Today started with coffee and a brief meeting with Steven Beckwith, one of our advisors on the production. We taped 5 interviews at the Hubble Telescope Space Science Institute: Adam Riess, a young astronomer who helped discover Dark Energy; Matt Mountain, the new director of the Hubble Telescope; Kathryn Flanagan, the new director of the James Webb Space Telescope, and her husband, Stephen Murray, one of the project scientists for Chandra, the X-Ray space telescope. Of course, we interviewed Steven Beckwith, Director Emeritus, for the Hubble. After a good long day of work, we took a short drive to Middleburg, VA to have our first meal of the day, dinner with my brother Robin. Tomorrow we will travel to the National Radio Observatory in Greenbank, West Virginia. We’re looking forward to viewing the fall foliage on the Shenandoah mountains.

The combination of wine, pepperoni pizza and the anxiety of another 3 weeks of travel, produced a bellyful of acid, that crawled up my throat and woke me before the 2 a.m. alarm was scheduled to go off. The 3 hours of rest, if you could call it that, didn’t refresh me. It was far too little, leaving me groggier than before laying my head to the pillow. Anita and I had to catch a 6 am flight from Sacramento to Washington D.C. I pulled back the covers, disturbing the weiner dog at my feet, as she growled disapproval at my departure. I showered in a daze, not sure if I’d washed my hair once, or twice, brushed my teeth and dressed. After quickly packing my clothes that my daughter had ironed for me the night before, I went back into the bedroom and kissed my wife, and two children goodbye, sighing at the realization that I had only been home for 24 hours.

The journey between Chico and the Sacramento airport passed quietly as Anita and I struggled to reset our internal clocks to east coast time. The next 2 weeks will see us travel over much of the Midwest and the Washington D.C. area. First, we’re off to Baltimore, to visit the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institue. We will drive into the fall-foliaged West Virgina Hills, to the worlds’ largest steereable radio telescope. Then, we head to a planetarium conference in Wheeling. We will visit one of America’s oldest observatories, in Cincinnati, and interview a cosmologist in Cleveland. From there, we travel to the Windy City, to visit our friends at the Adler planetarium, and we’ll end up at the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin.

This begins what should be the last 4 weeks of travel for the production. Its also some of the most important travel we will do, as we’ll be conduction many of the key interviews for the program. These interviews will be conducted by Anita and myself, as Krista remains in Chico to begin the log and capture process of the footage and interviews we’ve got in the can. Scott has other obligations outside this production. So its just us, similar to our previous emmy-award winning Astronomy telecourse we produced in 2004.

Jennifer Oman, Communications Specialist, has implemented city and county-wide multi-media outreach campaigns. She has experience in public relations, event coordination, promotional writing, grant writing, and education. Jennifer's background in the arts has served her well in the oversight of the development of media products, and the coordination of artists, graphic designers, and broadcast media specialists.

Harley Wettemann lead web and graphics designer at Interstellar Studios graduated CSU Chico with a BS in graphics design and animations and is currently working on his Masters in Internet Technology. Harley has produced and managed many unique web sites over the past eight years. Harley continues to learning and expanding his knowledge of web and graphics design to keep up with the ever-changing market place.

Krista Shelby is the new kid in town – working hard as Interstellar Studios’ production assistant and production coordinator on the “400 Years of the Telescope” project. Krista is a third year student at UC Irvine in southern California, majoring in Film and Media Studies. She has worked on a variety of small production projects through college, including two short films and numerous pop-culture parodies starring her peers and family. She has written, produced and edited all of her own work with her trusty Apple laptop and editing software, including Final Cut Pro. As Production Assistant at Interstellar Studios, Krista looks forward to learning the ropes to the roles of videographer and editor.

