400 Years of the Telescope

We woke yesterday morning from our naps and made our way back over to UA College of Optical Sciences at 9:30 AM to tape their extensive collection of early telescopes. The curator of the collection is Dr. John Greivenkamp; he was extremely helpful and excited that we were taping the wide variety of instruments for the production. The forty or so pieces range from small 1700 Galilean draw-tube telescopes to late 19th century astronomical telescopes. Our favorite pieces were the “Opera” telescopes that featured ornately etched tubes of silver and gold. These small, delicate instruments are a far cry from the massive and complex LBT telescope, but they all share a heritage that start with two small pieces of glass back in 1609.

After the shoot we stopped by one of our underwriters, Starizona (http://www.starizona.com), to thank the owners Dean and Donna for their hospitality before we started on our fourteen-hour drive back to Chico. Dean is the model ambassador for getting out and looking at the sky at night. He has launched many of astronomical adventures along Oracle road, the busy four-lane road that his business can be found on. Stop by some weekend night and catch a glimpse though one of the many telescopes setup out front. You won’t be disappointed.

We returned to Chico at 4 AM this morning. It’s nice to be home. The weekend ahead will see us logging and capturing the footage from the past two weeks and prepping for our next adventure that starts Monday morning - the Lick observatory. Now where is my bed?

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Today we found ourselves on the road to Mt. Graham, a two-hour drive to base camp, and another hour to the 10,700-foot summit. We met with Father Christopher Corbally at base camp. Father Corbally is the vice-director of the Vatican Observatory on the mountain. After the long, windy drive to the summit, we learned a little Latin from Fr. Corbally, and then moved on to an incredible interview.

Finishing up at the Vatican Observatory, we made our way across the peak to what is currently the world's largest and most advanced telescope, the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope). The LBT is under constant development, but certain aspects are fully functional at this time. It can currently run as two individual scopes, but in the near future, a process known as interferometry will enable the scope to combine the images from it's 8.4 meter mirrors into a single image with up to 10 times the resolution of the Hubble - amazing!

LBT Director Dr. Richard Green explained the inner workings of the scope, it's engineering advancements and how this scope’s revolutionary technology is breaking new ground for a whole new breed of large telescopes.

We got off the mountain about 9pm, and back in to Tucson around midnight. It was a long but productive day.

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Today we found some nicer weather, at least up until about 4pm, then the monsoons hit again. However, it didn't matter too much, since most of today's shooting took place in the Stewart Observatory Mirror Lab, located at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The lab is located partially underneath the football stadium, pretty efficient use of space.

We interviewed the Mirror Lab founder Roger Angel. He explained the technology and history of engineering that has led us to where we are today in the world of large telescope optics. From the small hand-ground glass lenses of the past, to the large 8 meter precision machined mirrors of today. An interesting trivia fact is the reason for 8 meter mirrors being the largest built at the lab...the answer was simple...any larger and you can't move it down the freeway.

After the interview we made our way around the lab and captured footage of the different stages of casting and polishing the mirrors. We may go back in the fall, and again in the spring, to get more stages of manufacturing. An exciting part of the shoot was getting on the roof of the College of Optical Sciences building to take a high angle shot of the stadium. The only thing more uneasy than the height was the 40' lighting rod a few feet away from us and the gear. A quick shot was all we needed!

In the lobby of the College of Optical Sciences we found a great antique telescope exhibit. We have made arrangements to return on Thursday and shoot the exhibit for our production.

Monsoons and Mexican food finished up our day - it's a good match. That does it for now. Tomorrow we head up another mountain to look at more scopes...I'm beginning to notice a pattern.

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Well, it’s Monday, so we must be in Arizona and at Kitt Peak National Observatory outside of Tucson, AZ. Today’s taping was to be focused on the 4-meter Mayall and the WIYN telescopes, but the weather had other plans.

Our morning started at the Mayall and we worked through to lunch, but by then the summer monsoons had decided to start a few hours earlier than normal. The sky had filled with dark clouds and rain could be seen hitting the desert floor few miles away. This turn in the weather forced us to postpone our taping of WIYN telescope until later in the week.

