', it cried out again. Stanley slowly turned around in the darkness. 'Yes?' There's another big WHAT young man?', he asked impatiently - this wasn't supposed to happen, and his dinner was being delayed. 'A PERSEID METEOR sir. I saw it!', came the shrill reply. 'Now that will be enough young ..', Stanley began in a stern voice, but he cut off when he caught something out of the corner of his own eye. Was it a flash of light? Before he could react, a loud 'oooh' suddenly erupted on the other side of the room. This time Stanley whirled in time to see it too. A long graceful meteor could be seen arching down through the Great Square of Pegasus, leaving a softly glowing trail.

The increasingly roudy young crowd began applauding and gasping as suddenly, meteor after meteor began streaming across the planetarium sky. Mr. Gardner stood stunned, his lighted arrow pointer dangling where he had obliviously dropped it. Stunned, because unlike the wildly entertained children, Stanley knew that the Science Museum owned no meteor projector. Indeed, no projector existed that could reproduce the raining meteor spectacle unfolding above their wondering, upturned faces. As Stanley stood transfixed , he slowly became aware that the excited kids had now begun whispering about something else.

Then he saw it too, the streaming meteors had begun fading into a subtly growing light in the dome's eastern sky. By this time his mind had begun reeling, and a dizziness was overtaking him. The kids giggled as a cool, fragrant breeze began blowing into their faces. A chorus of crickets chirping could now be heard, giving way to the faint but unmistakable sound of a distant cock crowing. All at once a blinding ray of light pierced the eastern horizon, brighter than a thousand simulated planetarium suns. A few fluffy white clouds appeared, floating lazily into the rapidly bluing sky.

And as the children happily burbled on, Mr Stanley Gardner, planetarium professional, settled down at last into a comfortable empty chair and waited breathlessly to see what the New Day would bring.

The Night Before Christmas!

2009-12-16T07:43:00.001-08:00

Twas the night before Christmas
And under the dome
Not one star was shining
Not even at home

The stockings were hung
Hoping someone would send
A replacement star bulb
So that darkness would end!

But in my kerchief
So regretful you see
Finally settled in bed
Without one L E D

When up on the dometop
There arose such an OOOF
I stumbled outside
There's some guy on the roof!

The crest of the dome
Slowly groaned neath his weight
And the new fallen snow
Soon gave way - not so great!

But he slid down the sides
And went straight to his work
My projector he opened
Wait, who is this jerk?!

But he laughed and assured me
That he was no ringer
And then Stars, how they stiired me
He'd put in a Stinger!!

After stockings were filled
Then he fingered his nose
And he knew I was thrilled
As up the domeside he rose!

But I heard him exclaim
Now believe me, ol gare
Merry Christmas, and look!
Yes, he left me some spares

A Christmas Gare-Ol

2009-12-16T07:40:00.000-08:00

A Christmas Gare-ol

Bah HUMSPITZ screeched Gares-a-Geezer Scrooge - it must be distinctly understood that this makes a good story, but is it true? No. Gares-a-geezer Scrooge ran the only Planetarium in OLDE LONDON TOWNE, but attendance had plummeted since Scrooge had installed a drive-through window for carriages to 'improve cash flow'. BaH HUM ZEISS I tell ye! Scrooge yelled at Bob Crunchit, Scrooge's hapless young apprentrice - no-one knew what a 'prentice' was exactly, though clearly Bob was one. I suppose you want ALL DAY off for Christmas! Bob desperately needed a day off from the Planetarium. Scrooge was such a miserly planetarium owner, he had cut back on stars, and Bob had eye strain

trying to point out to patrons the Three Sisters, and the No-Longer-Supersized Dipper. YOU BETCHA! Bob shouted as he ran out, narrowly dodging the rather imposing 10 foot spectre rising up out of Scrooges ancient OhNonos projector. Scrooooge! bellowed the ghost.... you've pawned Orions BELT haven't you!?... The miserly miser winced and tried to hit the dimmers, but they didn't work on the ghost of old Barley, Scrooge's long dead partner (he had been long dead, although he was also long, if you see what I mean). He doesn't have any PANTS, why's he need a BELT? countered the witty miser... but to his dismay Barley's unamused ghost (the worst kind) advanced undimmed, aiming a ghastly arrow pointer Scrooges way.... You will be visited by Three More Ghosts ... and all at once, since this website doesn't have much space. Repent my old partner! And stop overcharging in Ye Olde Gift Shop!!! With this final warning Barley vanished, to be replaced round the dome by three new spectres.

I AM THE GHOST of planetariums past! intoned the first, a dumbbell shaped apparation who lumbered forward as best he could towards Scrooge... Less Lasers, more Science!! the ghost demanded, tweaking the miser's nose as he vanished. I AM THE GHOST of planetariums present! squeaked the second, a round ball-like spirit who rolled up against Scrooge's trouser leg.. I am Globo-Whatever-Star-Stuffer, and you need less stars, more VIDEOS! Scrooge winced once more but was silently agreeing to cut even more constellations when the mysterious sphere vanished - now a third dread glimmer stood before him. I AM THE GHOST of planetariums future! I am nothingness, for in the future who needs planetariums.. project yer fake stars on Facebook and forget them! .. and he was gone.

