Goodbye, Old Friend

Inverted SkyScan & Projector D

This morning welcomed rain and thunder tearing around town like a hurricane. Yet within the thick walls of the Bishop Planetarium, no sound could be heard. I fired up the dome as usual, but for one last time. Ctrl 10 Ent. Turn on all. Yes. Cntrl 9 Ent. Start Digital Sky. Slide right. Green box check. Inverted sky grid. Cntrl 10 Ent. Projector D shut down.

Tonight, after one last stelliferous star talk hurrah, the 7 projectors A,B,C,D,E,F & G will be shut down for the final time. The harmony of their projection, the hum and buzz of their fans will find silence and peace in the last soft beams of the hazy purple light. And following, a moment of silence before all hell breaks loose as the team arrives to lay to rest our old machinery and deliver a new life. The Bishop Planetarium is entering a new era of technical upgrade. This era buries the past in thick dust, bringing brilliant resolution and clarity to the dark rounded corners. Tearing us from the comfort of our earthbound throne, we are beamed across the universe to the very edge of it all. Spiraling back in as if drawn to the drain, our travels will encourage all manner of exploration, investigation and discovery.

Dome center, Projector G

Digistar 5, an Evan & Sutherland creation. I do not know all of the details of this new system yet, but from behind the door I see a light so bright and wonderful its as if I've seen that rare meteor fire streak across the heavens and causing floods of inquisitive daydreaming. The future is here at the Bishop. The greatest of man's achievement in the planetarium arts. Though the sky is thick with clouds and fury tonight, our glowing lights resurrect the forgotten stars and witness the dance of the wanders. I sit in community with Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe, Cellarius, Kepler, Newton, Messier, Herschel, Hubble, Sagan and all the other men and women of history who have looked up at the sky, wondered, contemplated, discussed and created systems from observation. And now, with the sophisticated tools of our time, we look out into the deepest of beyond, bending and gathering light with a tool more powerful than any one tool or organism ever created. And the view will be breathtaking. I can't freaking wait.

Jupiter Venus Mercury

For the last three nights, I have faithfully journeyed to the shore to give witness and homage to the brilliant dancing glow of our sister worlds, Jupiter Venus Mercury. And for the last three nights, clouds as dense as the ocean itself poured their libations directly upon our heavenly kin. So I spent some time on Stellarium (a free star map software program available online) mapping out what I missed and making this cool mural.

Beginning in late May, when Venus began her ascension past the sun and into our darkening twilight, the paths of the three planets were destined to meet, forming the beautiful and rare CoNjUnCtIoN. An ironic intersection of time / space where to our Earthbound eyes the gentle wanderers appear to head toward collision and certain death. Yet in the sprawling metropolis of solar satellites, there is currently little fear of such destruction. (While rouge asteroids and comets travel to the beat of their own orbits, and occasionally make contact with a planet, the solar system has chilled out greatly since its earlier party days and few mega collisions happen anymore.) So while we watch Venus shooting up like a Chinese lantern on a windless night, inching past Jupiter and mingling with the usually shy Mercury, take note that this brilliant ballet is nothing more than a quirk in our earthbound skies. And I love every moment.