But for me the day was more than just about the production. I once worked at Kitt Peak and the return trip was a chance to visit old friends and to reminiscence when my family and I called the mountain home. The staff’s friendly faces and quick smiles pulled back the ten years that have past and renewed friendships that were placed on temporary hold. Kitt Peak is a great place to see science in action but knowing the dedicated people who keep it all working is the real treasure of this mountain island in the desert.

Tomorrow the University of Arizona Mirror Lab and the man who changed how telescope mirrors are made.

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Besides doing astrophotography on Wednesday, we made our way off Mt. Palomar in the morning to travel to La Jolla to visit the corporate offices of YES watch. YES is one of our underwriters that is providing support to our production. The watches that YES produce are quite unique and very powerful timekeepers.

Bjorn Kartomten, YES founder, wanted to design a watch that provides the daily, monthly and yearly rhythm indicators that humankind use to plan their day until the modern world replaced them with a 24-hour clock. The result of Bjorn’s quest is a multifunctional watch that not only tracks time in three time zones, but also sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, lunar phases and tracks the four major solar events of the solstices and equinoxes. The user can also set any date a hundred years in the past or future to see the data for that day. I won’t go into all of the functions that the watch can do in this blog, but I will tell you that over the past five years that I have been wearing a YES watch I used more than any other timepiece I’ve ever owned. I use it to plan the dates and times that we visit locations to maximize our creativity and capture visual events that might not occur but once a year. The shot below is of the UKIRT dome on Mauna Kea that is reflecting the light of sunrise and the setting full moon. I captured this image as a direct result of using my YES watch.

The watches are as beautiful as they are functional and come in a variety of designs including a stylish ladies model. I encourage anyone that is looking for watch that can reconnect them to the motions of the earth, moon and their path around the sun to check out YES watches at http://www.yeswatch.com.

Posted by 400 Years of the Telescope at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The other day we told you about picking up a modified Canon 5D camera from Hutech in Torrance, CA. The camera had the original IR filter removed and replace with a filter that is specialty designed for astrophotography. Well, last night I got to take it out and really try it for the first time.

The filter modification changes the infinity focal point on the lenses I use on the camera. This can be really frustrating if you want to take pictures with pin-point stars. So I had to spend about an hour last night finding focus on my 14mm lens. I do this I connect the camera to my Apple MacBook Pro using a program call Nebulosity, which allows me to view captured images on the computer’s LCD monitor to find focus on the camera. Once I did this I was able to start my image run.

Here is just one of the several images I took last night. There are still a few bugs to work out with the camera and the tracking system I am using, but I am pleased with the first results.

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Today we collected broll (video images) of the 200 inch telescope on Mount Palomar;
The Super-Nice Public Affairs Coordinator Scott Kardel, allowed Kris and Steve to grab some shots from a narrow instrument ledge all the way to the top of the scope structure, which was about 200 feet high! Its one of the only observatories where you can actually above the telescope inside the dome…I think it’s the highest Steve has ever shot from, so far. As the the scope slewed into position, the dome opened, and the sky was revealed to the camera…too beautiful, folks, What did those early astronomers think in 1948, when they witnessed this enormous machine do its thing for the first time?

The Plano-Cam was also put to work, and as the dome opened, all cams were rolling, so we got Palomar pretty much covered. We did an interview with one of the astronomers there, shot a bunch of pretty scope video, and stayed really late outside as Kris captured still-images of the deep sky into his camera. We saw some meteors, and finally drove down the windy roads back to the hotel.

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CalTech & Griffith Observatory

First of all, let me begin by saying that the iPhone has become our new friend. The driving directions on this thing are pretty cool. It is definitely helping get us from point A to point B with little fuss.

Our day begins with the iPhone helping us find the nearest Starbucks (something the iPhone is well known for). After the coffee run, we made our way over to CalTech for our first shoot of the production, and interview with Dr. Suvi Gezari.