But Scrooge suddenly saw the error in his ways.. he cancelled his lasers and movies, turned on ALL his stars again and repented, vowing to stay open for all Londoners to appreciate heaven's bounty. And Bob Crunchit returned to work the day after Christmas and resumed showing the public all Seven Sisters, Orion's belt, and even Leo Minor. And so, as his skinny son Tiny Slim was fond of saying.. may the stars bless us .. may the stars bless us

EVERYONE!

Sometimes the Dream

2009-11-28T04:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we have the Dream. And sometimes the Dream has Us

Photography is one of those dreams many people seem to have. I think like other passions, its good to examine from whence it comes .. what is the wellspring that is inside that drives it. Some dreams are accomplished, then we can rest. Maybe your portraits were like that - unfinished business that is now complete. I know playing live music and writing music was like that for me. Traveling places - climbing mountains .. we do it till its done, then we can be content. We see to make it a lively would mean to take wedding photos endlessly, or to play bars the rest of our lives. Or to give mountain climbing lessons. We have the dream. We come to terms with it eventually. If we do not, we have regrets, and no one should have regrets. I vow to not have regrets.

But it begins to seem to me there is another category entirely. We dont have a dream .. A dream has US ... and it wont let us go. Thats what writing, planetariums, and some of the music I did began to look like. Maybe your photography is like this. It wont be content .. the tail wont stop wagging on the dog. Im not sure it wants to be discovered or to make it big ... Im not sure what it wants .. but it keeps knocking on the door . beckoning .. The only way to figure out what IT wants, since the dream has US, is to figure out what drives it. Where it comes from. Why this wellspring never runs dry . Again though, to ignore it is the road to regret.

Seems like when we have the dream, we can either achieve it, or at least come to terms with it. But when the dream has us, we are in for a more uncertain, but certainly wilder ride. We don't know where it will take us, this dream.

But I wouldn't let go.

For It Is a Feeble Light

2009-11-03T11:10:00.000-08:00

I am taken back by the garish light of day, and i am called gare-ish ..

Routinely I run from sunlit fields into the dark of my humble planetarium chamber, and my eyes cannot relate.. I burned out another projector led bulb today .. I come from light into eternal night and i cannot see my stars.. so I goose my projector up and up and up till i burn out the bulb

for it is a feeble light. that light of the stars

the past week without sleep have i been, yet the stars were absent .. luna held sway, bathing my victorian house in fitful pale illumination thru my floor to ceiling wavy glass windows.

even then the feeble light of the stars was hindered.

and thus it is ever so in my own star theater .. i must camp there in the garish light of day for 30 minutes if I am not to burn out a bulb until i can see that feeble light

that feeble light of grandeur . how we take for granted the night vision

and little realize that our eyes mostly are attuned to the grandiose lights of broadway .. the strip in vegas ... walmart in gallatin

how little we realize how quickly we miss that feeble light that is eternity. g

2009-10-27T06:26:00.001-07:00

Public outreach is so important to us all: afterall, todays' children are tomorrows architects of the future.
Public outreach is so important to us all: afterall, todays' children are tomorrows architects of the future.
Public outreach is so important to us all: afterall, todays' children are tomorrows architects of the future. by Owen Phairis aka Professor Fantastic

This is going to become the HPA Mantra going forward, with full quote credit to Prof. Fantastic. It hit home that the future is in giving, not hoarding, in a recent incident I have captured with the following true story from 2 weeks ago!

I was squirming in Church two Sundays ago. The topic was money .. giving .. and I knew I had issues. Who doesn't? Alot of people don't. But apparently far more do. Like me. The pastor, an eloquent imposing man over 6 foot 4 in height, had implored the congregation that by giving you received more than you could imagine. A special envelope was included in the program. Now I give a 25 dollar check each and every Sunday. I recently completed a 2 year pledge to help build several new campus childrens centers. That was expected. But this was beyond. I fidgeted... finally with a supreme shrug, not believing a word of it, I forced myself to remove my wallet, take out my last bill, a 10, and put it in the envelope. I just made the plate as it went round. I left church vaguely thinking maybe I should be more cynical.

Two days later Im working at my Sprint Store. Over 5 years I cannot but help size customers up - form judgements that are sometimes spot on, sometimes grossly mistaken or unfair. I do not let this affect my job performance, but its a human thing I tell myself. In hobbled a little old man - with an oxygen tank.. he slowly plodded towards me and I saw that I needed to help him. No hiding in the backroom, no putting him on the list and hoping someone else would get him. I had him. He literally had to gather breath before he could speak .. he needed another phone activated, his ancient cellphone wouldnt work anymore, almost like his body I couldnt help thinking .. as I put onto his line his equally ancient spare phone, he smiled at me .. a crooked smile. I told him about new phones, I couldnt be sure he heard me. But as he slowly began to leave, he held out an almost clawlike, limp hand to shake mine. I forced myself to shake it, and helped him to the door. And resumed trying to make money, my way..

After he had left I returned to my station, and before I could wait on the next customer, I noticed something crumpled up beside my keyboard. It was a ball of paper, or something.... Picking it up, I unwrapped it..

It was a 10 dollar bill.

Had the old man tipped me? Tips were unheard of in my line of work. No I came to realize .. the 10 I had given came back to me.. in a way not only proving the point, but in a way I would examine my preconceived notions about alot of others things too. And alot of other people.

I put the 10 back in the plate last Sunday. Without a single regret. g

the birth of Cakebox Productions

2009-10-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

How did I get interested in Home Planetariums? With a cakebox ..

