#5: Taking Shape

 Telescope Project

So far I’ve made two things: first, a mock up of the main body of the telescope and it’s adjustable slots; second, a mess of my dining room table. It’s all going brilliantly.

I’m working with foam core and white gaff tape at the moment.  The foam core is a very different experience to the “museum board” (soft, heavy card stock) that I’m used to making models out of, but it’s more durable and pretty easy to get the hang of. Gaff tape is not my first choice for model-making either, but it’s quick, durable, and lets me make a few mistakes and reattach items differently. It will wear down the foam core eventually, but I can get it wrong 2-3 times before it becomes an issue.

I also tracked down a spare lighting yoke to use as the “y-axis” pivot. Even for a mock-up, I doubt the foam core would’ve held up for this piece. It’s only 5-3/4” across, and that’s really the perfect size. I did have to scale down the whole 3D model in sketchup to match, but now that I can hold the thing, it’s plenty big enough. The scaling does land me with some wonky measurements, though, and so I’m sort of approximating them in to round(er) numbers to make it easier to make a new model based on the physical mockup.

By far the most time-consuming part was making the slots. This would’ve been so much easier with a thinner material, and looking ahead to whatever the final item looks like, I’m pre-emptively incredibly grateful to have access to a CNC mill at work and several 3D printer options. At the moment, while the 3D models had several paddle slots at the rear of the telescope, I’m not planning to include those. I’ll see how it reads when I bring it in, but I think that change won’t affect the end result and will make it much easier to build.

The paddle slots themselves are ½” thick, which is again smaller than the 3D model but definitely a better size not that I see it. I do still need to work out how to build the paddles, but that’ll be next week’s project (along with getting the yoke attached somehow. I wonder what a lag bolt would do to foam core?)

Tom Scott has also released a video this week about “the largest optical telescope that will ever be built.” While I’m familiar with the telescopes in the video and the concept of optical interferometry (once upon a time I did want to go into astrobiology…), actually seeing what the light delay lines look like is pretty awesome. So too is the Extremely Large Telescope under construction, but as a fan of large telescope his thesis on this being the last of it’s kind is sad, but likely true. These telescopes and their adaptive optics have already killed the equally awe-inspiring visible-light space telescope (Hubble is one, and will also be the last of it's kind. The JWST, while it creates beautiful images, actually operates in infrared wavelengths, which is why it still makes sense to send it out to space and beyond the moon). Cracking the code on doing visible-light interferometry asynchronously and without those complex delay-lines will open up many exciting avenues of study, but you’d never really need such a large telescope.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology’s section on the Mt. Wilson Observatory was the big inspirations for this project. It was with this telescope that Albert Michelson used a stellar interferometer to measure the size of Betelgeuse – the same technology that will likely now replace these great telescopes (which the Mt. Wilson 100” telescope itself once was). The EU doesn’t have a monopoly on large-telescopes-with-a-stellar-interferometer-in-the-basement either. The twin-telescope Keck Observatory in Hawaii also has a (now-defunct) interferometer, and itself pioneered the segmented-mirror construction that the Extremely Large Telescope is using to achieve it’s eponymous size. This is all does seem like a strange series of coincidences, but since there’s only ever been one “largest telescope in the world” at a time, I can’t really call any of it coincidental.

RJ’s MFA Project

I think I’m finally getting the hang of being a producer, and I can tell by the growing list of things to improve or do differently moving forward. I’m sort of looking forward to finding ways to work these game-design management practices into the theatre environment.

In terms of non-producer work, I’ve dug up some images from the first racing game I ever remember playing (and loving), POD. I think it lines up very well with RJ’s game’s general aesthetic, and hopefully the research proves useful (whether to me or someone else)

Holy Cross

I’ve finished the lighting plot for Good Person of Setzuan, and the next step on it is to figure out how best to create hang paperwork – i.e. the information I give to the electricians to hang. Likely including sections of the diagram, but also definitely including details of color & frost, accessories, and DMX addresses for each light. I’ve only had to do that for this theatre once before, for a much smaller plot, so it may take a few tries. That one is tomorrow’s project, along with ordering anything I need for hang.

Other

Tech for WCLOC’s All My Sons is this weekend! I’m almost ready even. The plot is hung, basic looks are programmed, there are a couple of tweaks to make after a rehearsal I lit on Tuesday, and my biggest challenge left is going to be figuring out how to hang this porch light on the set. The lighting system at WCLOC is small and incredibly limiting, but in it’s own way that’s refreshing. It’s a theatre I can refocus in a morning, and rehang in a day, and while it’s certainly less capable than the multi-million-dollar spaces at my work, it’s also refreshing and fun.

Ed, our set designer & carpenter, has done an amazing job on the house – it’s small, but the details are beautiful. Often, in theatre, the walls of a realistic set are something you don’t necessarily want to scrape light across, since it’ll highlight all of the blemishes and unevenness. Not this one – the doorframes, siding, etc. are all excellent, and the one light that I have room to finagle backstage will look great across all that texture. (I’ve put it in writing now. Go ahead, come see the show next week and tell me if it works!)