Bruce Coykendall is an audio/video professional with over 20 years experience in production, post-production and technical editorial writing.
With a BA in music and recording arts from CSUC Bruce was Chief Engineer at Cloud Nine Recording Studios for seven years producing, recording and mastering music and commercial audio. Bruce was Technical Editor and currently writes product reviews for VideoMaker Magazine, a publication with global distribution. Bruce co-produced and edited National commercial and short form video documentaries for the Award Winning H.L. Ward Advertising Agency. As a member of MC2 Design Group Bruce produced and edited public service announcements and wrote technical news letters for The Nature Conservancy’s Sacramento River Project. Bruce was a video producer for regional FOX affiliate and produced and recorded the live in the studio music series Real Music. Bruce is currently the owner of KestrelView Productions in Chico California and is providing editorial services for the PBS Tele course, Astronomy Observations and Theories for Coast Learning Systems. Bruce’s has extensive field videography, lighting and field audio production. Video editorial experience and tools encompass Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects and related adobe products, with post-production audio expertise in Digidesign ProTools and Digital Performer.

Steve Chollet is a multi-award winning media design
professional. His achievements include numerous local and
regional advertising awards as well as the 2005 L.A. Area Emmy Award
in instructional programming for the series, Astronomy: Observations &
Theories, for which he was the associate producer, as well as editor
and graphic designer. Steve owns the company, Synergy {design:produce:post}, and is proud to serve its clients with a wide range of professional, cutting edge
media solutions, including: 24p high definition cinematography, location
sound, film & video editorial, post-production services, sound design,
scoring, graphic design and website development. In addition to in-
house services, Synergy is proud to be affiliated with a number of other design professionals capable of delivering creative media solutions of any size and budget.

Anita Berkow is an enterprising person when it comes to video production. She lives for live shoots and getting into the community affairs with her camera in-hand. Anita has had extensive experience with video production as a videographer on the Sierra Center Stage series, a program that spotlights the Chico community’s musical atmosphere through Sierra Nevada Brewery’s Big Room. Anita has also been a videographer and editor for the “English Composition: Writing for an Audience” course taught through Annenberg Media. At Interstellar Studios, Anita has been a videographer for the “Hey Bum, Get a Job” program due to air on public broadcasting during Summer 2007.

Kris Koenig is a video producer from the ground up. His knowledge and expertise for interviewing, camera work, lighting, editing, and production management culminated as the producer and writer of the ten-hour PBS telecourse "Astronomy: Observations and Theories" for which he won two Emmy® awards – Instructional Programming and Outstanding Non-news Writer. His work has taken him all over the world including most of the major observatories in the western hemisphere. Non-astronomical productions have included traveling to China and Europe to produce k-12 educational videos. His footage has also been used in National Geographic productions. Kris’ has also produced unique and effective interactive kiosk for Canon USA, Celestron, Fry’s Electronics and W. M. Keck Observatory. His astrophotography graces the covers of national acclaimed astronomical texts books and appears in various publications and videos. In his limited spare time Kris directs one of the most successful community observatories in the country. He is now in production on a documentary of the history of the telescope "400 Years of the Telescope".

Back from nearly 3 weeks on the road, being back in Chico is a sure homecoming. After returning last Monday from the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton in San Jose, they have been tirelessly working in the office while trying to get back to a normal eating and sleeping schedule. As they break from their first round of location shoots and interviews, let us give you a chance to meet the crew. You’ve seen some of their faces, but you have no idea what they’re all about. They might surprise you. Come along and meet the “400 Years of the Telescope” Production Crew! Check in every day to meet another member of the Interstellar Studios family.

Day 1: Dan Koehler

Dan Koehler brings a life long love of astronomy, a MBA in Finance, 10 years experience of print media with Kalmbach publishing’s Astronomy magazine, and as seven years as banker for Chase and Wells Fargo banks. This mix of experience makes Dan an excellent executive producer with an understanding of both the creative process as well as the financial. Dan Koehler and Kris Koenig formed Interstellar Studios to bridge their joint interest in astronomy and media, producing popular astronomically-based content that entertains and educates the public on the wonders of space.