In 1967 on Holly Court in Villa Park, outside Chicago, I took a cakebox from the old Topps Department store up on North Avenue and punched star holes into it. Then I took a flashlight bulb on a board, hooked it up to 2 D cell batteries, and carried this contraption to my friend Alan's house.

In a darkened bedroom, Alan first said 'I see nothing'... After fiddling with the wires however, Alan then proclaimed ... I SEE STARS! I was hooked for life but this interest lay dormant until the 90s, when I purchased a Dick Emmons starglobe and HPA was born.

A recreation of that first cakebox may be seen on HPAs website www.planetariumsathome.com

Traction

2009-10-15T03:24:00.000-07:00

Traction

I keep thinking of certain famous bands I used to read about - before a long tour, they'd rehearse just like the real thing .. they'd play full sets, full energy, bring in people (like movie test screenings).. full lights .. effects... sleep in hotels (like NFL football teams do even at home before games) ...

Theyd be like a car revving at floored speed, but with the rear wheels lifted off the ground

So when the very first people came to see them for real .. it wouldnt be like they were starting out .. it would be like they were already in mid tour glory .. and people would assume this .. they would wonder .. wow.. where did all this come from.. it must have always been here!

When those rear wheels hit the pavement for whatever we do .. Im thinking it will be like that for us ... wow look at this planetarium museum .. look at this thing this guy has on his farm .. its been here for YEARS ..

before it finally got TRACTION .

The Bygone Parade

2009-10-09T03:50:00.000-07:00

The Bygone Brigade

Theaters and Popcorn Machines. Tessla Coils and Waffle Irons .. what do they have to do with Planetariums? Everything and nothing... they do far different things, or do they? Picture a fantasy parade .. all of humanity's creations perhaps marching down Pasadena Blvd .. the Rose Parade of Progress.. there are people in the crowd that appreciate the basics .. they applaud Alec ... Alec-tricity... they applaud Steam.. and King Coal .. and Iron and the older crowd (much older) digs Bronze .. the Romans are out in force for Marble.. why arent marbles made of marble, or were they? In our parade of the Progress. many in the crowd squeal approval for Henry Ford.. Thomas Edison .. Einstein .. Michelangelo . All inventions parade down the boulevard, but there are a few in the huddled masses that look for stranger marchers ... here they come! Dumb-bell shaped Star Machines! They roll on carriages, they lead a strange menagerie of zoolike machines that most people know but few .. appreciate ... Carmel Apple makers .. Sno Coners.. Cotton Candy Blowers .. and here come the carnival rides ... A Tilt a Whirl rolls by .. Ferris Wheels also careen down the boulevard .. and bringing up the rear a literal zoo of yard sale refugees... Wood burning kits .. Bedazzlers .. a Slide Rule Marching Band, followed closely by a band of all the instruments nobody plays .. Bass Flutes and Clarinets .. Saxophones and Sousaphones, neither of which make calls as phones normally do .. And so the parade passes .. the icons of progress .. the staples of every era of life .. and lastly the bygone brigade.. planetariums .. phone booths .. ringer washers .. hand cranked pencil sharpeners .. model trains of all gauges

At last the Icons and the Bygones have passed .. the crowd fills the streets behind it as it passes .. wondering what next will join the neverending march. And wondering what is now among us that we cant see .. we take for granted .. that tomorrow will suddenly turn charming, and join the Brigade.

Little Fires Burning in the Night

2009-09-11T04:06:00.001-07:00

Little Fires Burning in the Night

Home Planetariums as we have defined it, is almost as if we havent defined it, thats why I think we see so many posts on so many related topics. Most other areas are sharply focused on one thing - even our other projection stellarium folks, while sharing our diversity for domes, are very focused on only one type of delivery system, and they have little history to draw from. The observatory folks have also this diversity of buildings, but add in a diversity of instruments, yet the instruments are not the focal point. We on the other hand have as many focal points as there are stars in the sky. I believe this movement we have started has no end, because it has such an incredibly diverse base. And as time passes, more and more commercial machines become available! Home built machines will never repeat themselves. There will always be toys coming out that can be brought past the toy stage. And the buildings, domes, and presentations will never end, I've spent much of my time trying to get the music end of things more creative - not content to put on 'a record', I feel this is a major area (with people like George) that other creative endeavors can be involved - yes we can end up on youtube and myspace and facebook .. So we are like a United Nations.. with as many outlets as these massive deathstars .. we add a lense to each outlet, each possibility, and bring it into focus.

Its ironic that Home Planetariums mirror in analogy these actual beasts. Perhaps amongst the stars of our multi-faceted interests, we the people are the Milky Way flowing through them, the pathway of souls. The campfires .. I've often thought of us that way.. little fires burning in the night. gare

Institutions Come in All Sizes

2009-09-08T04:25:00.000-07:00

We think of institutions as marbled edifices, wizened societies of distinguished board members wielding trust funds and vast budgets.. but it need not be so! We can become our own institution .. for what is it really but some seat of activity, learning, enthusiasm, or enduring force. We can be that .. you can create a theater, a visitors center, a gathering place, and over time if you believe in it, it becomes an institution. I have done that with HPA and Sumner Skies Planetarium, even on such a tiny scale as it may seem presumptious .. but consider

we are listed in the IPS guide - twice

we have a backlog of newsletters

we have contacts in the industry and past

we are HERE today ..

and perhaps most importantly, as I think any institution would agree, our best days are ahead of us .. yet to come .. we have only scraped the surface of not only our fellow enthusiasts but the public at large.

