Positivity today!

Yesterday's post was tense. If I were a Sim, my "fun" would be hovering at the bottom of the gauge. Today, at least so far, is considerably better...for several reasons.

One, somebody has donated an incredibly awesome telescope to PARI.

Yes, I know. We have enough telescopes that you can't swing a cat without hitting one. Including the newly donated one, we have three---no, didn't see the orange one in the box, sorry, four--telescopes in this windowless control room. Plus, I mean, the permanent controls for three more. Four more, if you count Smiley, who is having mount trouble and currently unusable.

But this one is gorgeous. I was reading last week about how old designs for scientific instruments followed two important principles: The instrument must be both functional and beautiful. The practice has gradually phased out, or the instruments have been slap-dash repaired, or engineered for efficiency and practicality rather than aesthetics. It's shiny, has killer optics, the celestial sphere and a moon map as decals on the tube of the telescope, the right ascension/declination labeled to a deeply satisfying precision on the base and knobs controlling them, it's all well-machined and made in the USA. Heck, even the boxes for the telescope and solar filter are well designed, lined in green felt, and arranged so that everything fits inside with enough precision to make the OCD sigh in contentment.

Once Mark assembled it any finished his spiel about why the telescope was so great (and we, meaning "los interns" finished ooh'ing and aah'ing), we had one question: When can we take the telescope out and play with it? :D

The photo doesn't do it justice.

We tried to take it out on the front porch of the visitor entrance just to see how it works, because the manual was less than helpful and reading would be cheating anyway. It took some fiddling, but one of the levers controls the internal mirror (which goes to the finder scope or down the barrel of the telescope), one controls the internal Barlowe lens (increases magnification when enabled), rotating the eyepiece controls "Diopter adjustment for finder scope", one slaps a solar filter on the finder scope, and one controls the main body focus. 

Very snazzy.

We did have to read the manual to find out about that last one, though. Being a telescope designed for photographing planets (via a specific 35mm film camera, which we don't have and will have to find a CCD replacement for), the little guy just can't focus on anything closer than the moon. And I'm guessing about the moon. The finder focuses great, and has solid magnification in its own right! I've seen worse marketed as $35 telescopes, which is fair--this was apparently a $1500 telescope back in the 1950's. 

(there's apparently a 4" version in the basement and a 7" mounted as a "finder" on one of the computer controlled optical ridge telescopes. I have "finder" in quotes because you don't need a finder for a computer controlled scope and would have to climb a ladder to look through it...or otherwise go through some impressive acrobatics. I've only seen it because we did some exploring our first night here.) 

Today is also shaping up to be a good day because it's tour group day, so I get to learn about guest behaviour and teach some people about spaaaaaace. And space history. Which makes me a very happy intern. A tomboy from Georgia was very curious about the space shuttle parts we have on display, so I was able to give her a fairly detailed explanation there (Ex-space-camper FTW) and was curious about The Satellite when I indicated I could tell her about that, or take an educated guess if she asked something I didn't know. (Yes, I said when I wasn't 1000% sure). I pointed her in the direction of our Earth Science computers in the command room, so I hope she'll be back through to have a look--she said that's what her focus was. I also pointed her in the direction of the USSRC, which isn't much further from her than PARI is. Hopefully she'll take a look if she's still interested in space history, because they have a better collection than we could hope to find room for...

currently. I talked to Steve as well. He has some pretty grand ideas, 3-5 years down the line. Watch this space, in other words, pun entirely intended. 

And he wants me to expound upon my ideas in great detail, preferably in words as opposed to pictures. He's not a very visual guy, which I respect but can't entirely comprehend. So.... That will be interesting. I'll do my best. A task for the rest of the day and tomorrow. I'll start with my idea for the timeline down the windows which--talking to people today--I confirmed would be a decent place for it. As good as anywhere, anyway. Give people something to stare at and muse about when they think about the history of the site and wonder just what that satellite dish has seen. 

Concept for one of the timeline displays, using information I've found out over the last week

I think it could be brightly colored enough to catch people's attentions without being intrusive, offer a useful history of the facility, and pique enough curiosity to connect the other exhibits. People mostly enter through the door along the windows, so having it run right-to-left might be an odd sounding decision but a practical one. It would also be easy enough to test during a prototyping phase using foamboard, handwritten or xerox labels, and a screen similar to one of the many screens I've seen in our Archive of Random Computer Bits. (Small screens, laptop size or therabouts, suitable for a personal computer, are something we have many of. A nicer screen could be invested in if needed, but that won't be my problem.) 

A timeline would also focus on something Steve wanted me to bring up as well: He wants PARI to tell a story. OUR story is one we should be experts on. The story of space travel is one we are intimately connected to, as well as the lesser known story of satellites, which we are even more intimately connected to. He's a busy guy, and he doesn't generally know what we're doing out here. Fair enough. He's fundraising, which somebody definitely needs to do, but I guess I should be clearer since I'm on the same page he is... he just wants me to spell it out to him in paper form. And there are some things I'm stumped on. 

For example. We have the best collection of meteorites I have ever seen on display in a museum. Ever. Anywhere. Period. I think I'm including the Smithsonian, because while I'm sure they have them, they may or may not have them on display. We have two moon rocks. There has to be a way to make this awesome.

We were intimately connected with Apollo-Soyuz. I have literally written a paper, a fairly lengthy paper, about what a massive thing that was:

 "The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, from its inception, was the coming together of two mutually technically incompatible systems. It was successful through mutual cooperation and shared engineering expertise. The visibility and public appeal of the mission created a powerful symbol of détente, uniting American and Soviet peoples with the attitudes of their respective governments. This analogy of the negotiations that lessened the hostile relationship between the United States of America and the United Soviet Socialist Republic during the Cold War was the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project’s greatest legacy."

 We have artefacts from Apollo-Soyuz, we have a satellite that talked to the satellite dishes that told the world that Apollo-Soyuz had docked successfully, that is an incredible story. I can imagine doing it justice if I had more space, but I don't, I have maybe a quarter of a room. There has to be a way to make this work that I just don't know about.

I need more information. Which is good, because I'm going to Durham tomorrow to talk to an exhibit designer about exhibit design--among other things. I'm using the questions I've already posted on this blog as a guide, but I'm hopefully going to learn something by exploring the museum of Life and Science. 

And I'll have an excuse to eat at Rocky's Soda Shoppe on my way out of town tonight, which will be way better than the Duke TIP food that's been served here for the last week...which is edible...sometimes. I've had quite a few sandwiches when I didn't feel like risking my tastebuds on the unidentifiable Green Stuff with Tofu Probably or the corn dogs or whatever. The tacos were good yesterday, I'll give them credit--it's hard to mess up meat, cheese, tomatoes, and tortillas. 

Furthermore, I got a painting done yesterday. Just a little one, from a sketch I did back in high school. This is why I'm glad I saved my old sketchbook...also because I'm using it as a way to work on this project. I can make some very nice, neat, IB-worthy sketchbook pages about museum design, lemme tell you. Geez. 

with Daniel's mug in the background, because he wanted to watch. Gouache and watercolor on paper.

Well, gouache and watercolor and brown micron brush pen. I like the brown ink. Would recommend.

I like the Sennelier watercolour set I got with birthday money. The colours are just brilliant, although I'm still learning how to use them. Very different from oils? Ooooooh yeah.

Last but not least, Tim is 3D printing a penguin. 

Penguing