Its Done - I Am A Star Cylinder Builder!

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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 !