Become an institution if you can. And you can. Give yourself a name, and open your doors.

And as time goes on, whether you grow in size or numbers (and you will if you will it), you will still grow in gravitas. In experience, in legacy, and in memory.

You will be an institution.

Its Ok to build a Halfway House

2009-03-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

Something has struck me about planetariums, when you go to build your own, the theater is daunting. We start out wanting to recreate that 'surrounded by the starry heavens' experience, but soon learn an even modest dome is well .. celestial in size. But do we always have to build the whole dome? How good really is our peripheral vision - we cant really SEE the whole vault of heaven all at once usually.

There is a solution .. for those of limited space, or budget . build a half dome. Like the Renwalls Cosmorama of old, can the projector not turn and provide differing directional views on a half dome surface? Suddenly building requires alot less ..

Put your projector on a turntable .. seat your audience all in one direction just like the tilt dome big boys do .. and have at it.

Full dome of course will always be special. But you can build a halfway house for alot less and reap most of the same benefits ..

and isnt getting there, as always .. half the fun?

Perpetual Change

2009-03-17T03:14:00.000-07:00

There may be an important difference between a public professional planetarium and a home planetarium - in the former, while of course up to date equipment and varying programs are a necessity, it is still a production space, a place of business, meant to put through the maximum possible people or patrons.

Not so the private planetarium.

While patrons may be a goal, and they surely add atmosphere and purpose, the private home planetarium may thrive more on perpetual change. We are hobbiests and dreamers as much as educators and showmen. Therefore a static theater can become boring.. sitting there 'in case' the phone rings and a group wants to come out.

To me, the home planetarium has to constantly shift - the configuration, even the instrument. What Mr or Ms random viewer sees may have been in the dome a year, or less than a day .. its this endless fascination, this tinkering and building, that keeps the pursuit alive for us.

The Chicken or the Egg?

2009-02-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

There is a very interesting approach to how planetariums come to be.

The chicken or the egg, in this case, being the support stand/console/et all vs the starball/cylinder/dodec/lunch pail .. Which comes first?

In my current mystery project, the stand came first, found at goodwill. In the case we see here, the stand is to accomodate a waiting star mechanism. Owen found a chicken for his egg .. I started with the chicken and then needed an egg ... Im getting hungry for breakfast! Finding this stand, moved this mystery project to the forefront - the personality of the machine in this case would flow literally, from the ground up. Naturally, this got the ball rolling and I moved it to the head of my project list.

The star mechanism is easy to put off till last since if you are building it, it will take the most time and care. If you collected one fully formed though, it is easier to get this first. Myself, I cannot see putting in the hours to create a starball without having the mounting first, so I can test it as I go, see the sky being born before my very eyes etc .

So which comes first? Well it depends I guess! gare

thoughts on Owens Planetarium Museum

2009-01-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

HPA said DREAM. Owen said DREAM BIG .. indeed

Yes Im going to have to add a BIG to my own DREAM sign (seen on planetariumsathome.com).. i noticed also the new Planetarium Network picked up on the dream theme as well.

I will tell you this. Seeing the emmons projector gives me a thrill every time I visit the museum website, which is a couple times a week to marvel.

This entry is being written the day after Obama was sworn in, hence the Lincoln references. HPA is delighted and honored to have two quotes on the Museum website.

But seeing my two quotes as well.. Im done.. no more quotes .. but to me.. if I could have my wish.. my dream .. that those words might live on for people past my lifetime.. equipment .. stuff... gets scattered over time . .. but words can live forever. I was reminded of this watched the inauguration festivities, which recalled my own visits to the Lincoln Memorial. The statue didnt move me that much.... his WORDS carved in marble were forever though... bind up the nations wounds... and the war came . with charity towards all .. in our own little way, i hope someday people are researching us.. collections may be dispersed. the ravages of time take their toll ..

but what we put into words can ring down through the ages. so to me, we must be caretakers of not only THINGS .. but THOUGHTS ... as we found the ability to express them.. or as old abe said .. as god gives us the ability to express them.

Maybe thats our REAL legacy. Maybe not. I dont know. but in a day yesterday looking back, looking forward. as in last weeks looking from the back room to the show room.. these thoughts have been on my mind. HPA has been a forum for these kind of thoughts. But never have they had such a stage as the Museum.

g

From the Backroom To The Showroom

2009-01-17T04:39:00.001-08:00

From the Backroom to the Showroom

All my life i was a backroom guy .. hidden back behind the water cooler and the coffee machine - there i was .. see me! back behind those cardboard boxes ... and happy to be there .. i would balance your reports .. i would gopher your shipments... i would manage 20 professionals as long as we were doing backroom transactions ...

then it changed for me .. i was forced to go into sales... and backroom gary was facing JANE AND JOHN Q PUBLIC and they were buying but they werent always amused.

and i became FRONT ROOM gary. and i won awards.. trips to hawaii.. video projectors .. i found my background drive worked in the front room too .. the best of both worlds..

you see i could be that green shade accountant.. that totally committed faceless machine ..

