Planetarium Star Projectors

[Laserock]

Hi Spitz,

I like where this is going and would love to offer my assistance anytime,I do live in middle Georgia but I am glad to travel and do have at least one resource with a box truck I could probably get for gas.If you need help anytime it is close enough for me to travelI would love to give you a hand and just B.S. as well! I do not have an 8 to 5 right now so I have PLENTY of time on my hands.So if you just need some extra labor and are coming in my direction or just close I would be happy to meet up with you--anytime!

Sincerely,
Kevin

[SpitzSTP]

Hey Kevin, watch out because I will take you up on that. I do this as a passtime and I love nothing better than to rescue a projector that is in jeapordy of being scrapped. I DO have projects all over the USA. Although they are sporadic and unpredictable I can ALWAYS use some help, and some good B.S. never hurts either. So far this year I've had projects in Colorado, New York and Indiana. I will generally go anywhere a machine is coming offline to fetch it. I often do these solo and that's hard sometimes not to have any assistance. If you like being under a dome, down in a pit or in a truck this is actually FUN stuff and gaining access to the equipment a bonus. Most of my time is stuck behind a PC screen or on conference calls so I look forward to these adventures, off to the airport with a toolbox in tow and renting these trucks for cross-country jaunts. I already have enough and there is plenty to go around so maybe we can find you one? OK, so I am still working on this Minolta rack because I'd rather be doing this than folding my laundry.. I got this PC up but its got Linux on it and I don't have the password (I got it surplus on eBay I think it came out of a server farm), so I'm going to load WinXP on it and put in the audio card. I'm planning to load it with MP3's on the hard drive and use a freeware jukebox program to build playlists for my theater.

[laserist]

I can't resist... asking, what ever happened to all the equipment that Laserium used back in the late 70's for their travelling shows? I recall going to one circa 1978-79 in Oklahoma City, perhaps at the Kirkpatrick Planetarium and I purposely sat right next to the operator just so I could gawk at the equipment. I recall there were three or four 19" racks chock full of analog controls and a 8 or 16 track reel-to-reel tape deck. The laser(s) were mounted vertically in one of the racks and a bunch of cables and water lines running to a door in the back. Where is all of that stuff now ???????

Some still exist, but you must be remembering a lot of the planetarium's hardware - back then laserium had a tall 19 inch rack with the spectra physics 164 krypton laser, power supply, and optical head - and a second short 19 inch rack with the control panel on top and typically a teac 4 channel 1/4 inch deck

more info here:
http://www.famous-company.com/pm_laserium-bw.htm

[Bradfo69]

Hi,

I haven't responded to this thread but, have followed it closely. In that affectionately good way, I'll say your "nucking futz". I'm glad to see that someone is so passionate about this type of endeavor. It's a huge undertaking. I recall having that same fascination with planetariums as a kid and get a little depressed when you hear about the closure of yet another for budgetary reasons. My job keeps me busy just about every weekend but, I too, would offer any assistance if you ever need a hand in the Philadelphia/Baltimore/DC area and that's the kind of adventure I would find extremely rewarding and interesting. (I'm the boss so, I can schedule that. :-) ) I have recently been thinking about contacting my old middle school about a "re-live the memories" tour of the building and it had both a planetarium as well as a large professional caliber theater. Since getting into lasers, I've thought often about being able to arrange a show in the planetarium there and now you have me curious as to whether it still even exists. I'm about 31 years removed from middle school but, it's only located a mile from my home and been on my "to do" list for some time.

Welcome to PL! You'll find it's an unbelieveable forum and knowledge base.
~Brad

[allthatwhichis]

Hey Spitz, I'm down to help if you find anything in Florida.

[Displaser]

The living room furniture has been replaced with a 2 ton gantry crane so I can assemble the machines.

SpitzSTP,

Now that's a HOBBY!!!! I'd have to agree, nothing better than a well produced planetarium experience - lasers and starfields

Welcome to the forum - we're glad that you're here.

Greg

[polishedball]

Starts counting the days until Brad buys one

Hi,

I haven't responded to this thread but, have followed it closely. In that affectionately good way, I'll say your "nucking futz". I'm glad to see that someone is so passionate about this type of endeavor. It's a huge undertaking. I recall having that same fascination with planetariums as a kid and get a little depressed when you hear about the closure of yet another for budgetary reasons. My job keeps me busy just about every weekend but, I too, would offer any assistance if you ever need a hand in the Philadelphia/Baltimore/DC area and that's the kind of adventure I would find extremely rewarding and interesting. (I'm the boss so, I can schedule that. :-) ) I have recently been thinking about contacting my old middle school about a "re-live the memories" tour of the building and it had both a planetarium as well as a large professional caliber theater. Since getting into lasers, I've thought often about being able to arrange a show in the planetarium there and now you have me curious as to whether it still even exists. I'm about 31 years removed from middle school but, it's only located a mile from my home and been on my "to do" list for some time.

Welcome to PL! You'll find it's an unbelieveable forum and knowledge base.
~Brad

[swamidog]

if you need help cracking into the linux system, i can work on that when karl and i come over.

Hey Kevin, watch out because I will take you up on that. I do this as a passtime and I love nothing better than to rescue a projector that is in jeapordy of being scrapped. I DO have projects all over the USA. Although they are sporadic and unpredictable I can ALWAYS use some help, and some good B.S. never hurts either. So far this year I've had projects in Colorado, New York and Indiana. I will generally go anywhere a machine is coming offline to fetch it. I often do these solo and that's hard sometimes not to have any assistance. If you like being under a dome, down in a pit or in a truck this is actually FUN stuff and gaining access to the equipment a bonus. Most of my time is stuck behind a PC screen or on conference calls so I look forward to these adventures, off to the airport with a toolbox in tow and renting these trucks for cross-country jaunts. I already have enough and there is plenty to go around so maybe we can find you one? OK, so I am still working on this Minolta rack because I'd rather be doing this than folding my laundry.. I got this PC up but its got Linux on it and I don't have the password (I got it surplus on eBay I think it came out of a server farm), so I'm going to load WinXP on it and put in the audio card. I'm planning to load it with MP3's on the hard drive and use a freeware jukebox program to build playlists for my theater.

[SpitzSTP]

Some still exist, but you must be remembering a lot of the planetarium's hardware - back then laserium had a tall 19 inch rack with the spectra physics 164 krypton laser, power supply, and optical head - and a second short 19 inch rack with the control panel on top and typically a teac 4 channel 1/4 inch deck

more info here:
http://www.famous-company.com/pm_laserium-bw.htm

Thank you for the clarification, I read the link and learned more about these systems than I ever knew existed. I will benefit greatly from reading through the older posts on this site which I have hardly begun to tap.

[allthatwhichis]

WOW; that site has a nice lil story from Patrick Murphy on his laser beginnings!