Planetarium Star Projectors

[Bradfo69]

I wanna go on a fieldtrip to your house...

You and a lot of others... I think we need a PEM (Planetarium Enthusiests Meeting). What a cool weekend THAT would be.

[SpitzSTP]

You and a lot of others... I think we need a PEM (Planetarium Enthusiests Meeting). What a cool weekend THAT would be.

I totally agree! Wouldn't that be cool? I hope someday we can do something like that. Assembly of the starscape continues this evening, following my "round-robin" approach of working on the machines. It will be nice to get the starglobes off the floor to free up some real estate. This thing is a ship in a bottle. If I die somebody else is going to have to deal with this, and the first thing they will notice is that it is far too large to get out any opening in the house. Getting it apart is also tricky. It took a friend of mine and I several hours to figure out how to disassemble it in Kansas City. I'd say the entire projector weighs about 1200 pounds but fortunately I have it on heavy duty casters. On carpet it really takes two people pushing on it to move it. This one towers above the Minolta and Saint STP like some sort of death star. The gantry crane is barely high enough to lift the globe halves into place and I am using plenty of rope rigging to keep the core stable while I monkey around with it high up on a ladder. Caution is paramount, if I have an accident nobody will likely notice until the buzzards start circling over the house. I can hardly wait to get the arc lamps burning in this one, it may be the next best thing to actually leaving the planet, a notion I have entertained but lack the necessary spacecraft.

[LaNeK779]

it may be the next best thing to actually leaving the planet, a notion I have entertained but lack the necessary spacecraft.

it is not so difficult http://www.net-track.ch/resources/leave-planet.php

keep up the good work, saving those magnificent machines and showing them to us

[SpitzSTP]

it is not so difficult http://www.net-track.ch/resources/leave-planet.php

The only issues about contacting NASA for use of their spacecraft would be they would (a) want to know why (b) limit where I can go (c) tell me when I have to return it (d) give me alot of rules for what I cannot do aboard it (e) have to check in with them often (f) forbid me from customizing it to make it go faster (g) make me wear a space suit.

[SpitzSTP]

One of the two halves mounted. I lowered this one into place from above then used gravity to slowly rotate it underneath using a rope like some sort of space cowboy. Sometimes gravity is my friend, but usually it isn't. The other half can now be lowered into place from above. Pins protruding from the core mates to holes in the bottom of each hemisphere to properly align stars. A small piece of blue painter's tape helps me to estimate where the pin is. Fear of an accident is real with a projector this large.

[SpitzSTP]

The pressure is on to free up the gantry; another star projector is coming in August.. a historic GOTO/Viewlex MkIIa, one of two still known to exist in the USA. I occasionally see the other MkIIA on cable tv, they often use it as a backdrop for programs on the science channel when they are doing interviews with professors from UCLA. I suppose that qualifies me as a nerd because I know what model it is. I also need to drop the AVI tower into a server rack and that thing weighs a good 200 pounds. It's getting crowded in here.

[SpitzSTP]

Come a long way since .. hard to believe it's been almost a year.

[polishedball]

one of the two halves mounted. I lowered this one into place from above then used gravity to slowly rotate it underneath using a rope like some sort of space cowboy. Sometimes gravity is my friend, but usually it isn't. The other half can now be lowered into place from above. Pins protruding from the core mates to holes in the bottom of each hemisphere to properly align stars. A small piece of blue painter's tape helps me to estimate where the pin is. Fear of an accident is real with a projector this large.

very nice!!! *dz

[SpitzSTP]

The eagle has landed. It came out of a concrete pit 1200 miles from here and landed intact without any damage, and for that I breathe a sigh of relief because many parts cannot be replaced. I cleaned a small patch of the starglobe with mild detergent on cotton swabs, visible at lower left, and envision what it will look like without any dust covering it. It is the kind of dust that won't vacuam off or submit to feather-dusting, a 10+ year accumulation. Sharp protrusions snag every thread of cloth and draw blood if not careful, so it can only be done the tedious way with Q-tips. The pit served an additional purpose of being the return air duct for the A/C system, contributing to the heavy accumulation. I can swivel the globe by hand on all three axis and it is remarkably well balanced. The port covers go on last. Each port cover is also studded with lenses. I need to get two of the convex mirrors re-mirrored. Can anyone recommend a vendor that can put a new mirror coating on them? These mirrors mount to the center base of each globe. At some point over the years they worked loose of their mountings and rattled around the chamber and got a bit scratched up. It might be easier to re-coat them instead of buying new optics, as they might be hard to find. Good to get all the pieces on this machine, finally, as I am leaving in 2 weeks to take out another GOTO/Viewlex and put it in the newly-vacated portion of the floor where the starglobes for this machine once rested.

[SpitzSTP]

A photo of the lighting director at the nightclub in NYC sitting at the base of the star projector in 1981. This photo was taken back when the machine was mounted to a hydraulic truss. I have searched for the truss for many years, finding only tantalizing clues, rumors and legends regarding its whereabouts.