and i could be a huckster .. a hawker .. a salesman .. but with empathy and humanity ..and believe me its made me alot of money

and then i found my secret passion was portraying the stars... and i went through the VERY SAME CYCLE that i had in my professional career .. and to kickstart it all i went back to the same villa park il neighborhoods.. the same early friends. the same memories .. passions ..

and i found myself on the same path .. backroom for soooooo long ... acquiring.. lusting.. building .. collecting.. acquiring..

but then i saw it

i saw it

like my career.. i had been trained .. gandalf told merry and pippin and frodo and sam much the same when they asked ... how shall we save the shire? gandalf said .. thats what you have been trained for

so owen and me. maybe you? weve been trained in the backroom .. but for a larger purpose ..

alot of planetarium pros no doubt have followed some of this .. some to the fore.. some remain in the back

but WE ARE PIONEERS .. we arent taking jobs at establishments

we are GOOD ANCESTORS .. blazing trails. we are .. if we but see it

and so we have been in the backroom... i was until recently

we move to the showroom . it doesnt mean we have to stop what we were about

but we need to see the expressions on kids faces

because in the end .. we might remember those more... we might.... gare

HPA Quote

2009-01-02T03:32:00.000-08:00

From the optical wizardries of industrial giants to your corner hardware store - from scientific legends to enthusiasts tinkering in garages and barns .. these worlds meet, mingle, and all share one common purpose . the stars.

the HPA Newsletter

2008-12-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-20T07:13:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-18T13:32:00.001-08:00

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

2008-10-26T04:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T03:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-26T08:47:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-12T11:56:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-24T04:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-07T02:40:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-18T07:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-01-13T04:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-10T04:11:00.000-08:00

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!

Stars in the Background

2007-12-25T03:10:00.000-08:00

Stars in the background

My idea for the stars of Titanic is just thinking of how stars are always in the background, be it Bethlehem or Apollo. But backgrounds are overlooked - minimized when they can be more important than the foreground.

The last 5 commercial planetarium programs I have attended, the stars have been in the background - several of them had them whirling around, no better than disco lights .. with no thought of accuracy or anything!

But background is a worthy subject - if you get to thinking - the stars have been the background for all of history - look at that newly enhanced photo at gettysburg - a public domain photo that somebody decides - wait .. there are 3 pictures back to back .. unusual for the time given the expense .. and they are not AT the Gettysburg reviewing stand, they are to the RIGHT of it .. now why... and they enhanced it and zoomed it ... and there .. in the background .. sits a man on a horse .. with a beard... and a stovetop hat .. and its got to be Lincoln riding up to give his immortal address ..

whats in the background of history?

A silhouette in a planetarium gives the impression of distance - trees, mountains, buildings .. the stars loom up larger than any life here on earth . as they loom large throughout time in history, mythology, and lives.

Perhaps WE are the background, passing through briefly midst the eternal stars.

The Globe Theater and the HPA

2007-12-19T06:03:00.000-08:00

Shakespears original Globe Theater was open aired - that means playgoers could literally attend their midsummer nights dreams under the stars. I wanted to recreate that experience, not literally of course - too much rain in middle Tennessee, but I built a planetarium instead. Lassoed the stars if you will, then looked into the 'great beyond' of cyberspace and found I wasn't alone in this unique pasttime.

Other luminaries beckoned, all I had to do was ask. I bought the projector from a reclusive genius named Steve Smith - drove to Arizona one improbable 72 hours with my father, Nashville to Douglas AZ and back to retrieve it. Smith had spent a year painstakingly creating both a scientific instrument and folk art - a 20 inch copper cylinder that is best looked at before seeing what it can show you. 85 lenses - it takes the breath away. But the others, they are out there. Ron Walker near Phoenix, filmmaker and purveyor of dreams, called me one day, or tried to. He restores old commercial units, and blends his artist sensibilities with an engineers expertise. I'd never met anyone like Ron. But then others surfaced as if by magic. To wit, Charles Jones, professional magician, appeared out of nowhere (how else?) and demonstrated machines he had built decades ago - he was an expert in many fields, most of all the illusion that is central to the planetarium experience. You WILL believe you are under the night sky, but not tonight in the city .. 100 years ago perhaps - when natures stars were the only cable and movie folks needed .. in their glory.

Owen Phairius appeared, with a collection of vintage scientific apparatus and a dream of opening a museum to display them. Owen's from California - hes run Planetariums for decades, an incredible voice collecting incredible machines. Ken Miller's from California too - an engineer by trade, he can discuss voltages and light bulb specs like most of us discuss the weather. These people rock! And so I built it - my little 15 foot theater - I have a little group called the Home Planetarium Association (www.planetariumsathome.) with a newsletter that comes out when I manage to get it out - very old fashioned. Like the stars. Like the Hayden. Adler. Like Armand Spitz would have liked it. I knew other pioneers in the field, Richard Emmons mainly, who I dub the 'father' of home planetariums. He ran one from his garage, and set one up in an Ohio classroom in the 50's. His daughter is still a valued correspondent. So I built it .. I think they will come to my own little field of dreams. I'll call a newspaper or two soon. And let them in.

Soon George Mohr joined us, a theater man with audio/visual expertise beyond most mortals, and with a historical bent. My old astro friends Murray Cragin and George Kelley proved invaluable resources on most any topic, they being extremely accomplished in amateur astronomy circles for decades. A writer friend, Lynn Teague, proved that we can tap into other thinkers not directly related to astronomy, as the principles, passions and philosophies we are on about are universal. Incredible enthusiasts like Pat Dobbins and other voices from the past and present stir our spirit and keep the energy level incredibly high!

