Planetarium Star Projectors

[SpitzSTP]

I know this isn't "my" thread but it is generically labelled Planetarium Star Projectors so I hope SpitzSTP doesn't mind me posting this here!

I had the opportunity to help fix up some equipment in beautiful Elizabeth City, NC at the Khan (Khaaaaaan!) Planetarium.

The star projector is a Spitz 512, laser projector is from ECCS running a Reliant 300WC.

Ug, I absolutely miss working permanently in a planetarium...

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Spitz 512 + Reliant 300WC, totally awesome in my book! I've been hoping for some time that this thread will include MORE new material from others as there are still hundreds of installations using this "older" but very much STILL viable equipment. I hope you will continue to post in here DZ, as well as anyone else.. I certainly don't own this thread, my contributions are insignificant compared to everything that could be posted here, that isn't. Thanks for posting! Do you have MORE pictures of this place, to share? please, please There is a certain magic to it. The GOTO GX-10/Viewlex MarkIIa restoration project continues.. here the clamshell base is nearly restored, parked like a giant UFO ready for blast-off. New porcelain sockets for the PAR can uplights ready to be installed and the black laminate veneer has been re-glued back down everywhere it was peeling.

[SpitzSTP]

Machining new wooden edge trim to wrap the circumference of the Viewlex MarkIIa top, just like the original that was dried out and split to pieces and had to be discarded. Using 12 foot sections of Poplar from Home Depot required slots to be cut ever quarter inch on the back, in order to get it to bend. The blue plexiglass trim mounts to this all the way around, just like the identical instrument shown here at the UCLA Planetarium in California. I must be ADD and OCD when I cannot decide what to obsessively compulse on next. Speaking of which, I still haven't decided what to do yet with the ten foot fiberglass dome from Iowa still sitting on the back porch.

[SpitzSTP]

Another classic planetarium projector coming out in just a few weeks to join the others at Laser Lake Observatory - AZ Division. This well-known dome has upgraded to a new digital projector and the old instrument is coming out of the pit, elevator and all. Complete, working star projector with star trek-style control console. So then, I will have a partial box truck load again this time out of KS to AZ sometime 3-5 weeks from now, total deja vu. Anyone else have something to haul in about that same time frame, near that route within few hundred miles? Long shot.. send PM. Some interesting artifacts on display in Kansas include space flown Apollo 13 command module Odyssey, Liberty Bell 7 capsule recovered from the ocean floor, SR-71 Blackbird, German V-1 and V-2 rockets.

[SpitzSTP]

Just returned from Kansas with another classic Spitz 512 planetarium projector, elevator assembly and, control system and one "Magic Planet". The museum reportedly paid around 30 grand for it when it was new. The LCD projector needs to be replaced, but otherwise in excellent condition. It should be a relatively easy fix since all of the rest of the parts are there including control computer, software, and massive fisheye lens. The lens looks nearly identical to the AVI Omniscan lens on the laser projector pulled out of Kansas City a few years ago. The sphere on top lights up just like a planet (Earth, Mars, Jupiter.. etc) and is capable of some pretty sophisticated displays. The pedestal itself is a work of art, precision-welded stainless steel with two hinged access doors for the equipment inside. The museum moved it into storage after the LCD projector bit the dust. This is another case of having a truck at exactly the right place at exactly the right time, not even expecting to acquire this as I went there to pickup a Spitz 512, not a Magic Planet. At this point, these things sort of find me instead of the other way around. We might try projecting some fractals into this thing if I can get Karl to bring over his DLP projector. I am lucky to get home in one piece, at around 2 am Interstate 10 traffic had ground to a halt blocking both lanes around a blind corner outside of Tucson, AZ. I braked in time but watched a semi-truck nearly plow into me from behind, but he chose the ditch instead of my box truck. Thank goodness for the Magic Planet as it would have been the first casualty.

[SpitzSTP]

Next, a classic Spitz model A4 being decommissioned by a major university in the midwest, coming to Arizona to join the others. This one, a particularly nice example including the original Spitz control console. This one came from the University of Missouri St. Louis. I flew out, rented a truck and drove back. The transmission on the box truck blew out on the Kansas Turnpike on Easter Sunday morning, requiring a tow truck. I got to see the blood red moon and lunar eclipse from the cab of a Peterbilt wrecker, before the sun came up. What a sight that was. I should mention there is no gasoline in Datil, New Mexico on US 60 because the only gas station for miles is CLOSED on Easter holiday and these pumps have no mag stripe card reader. I nearly ran out of gas, finally getting some fuel in Quemado while running on vapor. Spitz put all of the analog control circuitry into a standard metal desk with the two control consoles sitting on top, making it a very heavy desk. Sincere thanks to Dr. Bruce Wilking, Professor of Astronomy and the University of Missouri St. Louis - Department of Physics and Astronomy for allowing me to save their old projector. The arc lamp in this A4 will continue to burn. The arc lamp assemblies for the Cosmosphere 512 have 75watt xenon arc bulbs and no fisheye lens as compared to the Koch Planetarium 512 and UMSL A4 which both have 20watt xenon arc lamps, making the Cosmosphere 512 approximately 3 times brighter.

[SpitzSTP]

More photos from Kansas Cosmosphere, Spitz 512 ATM-3. The Apollo 13 Command module was amazing to see. You can peer inside the hatch. Sincere thanks to Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas just outside of Wichita. The Dr. Goddard's Lab show was one highlight. The Cosmosphere converted their legacy planetarium dome into Dr. Goddard's lab, where live rocketry experiments are performed. The Spitz 512 and Magic Planet were loaded out, but we didn't hit the road until catching a dome show or two.

[dkumpula]

Thanks for the great pics, Spitz! Its awesome that you preserve this equipment.

If the command module pics are accurate, Apollo 13 looks in much better shape than its counterparts that I've seen. I wonder if they kept it hermetically sealed . . or perhaps the moon dust in other capsules ate up their interiors!

-David

[SpitzSTP]

Thanks for the great pics, Spitz! Its awesome that you preserve this equipment.

If the command module pics are accurate, Apollo 13 looks in much better shape than its counterparts that I've seen. I wonder if they kept it hermetically sealed . . or perhaps the moon dust in other capsules ate up their interiors!

-David

Here's more of the story..
http://www.americanspacecraft.com/pa...ollo/A-13.html

[SpitzSTP]

Here is a link to a USA Today article that a friend sent me today regarding the last Spitz STP star projector being decommissioned after nearly 50 years of service to the Miami community. This article includes a reference to the Spitz STP from the Saint nightclub in NYC which resides here in my living room and reference to "reclusive collectors" um, that be me, I think, ! just didn't know I am considered a recluse A friend of mine has two of the other Spitz STP's in his house, the one from Montgomery and the other from Pennsylvania. I have pieces of the Houston STP in my closet for spare parts. They are remarkable machines.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...ctor/23231489/

[polishedball]

Here is a link to a USA Today article that a friend sent me today regarding the last Spitz STP star projector being decommissioned after nearly 50 years of service to the Miami community. This article includes a reference to the Spitz STP from the Saint nightclub in NYC which resides here in my living room and reference to "reclusive collectors" um, that be me, I think, ! just didn't know I am considered a recluse A friend of mine has two of the other Spitz STP's in his house, the one from Montgomery and the other from Pennsylvania. I have pieces of the Houston STP in my closet for spare parts. They are remarkable machines.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...ctor/23231489/

I think that is where Flecom ran laser shows.