From Observatory Central May 2007
A Brief History of HPA
In the 60's I was in Villa Park Illinois outside Chicago - 33 North Second Street to be exact, off St Charles near Roosevelt and North Avenue, and I struggle to remember the dawn of my astronomical interest. As much as I'd like to say it was the few trips to the Adler Planetarium that were FIRST setting me on this road, and these surely planted the seeds for HPA 30 years later, before planetariums for me were telescopes. And I've traced this fascination to an earlier fascination of staring for months at the Sears Christmas catalog. I would dream of the things I saw there, and on one page was a 60 MM telescope, clamped to of all things a stepladder - it had no mount. Getting a later model, then a more traditional 'dept store' 2.4, then 7x50 binocs, led me to amateur astronomy. Oddly though, the old Topps department store on North Avenue sold cakes, and a cake box punched with holes with a light inside soon found its way to Alan Weigers darkened bedroom - we saw our own stars a few times. Then all of this slept for many years. I have since found and given Alan credit - he heads the drama department at Elmhurst College today and follows my progress with interest. Trips to planetariums at Cranbrook and Abrahms at Michigan State where I graduate keep alive this sleeping interest.
Fast forward to Detroit and the years most of us go through, high school, college, marriage, houses, jobs .. two 6 inch scopes get built and i devlop my own unique penchant for building low tech things myself, clutching a library book by Sam Brown replete with telescopes built from 2x4's and little else. That was me, I was dubbed a bit of an 'astro hillbilly'. Years go by, career leads me to Tennessee and an old farm. Astronomy sleeps as my music hobby blossoms, bands follow in my barn mostly, and an interest in writing explodes. I become part of a mail-based group called the HRSC, the Home Recording Star Coalition, we write and tape our own compilations, volumes. I begin writing a newsletter for the group and grow frustrated its leader is rather inactive over time, leading me to resolve to create my own pre-internet network. At this time my astronomy interest resurfaces and I create the Spyglass Network, SGN. It flourishes for over 30 issues, and it was a free-for-all, mail based juggarnaut - at one time 5 other members started their own spinoff newsletters - it was about everything astro, but skewed more and more into writing, my secret passion - poems, stories .. humor - we published some items in the larger world.. I still get mail, wondered where SGN went .. I had fueled it with a book of stamps a week for many years .. but then something spun off
Reading one day in the old Starry Messenger want ads, I come across a 'drilled starball' being sold by someone named Dick Emmons. Mesmerized, my planetarium core leaped out of my heart and wrote a check for 200 dollars and sent it some place called North Canton in Ohio. Seeds long ago planted were about to burst .
I didnt actually have a running planetarium until Issue 8 and several years had gone by, that seems almost incredible looking back a decade, but after purchasing the Emmons Starball, HPA unfolded but slowly. Modeling the newsletter on the HRSC and SGN formats that had come before was easy, and thats why they are people oriented, quote oriented, prepared material is rare, its mostly just quotes. Being of limited means, at this point the 200 buck investment was huge, and long I pondered how to even get a light inside it, let alone build a dome. I had trouble building a shed to house a dome! These things would get built, and by then I was in a financial renaiisance, allowing me to purchase Steve Smiths 20 inch copper cylinder (which i believe is destined for a magazine cover someday, i'm working on the mounting it needs right now), A Spitz A2 from Mr Pielock, who everyone seems to know as one of the premier old projector and related collector/dealers, if not THE man. More recently I dared to put up a standalone 15 foot theater, its 3 years and still being worked on - money became tight again so it was largely back to do it yourself. Strange habits insued as they will in this pursuit - owning a large country barn facilitated the collection of odd size globes, old slide projectors, anything vaguely related. Having an amateur band inhouse for years brought disco lights, fog machines etc - we specialized in Halloween parties and it was a short walk from the stage we had built to the dome...
But this was me doing these things.. and I talked about them in HPA - but HPA quickly became so much more, everywhere i turned in this dawn of the Internet age new dirt grew new seeds. Staggeringly enthusiastic people - the Emmons family, Steve and Emma Smith - Bob Myler - Roy Gustafson. I was like a seabird I saw in Hawaii, riding the thermals up the beautiful cliffs of Oahu - I found myself at IPS conferences, explaining to bemused professionals 'lean tos are very American' (from one slide I still have) Nashville, Pensacola, and Cleveland - people I meet today still remember my little exhibit table - I didnt get a whole lot of interest, but it was just BEING there - . when I sat at Emmons table and I was included in his Spitz lecture, I felt .. this has its place .. and many of those professionals had a foot in the home realm - articles were published .. it seemed like it would go on gaining altitude forever.
Other holdovers from who I was transfered over - short stories - history .. there were so many facets of this . but then I began giving shows and I quit after 13 issues. for a long time. Life intervened - I laid it all down .. the theater and projector slept - HPA faded .. personal problems, career problems, you name it .. they happened .. fast forward to early last year, the sparks reignited .. it all began coming together again, yet I knew all those years, alot of personal archeology was necessary - things were rusting .. shelves had become dusty ..
but now the net was here to stay .. digital cameras .. and someone named Ron Walker who had somehow contacted one of the few holdovers from the SGN days, Murray Cragin, co-author of the Deep Sky Field Guide.. and as the new theater took shape, the old things were dusted off - Richard Emmons passed .. and the thought of a new newsletter came up - and some of those people were still around .. and amazing new people were but an email away - and old music, words were becoming new again, and new words abounded. And now with Issue 17 being worked on, the old issues being revived, and a place like this to daily converse .. the original dream is back and riding those thermals again .