So a core group has appeared. The public is out there. But I'm savoring a few more silent nights by myself with my stars. Gods stars really, they arent mine. But on the other hand, they belong to all of us. Its just that nobody looks at them anymore. I figure maybe I'll start changing that. One child at a time.

The Next Gadget Syndrone

2007-12-18T04:54:00.001-08:00

The next gadget syndrone.

Perhaps its universal - hobbiests and professionals alike. In todays world, everything new is hot, and everything old is hotter! And as I learned with my hard earned new setup (15 foot domed theater with new projector mounting, which took over 2 years), the moment we attain it we want more. Is this the spirit that drove the settlers 'cross those mountains'... over that next hill? I've read where as settlers moved west in search of newer bigger better lands, the ones who followed in their footsteps simply took over the abandoned cabins, farms etc .. is that what we do, we take over someone elses dream because theyve moved on? Our dream is to live their old dream

So theres always a next gadget perhaps. Our wives may be supportive, they may not. We are never really done, and perhaps its better that way. The journey, not the destination? What I like about home planetariums though is we can tinker endlessly at any level - we might yearn after that 32 foot dome or that incredibly exotic antique spitz projector, and sometimes we can obtain them - gitter done .. but we can also strive at incredibly small levels to tweak an exit sign in our theater - to point a star a bit to the west . To try and develop something simple but inspiring to kids.. Theres always the next hill. Even in comfortable retirement I dont think home planetarians will ever be completely satisfied.

And thats part of the thrill.

Lost in Paradise

2007-12-17T04:56:00.000-08:00

Lost in Paradise - from HPA Issue 17 Spring 2007

Gilligans Island should have been my first clue.

Riding from the Honolulu airport to my posh digs on Waikiki Beach for a 3 day sales meeting, the bus driver pointed out the harbor where the famous 'lost' good ship Minnow had set out for that infamous 3 hour tour. Little did I know I was about to begin my own 'lost' journey through some new stars. Forever a denizen of the midwest US, it had been with a thrill to discover that from my position on the south shore of Oahu in April, the Southern Cross and other south sea celestial delights should be visible for the first time ever! What a dream it had been to see the Cross - being a planetarium man as well made constellations my specialty.

All seemed well as I stood on my 12th floor balcony of the Hilton Rainbow Tower - now where are those star charts and binoculars?? ... To my horror I realized they were still on the table back in Tennessee! Like my hero Leslie Peltier arising in a predawn long ago sky to see 'new stars', I would have to face the previously unavailable strip of southern sky alone.. unless .. I could find some equipment and find it fast

I couldn't.

Hotel giftshops on Waikiki offer very little in the way of star atlas's, yet did offer up some rather dubious looking 'field glasses' at a price I won't mention, though I haven't yet succeeded in forgetting. Nowhere on Waikiki seemingly was anything on the stars - I ruefully recalled spending an hour in the SPACE store at the Houston airport before my connection, where dollar starwheels had beckoned . But I had not answered their call.

And so for the next three nights, under various stages of clear, haze, cloud, city lights, and fog, I became Captain Cook again .. sailing into southern skies, at least some of them, unknown to me, unguided. A three hour tour became a three night tour, my balcony became my Minnow. Hotel stationary became my starcharts .. no student of navigation, I wondered if Cook had made his own charts, certainly he had no airport gift shops to assist him. My mind wandered even further back to the original Polynesians who somehow had come here over the trackless Pacific .. they had no Nortons or Atlas of the Heavens to guide them.

The skies shifted almost hourly, but I quickly found some wonders .. over dinner the first night I saw Canopus blinking in the west, daring me to come out and see more. The first night about midnight I banged my head on what had to be Alpha and Beta Centauri, sailing above the mists .. Alpha was blazing brighter than I thought possible. But where was Crux? Later that predawn I almost went over the rail looking at an impossibly high teapot and scorpion.. there were other stars below .. and off in the southeast lonely sentinals. What were they?? I hastily sketched their positions. Happily, the third night paid all, as near midnight again I absent mindedly mused, now what are THOSE stars... and then as if by magic, a mist shifted and I gazed at last upon the Southern Cross.. both larger and smaller than I had imagined, impossibly .. both brighter and dimmer .. images of those archaic classical crosses seemed to flit in and out over the real stars. I stared dumbfounded, but soon succumbed to jetlag and collapsed back into bed ..

Returning home with my newly minted Hilton Atlas (copies available), I confirmed my findings.. Crux, Centaurus, Canopus.. yes that was apparently a distant Archena . the Minnow had returned to harbor.. later I learned the TV series 'Lost' was filming on the north side of Oahu even as I had been wandering amidst uncharted celestial waters in the south. I even drove by the TV home of Dog, the Bounty Hunter. I had been hunting my own bounty!

There may be several morals here I've concluded, back on solid and familiar midwestern ground, but my mind is divided. Astronomy can be pursued armed to the hilt with our equipment and charts, or it can be pursued through the wondering unprepared eyes of a child. Either way gets us where we wish to go though, closer to being one with our beloved stars. The main thing is to take that 3 hour tour.

You'll find your way back with your treasures..

