I also spoke with one of the operators there and he highly recommended the “city of stars” show, so I’m going to check that out sometime soon.

BA, you should watch out, you know who studies aquatic lifeforms…

Also, spaghettification was the first way that a black hole can kill which I learned about. I was maybe seven or eight. I think it was a “NOVA” episode about them. I remember my dad showing me Saturn through a telescope, too. We’d watch the PBS science shows like “NOVA” and “The Nature of Things” together. There was a partial solar eclipse one summer, and I set up the same telescope to view it on a card. I even saw a few sunspots. I had to manually track, though. You never realize how fast the Earth spins until you have to do that. … I rambled.

– John, who is checked out to run Fritz… and due to give a talk there in June.

Also, the Moon is almost always out of phase. But that’s just a quirk everyone’s OK with. I will be very sad when they get rid of Fritz in favor of a digital projector.

It says that Fiske uses a Zeiss Mark VI that was purchased in 1971. I don’t know any more than that, though they do have several other projectors.

I can’t help it. I work in a planetarium that just decommissioned its Zeiss star projector in favour of a full-dome video system. I’ve spent the last eight months turning pots and sliding faders so that people can find Cassiopea. It’s the only planetarium I’ve ever been in, so I’m more than a little curious as to what other science centres are using.

Man, I love my job.

Ooo! Look at all of those pots and faders!
Ut, your geek is showing

I may come to New England again; a friend teaches at a college in New Hampshire and wants me to talk there again. I’ll announce any talks I’ll be giving!

Oh, and Dr. BA, you’re very respectable, believe me!

Somewhat?

Isn’t there a Phil Plait for President group?