Dr. Gezari is one of America’s brightest young astronomers, engaged in cutting edge research to pull back the veil of mystery surrounding super massive blackholes. She has the privilege of working with some of the world’s most technologically advanced instruments, including the Chandra X-Ray telescope, and the Galex (Galaxy Explorer) telescope.

Following our interview at CalTech, we traveled to the Griffith Observatory, to interview it’s director, and one of the leading historians on pre-telescopic astronomy, Dr. Ed Krupp. The hills that surround the observatory make up what is known as Griffith Park. Last year, a tragic wildfire devastated much of the beautiful hillsides surrounding the observatory. We were honored to be the first production company on top of the mountain since the wildfire.

Dr. Krupp is an expert on archeo-astronomy and how star-gazing influenced early civilizations. He also reminded us that we aren’t that different from ancient astronomers, as we are using new technology just as they did, not only to answer question about our universe, but to raise new questions as well.

After our interview with Dr. Krupp in the 12 inch refractor dome, we put our newly engineered Plano-Cam to work.

The Plano-Cam is comprised of 8 individual high-definition cameras, and specially designed optics. When these 8 cameras record simultaneously, they capture a full hemispheric view of the surrounding environment.
With complex software engineering, we can then combine these 8 individual sources into one movie. When projected into a planetarium, we create a total immersion experience for the participant. This process in technology has never been used before and will premiere in the companion planetarium program to our documentary.

From there, we’re on our way to Escondido. But first, we had to pick up a specially modified Canon 5D, which we’ll blog about later. This put in Torrance, at 5:30, and we were running on Starbucks fumes.

Enter the wonderful ‘Claim Jumper’ restaurantWe had the appetizer sampler that consisted of fried zucchini, garlic onion rings, buffalo wings and cheese sticks. Dessert consisted of chocolate cheesecake. We promise we’ll start eating healthier tomorrow.

That concludes the events of today. We are headed to Escondido tonight and preparing for an all-day shoot at Palomar tomorrow.

Posted by 400 Years of the Telescope at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 15, 2007 – Sunday
Chico, CA to Pasadena, CA

First day on the road. We find ourselves traveling in an overloaded rental van, filled with gear and anticipation, as we are headed toward the L.A. basin.
At this point we are one crew member short, as our sound and lighting man Bruce is on another assignment and won’t be joining us until the end of the week.

Our first day was mostly driving, as it is approximately 7 hours from Chico to Pasadena. Traffic was good and uneventful, although dinner at a nice little Mexican restaurant at the grapevine is worthy of mention - tasty enchiladas!
And they served the finest brew, that just happens to be made in Chico, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale! As the readers of this blog will quickly find out, our workdays are long, and hard. Sometimes, the only nourishment we take in the day is coffee, until we eventually find ourselves in some restaurant, just prior to closing, as we beg for service. Food and beer naturally become a focus in our days. Having one of Ken’s fine brews in front of us, is a perfect reward after an exhausting day.

After a long day of driving, there isn’t much to do with the day but catch a good night’s sleep. We have two shoots tomorrow starting at 9am, so it is important to be well rested. More to come tomorrow!

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Welcome to the weblog of Interstellar Studio’s PBS production “400 Years of the Telescope”. We invite all of the Northstate to share with us this adventure of work and passion, and join us vicariously through this blog.

We will do our best to keep you updated on day-to-day events in the field, as well as the studio. Look forward to blogging from different crew members, and candid video footage from the field, plus sneak peaks at material to be included in the final production.

Over the next few months we will travel to some of the world’s greatest observatories, and historical sites significant to astronomy. These include observatories in the American southwest, Virginia, Hawaii, the Canary Islands and Chile. Our historical wanderings will take us to Ireland, to Cambridge, Stonehenge, Chichen Itza, Florence, and Holland. You’ll see how we re-enact Copernicus’ death and the development of technology that changed the way humanity sees itself in the universe.

From all of us at Interstellar Studios, welcome to the journey.

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