2007-12-17T04:49:00.000-08:00

In Defense of Leo Minor (as published in the Planetarian)

Ever notice ow certain constellations get more press than others? Maybe I spend far too much time beneath my own dome looking at my own stars, but the constellations above my head begin to tell me things after awhile. True, I build my own planetariums, so perhaps I have a bit more vested interest and right to call them 'my stars', and maybe the constellations talk to me in the privacy of my own dome more than they would say in a more public dome. They tend to be more shy then I think, and perhaps a bit more resentful that cable tv, dvds, and glowing screens have largely replace them as an evenings entertainment. But they talk to me as I mentioned, and they are concerned that certain of their .. umm. members get far more press than the others.

I had to admit it was true, that even I tend to look at the same constellations over and over and ignore the rest. The big boys and girls, I need not mention them, with their swords and belts and sisters and sea monsters threatoning, their heros and myths. For awhile then I listened to the gripes of constellations that were overlooked but admittedly still famous, and its time to name some names. Aquarius lamented nobody sings about him anymore, and Capricorn butted me in a vain attempt to get some attention. And on and on it went. Finally I contemplated the twins of the skies, there were more than I thought when I really looked at it, and I heard a tiny voice crying from my sky overhead. It was Leo Minor.

'What about ME' he cried!

He had a point. The two bears get all the attention he pointed out, and those Centaurs. True enough. The Dogs... they were bright and in full glory, couldn't argue there. Geminii even represented the original 'two for one' sale idea. 'I represent the little guy' Leo Minor argued, the lesser of the celestial pairs, that forgotten brother or sister who gets shunted off to the corner. 'Got any examples?' I asked him bravely.. I'd never even identified him in the shadow of his big Lion King bro, and even now I was hard pressed to see where his voice was coming from. He warmed to his subject. 'Take horses'.. the big horse with the wing thing is famous, but who can find Equlous? Theres a big snake hogging tons of sky, but Hydrus her jilted boyfriend? Doesn't he need some attention too? Who looks at the southern stuff? Their triangle, their crown?

'Wait' I argued .. the southern Fish is brighter than the Pieces... 'Exceptions. exceptions' he continued.. Serpens may be in two parts, but he gets more looks that Lazerta or Chamaleon!? Leo Minor had made his point I suppose, so I conceded someone needed to put in a word for those lesser twins .. those forgotten sisters and brothers and objects up there in the sky that deserve at least passing mention. As I headed for the dome of my home built 15 foot domed theater, I already heard Aquila and Cygnus trying to make up with Pavo and Phoenix. Grus was crying in the corner.

The last thing I saw before flipping on the lights was Leo Minor curling up with the Lynx and going to sleep'.

Bigger Part 2

2007-12-17T02:13:00.001-08:00

Building planetarium domes is a whole class of ideas, thoughts, challenges, frustrations, and dreams unto itself is it not? Google up 'domes' and there are people 'out there' (out there is a favorite phrase - out where? - my other favorite phrase is 'they make those' ... where exactly ARE 'they'??.. why they are OUT THERE, of course! ) - 'they' make domes of every description for every purpose. Rest areas - greenhouses - planetariums.

But for the home guy armed with stepladders, home depot tools (or lowes), and luckily for me, an old barn to hang things off of or at least to give moral support), vexing problems build as we get BIGGER. A central question seems to be - bottom up, or top down?

I've been top down so far. Ive built 9 and 15 foot domed theaters. But I couldnt make them water proof, so first I had to have a shed roof over the top. This had several advantages - keeping the rain out is huge, but it also gave a top support, allowing me to use light weight, bendable materials. But a guy with a stepladder can only build a shed so high.

So I begin to think, well it has to be built bottom up .. from the underside. But that goes against every roofing principle that says shingles have to overlap top down or the water wont run off! Then I read the geodesic crowd (bucky fuller) advocates top down, but you build the top on the ground and HOIST it up a mast, then build down.. Now THAT might work! the uppermost part is prebuilt, then suspended WAY UP THERE, and the lower regions (reachable by stepladder) are build around it in (hopefully) perfect symetry. Then the roof can be completed.

The center support post is removed once its self supporting.

This might work..

Let the Music Do the Talking

2007-12-17T02:08:00.000-08:00

You know, we in home planetaria are all about sight arent we - visuals .. from tiny lights to shimmering explosions - but the idea is born that some of a show could be in the total black of night .. a portion of a show could be ONLY sound - though i know kids fidget in total darkness, im covering my pilot lights on sound equipment with tape but you can still see them, and ive got a lighted exit sign (very dim) so that the eye can still reassuring see something - but sound alone can be such a big part of this, why not have a little part of a show thats ONLY sound .. music .. perhaps pre-big bang.. then a dot of light - the singularity .. from whence light came, and all sight. Perhaps the universe is based, no matter what specifically we believe, on great themes of music - could not sound have preceeded sight? Not in a vacuum you say, but we can bend those laws in the planetarium - stir the emotions and wonder with sound before light takes over.

Original Starmyth - Head North Said the Hunter

2007-12-11T04:38:00.001-08:00

Head North said the Hunter .. an original starmyth by Gary Likert

Once upon a time long ago a little bear cub became lost in the woods while playing by a stream. His mother gone on ahead over the next hill and told him to follow, but he had not obeyed, and before long the afternoon sun began to sink in the west and he noticed he was alone. 'If I climb the tallest tree I can find, maybe I'll find her', he thought, and promptly did so. He thought he saw some bear tracks heading north, over the tops of the trees, and then he did something wonderful. Not knowing he wasn't a magic bear, he jumped up onto a passing cloud and floated into the sunset sky. But then it began to get dark, and the stars came out, one by one.

