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
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Light a Cigar
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.
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.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Orchestral Manuevers in the Dark
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!
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!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Whats in the Backroom?
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!
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!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Incremental Progress
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!
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!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Stars in the Background
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The Globe Theater and the HPA
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.
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.
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