|
Post by Ron Walker on Sept 27, 2023 17:36:32 GMT -7
Would you believe meeting an original member from fifteen years ago. I had the honor to actually meet Stephen Durham and his wife as they stopped by The Star Barn to see a show and what I accomplished in the area of planetariums. Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by scotttucker on Sept 27, 2023 22:26:52 GMT -7
That is a great picture- wow is Stephen standing in front of a Spitz? I did not realise you had one of those too. I love the extra projectors you have added + is that a hemispherical mirror/ video projector in the background?
|
|
|
Post by Ron Walker on Sept 28, 2023 9:21:01 GMT -7
Yes, extra projectors are an ongoing project making the projector more and more versatile. That is a A3P behind Steve and is the projector I rebuilt with timing belts. I use it for "The Star Of Bethlehem" show. To save time the A3P is set to show the planets during 6 and 7 BC while the main projector is set to show the planets between 1 and 2 BC. The program still takes over two hours. For the centennial I plan to do some comparisons between different projectors. Starting with a Spitz Jr. and going up from there, should be fun. The hemispherical mirror in the background is set up with a video projector which also projects directly to the dome for other programs. My original intent was to project all dome time lapse cloud movies on the dome but I think I need a much brighter projector. Others who viewed my experiments have liked them so perhaps I'm a bit to perfectionist. It is however, fun to watch the "To Jupiter and Beyond" segment from "2001" on the dome. There are several more projectors around the edge of the dome for other special effects and they continue to accumulate.
|
|
|
Post by mrgare5050 on Sept 29, 2023 6:03:10 GMT -7
Congrats on another successful visit, yes I also remember that name now, he goes back to the beginning too!
Cupcakes?? What happened to the brats I thought were standard lol.
|
|
|
Post by Ron Walker on Sept 29, 2023 9:17:51 GMT -7
The cupcakes were for a fellow who had never been and wanted to come to The Star Barn for his birthday. It does one's heart good to think that with all the things one could do for their birthday one would want to come to the planetarium. A family emergency nixed that at the last minute. I'm still eating cup cakes.
Steve didn't want anything special and actually preferred to come to a regularly scheduled program. The brats usually come out at the anniversary of the planetarium opening which is June 13th. I will need to do something special this next year as it will mark the tenth anniversary of operation. While Covid did a number on my visitor numbers, I still have had over three thousand people visit and things are starting to pick up once again. The local boy scouts have even requested a show in October.
I will offer a brats get together for next year and perhaps some will come...we will see.
|
|
|
Post by mrgare5050 on Oct 6, 2023 4:59:35 GMT -7
3000 is an amazing number of visitors
speaking of old members, do you remember who it was that made me that big HPA banner I still have? Was that the guy who just visited you?
|
|
|
Post by Ron Walker on Oct 6, 2023 10:11:55 GMT -7
Yes, considering that I don't advertise and the computer dumped about half of my email list last year it is very satisfying that so many people have come. It will be interesting to see how many (if any) come to "The Star Of Bethlehem" show. It can only go one way from last year.
Yes, Steve and his wife have commercial sewing machines and at one time we all talked about them sewing inflatable domes. I do believe they were the ones that made your banner.
|
|
|
Post by mrgare5050 on Oct 6, 2023 10:43:06 GMT -7
You'll slowly build up your clientel again, there is no doubt!
If you can pass along my eternal thanks, I've cherished that banner all these years, and now I'm using it as a backdrop to illustrate my children's star book!
|
|
|
Post by Ron Walker on Oct 7, 2023 10:07:07 GMT -7
I think you just did as they are members of this board.
|
|
|
Post by mrgare5050 on Oct 8, 2023 7:40:52 GMT -7
Good, that was a generous act of kindness. I also note your new OC here is surging in membership, you've already surpassed the Tin Can facebook and are closing in on the HPA FB as well. You've got it all going on!
|
|
|
Post by Ron Walker on Oct 8, 2023 10:41:06 GMT -7
Not really. It appears there are one or two people that are requesting several memberships each for whatever reason. With no participation I can only assume they perhaps plan to bombard these pages with whatever spam they are planning too dump. While one can never be sure, there are several markers that put together give a fair indication as to their intentions with this board. A simple answer to the question presented when requesting membership would go a long way to gaining such. I'm sure making money requires the posting of their message on as many boards as possible, it is a pain to cleanse these pages of spam so better to try and prevent it. This does not include banner ads which basically pay to keep this forum up.
|
|
|
Post by mrgare5050 on Oct 9, 2023 2:41:40 GMT -7
Yeah its happening all over facebook too unfortunately. as administrator of the vp (chicago suburb) board, i noticed that my fellow moderators were denying almost every new application for membership (i mainly do content, they mainly screen people), and they said fake accounts (spam) are almost all the new applications, people impersonating other people even. its not clear whether they are human scammers or even AI bots, but you can't trust it anymore. Some of them answer the questions too, but if you look at the answers, alot of them seem made up, alot of generic replies etc). AI bots are 'learning' what it meant to grow up in our particular town, and then posting fake entries with pictures of landmarks etc. As such it is very hard to grow legit membership anymore. Sign of the times I guess. I've even had longtime friends who's email suddenly starts sounding a little different and it makes you wonder if it's really even them. Replies in all caps, that sort of thing. it doesn't bode well that's for sure.
|
|
|
Post by Ron Walker on Oct 9, 2023 12:25:14 GMT -7
Not quite sure what they get out of doing it. I'm sure they are paid by the post but not sure how they get credit for the same post at the same location.
|
|
|
Post by mrgare5050 on Oct 11, 2023 8:16:29 GMT -7
I just got an invite from a group and here's what the admin said, he's going through the same thing
After weeks of deleting spam messages, we have changed a couple of the posting requirements. In theory, if you are a new poster, you might have to have your first post approved, remember the keywords, "in theory"...if you have an issue, please message me. I hate doing this, but after 6-12 spam posts per day, it became necessary to put a firewall between us, and the asshats who are in it for no good reason. Thank you for your tolerance and patience.
|
|
|
Post by Ron Walker on Oct 11, 2023 9:52:07 GMT -7
Yes, what he said. At least this site is not alone.
|
|