The little bear liked the stars, and decided he would find some he felt most comfortable with and stay and live in the sky. Maybe mother had come this way as well. Soon though the little bear found others already living in the sky, and many of the stars were already taken. He tried moving in with a Scorpion, but was soon stung ! 'Move on, no room here', said scorpio. He next went over to the stars with the shining belt, and seemed to fit in there but was startled to hear a deep voice saying 'Head North'.. it was the Hunter of the sky, and he had taken the stars with the shining belt. So the little bear, fighting back a tear or two, took the Hunter's advice and headed north in the sky and then something equally wonderful occurred! He spied in the distance another bear! And as he drew closer, he saw that indeed it was his mother, and she had found some delightful stars all her own, they had been dragon wings she said but he no longer flew. And best of all, she had saved some for him .

He moved into the stars she saved for him, and ever since, mother and cub have revolved round and round the heavens from the far northern post, chasing each other in joy for being together again in such a beautiful new home. Gaze at the sky any clear night and follow the Hunter's advice.

Head north, said the Hunter.

Writing Our Own Starmyths (Why Not)

2007-12-11T04:35:00.000-08:00

Writing Your Own Starmyth

Why cant we write out own myths? As I researched, pondered, mediated, and basically fussed over writing my own planetarium show, I kept running my head into this brick wall. Starshows require constellations. And constellations are shining history books, historical, no MYTHICAL figures. Ancient characters and stories handed down from peoples we slightly revere but frankly don't know much about. I'm talking about Greeks.. Chaldean shephards. Greek myths, but Arabic star names. But then there are so called 'modern' constellations as well.. scientific apparatus, mountains, even a telescope. All this set me to thinking. HPA Is all about home grown. So my next thought was .. Why not write my own myths?

Or at least one or two, to try them out. Myths have some basis in reality if you go back far enough, maybe? So that means at one time somebody wrote them, or did the deeds referred to. Was Perseus an actual guy? Medusa's hairdresser perhaps? But this gave me pause. Am I rewriting history? Would some kid startle a teacher in class someday with a totally foreign story about a well known king or queen doing or saying things quite unknown to anyone outside my dome? As much as I tried to worry about this, I never could take it completely seriously.

Everyone's writing children's stories it seems these days. Why couldn't I? Now I COULD see the dangers of taking this 'home grown' thing too far. I wasn't about to declare new constellations, or rename stars. Myth writing needed rules, seemingly. Science and wonder walk hand in hand in a planetarium, but each deserve their own space. I was well aware of the 'star naming' controversy, how educators and scientists were horrified with the concept of 'stars as gifts'. As most kids grew out of this after a few years anyway, I myself however saw any chance to spur interest in the stars a good one. I was excluding astrology however. I was spurring interest and wonder, not predicting the future.So sitting in my creative refuge, my domed star chamber (more on that in a minute), I decided to plunge in and write one. A Star myth. It sprang from my new handheld constellation shadow projectors (more on those too). The fact that I was keeping them at present handheld so I could find their constellation stars at any position overhead had me playing with them. Wandeirng them over the skies toward their eventual goal I finally begin picturing kids giggling as say,the Little Bear emerged from the southern horizon and ambled around, looking for his stars. well, this is for kids. Here goes ....

(continued next blog entry)

Bigger Part 1

2007-12-03T04:58:00.000-08:00

I want a bigger dome. Sumner Countys first planetarium was a 9 footer. Its second is a 15 footer. But when you reach for the stars, whether mother natures or your own, bigger just seems to come with the territory. Amateur Astronomy saw the Dobsonian revolution, and 32 inch telescopes are now to be found at some national star parties. A far cry from my Villa Park Il backyard 2.4 department store scopes in the mid 60's. But it happens with planetariums too. The bigger the star ball the better the images, if you are using pinhole projection, like nearly all home planetarium people. Those at least who use traditional projection techniques, not video projectors. But no matter what your projection technique, you are sending those stars to a simulation of infinity. And in a total contradiction, infinity can be sized in a planetarium dome. The biggest thrill of all when building a bigger planetarium is 'first light', when you turn them on for the first time. And now the Hunter towers over you like he never did before. And the great bears have become greater. And Canis Major is more major than ever. And the heavons show even greater glory than they did for the past few years. I want a bigger dome. Building the 9 foot took 2 years to think up a solution. Building the 15 foot took 2 years to actually do it. Is this how the pyramid builders felt? Stay tuned. gare dec 3 2007

First Steps Towards Starlight

2007-08-29T03:28:00.000-07:00

Everyone yearns to the stars, its just that for most, childhood innocense and wonder seem to get lost along lifes road. First Star i see tonight .. I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight. How many children today sing this.. sitting out on porches as dusk falls. Our neighborhoods are largely empty now, the glowing neon stars having flooded out natures indeeded twinklers. A planetarium can bring this world back.

Greetings Ye Olde Planetarium and Astro Enthusers

2007-08-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

This blog shall be in support of the Home Planetarium Association (www.planetariumsathome.com) and Sumner Skies Planetarium, Sumner County Tennessee's first planetarium.

Planetariums are microcosms of so many of the passions and sciences. Much more to come!