Laserium

[TechJunkie]

TJ, Here is an affordable set of 50 different glass types. At least half of them are worth the money

Thats a great deal bro, I'll ordering the set on Friday.

[Bradfo69]

Thanks for the link above... ordered some.

Not bad... ordered on a holiday and 72 hours later with a major snow storm in between, they arrived on my desk.

Quite a bit of good stuff in this kit! (Including the infamous "granite") Very nicely packaged and each piece is well identified. A great deal for $30.

[mophead]

My youtube channel has a few shots of some of the glass enclosed in that kit. Flora is pretty interesting. I've tried putting a stationary piece in front of the rotating glass to get some killer effects.

Not all of the titles are self explanitory. ask if you want to know which is which. This thread shows some of them. That thread talked about selling some kits; please don't ask (don't take that the wrong way, I'm just swamped at work - no hobby time).

[glorocks]

Thought I'd jump in- years ago, when textured glass was limited, I discovered that putting a few drops of glycerine on the glass made an improvement. Messy, so you had to put a little drip pan under the wheel.
Some of the best lumias I built were made by smearing Testor's model airplane cement on a disc of clear acrylic. Sadly this cement is no longer on the market because kids were getting high on it. I think the toluene in the cement made the difference. Some other plastic adhesives which would etch the surface of the plastic also did some interesting things. Obviously, you can't run scorching amounts of power through a plastic, but it will handle a few hundred milliwatts. Something I never tried was smearing a light coat of Weld on 33 acrylic adhesive- it's about the same viscosity as the model cement.
Has anyone thought about reflective lumias? I got really great results by bouncing a beam off of a motorized disc covered with that self adhesive reflective mylar that Roscoe makes. Putting something like saw dust in small amounts on the adhesive side of the mylar would make the surface bumpy. The bigger the bumps, the wider the spread.

[swamidog]

little bumps and goops of clear epoxy also works really well.

Thought I'd jump in- years ago, when textured glass was limited, I discovered that putting a few drops of glycerine on the glass made an improvement. Messy, so you had to put a little drip pan under the wheel.
Some of the best lumias I built were made by smearing Testor's model airplane cement on a disc of clear acrylic. Sadly this cement is no longer on the market because kids were getting high on it. I think the toluene in the cement made the difference. Some other plastic adhesives which would etch the surface of the plastic also did some interesting things. Obviously, you can't run scorching amounts of power through a plastic, but it will handle a few hundred milliwatts. Something I never tried was smearing a light coat of Weld on 33 acrylic adhesive- it's about the same viscosity as the model cement.
Has anyone thought about reflective lumias? I got really great results by bouncing a beam off of a motorized disc covered with that self adhesive reflective mylar that Roscoe makes. Putting something like saw dust in small amounts on the adhesive side of the mylar would make the surface bumpy. The bigger the bumps, the wider the spread.

[dsli_jon]

..okey-doo, So..

P.S. - Bummed that St. Louis... How are things going at Chabot?

re: St Louie, ya, well... I'll let Cap'n Brian 'elaborate' if he so-chooses, but I can tell you that it *absolutely* is not the 'fault' of either Brian, nor Laserium, as a 'product'... He had sellouts - for Laserium I - ...among other successful-peaks, but.. For now, suffice to say 'people won't come to see something they don't know about.. That was a seed in their garden, and, well... If you don't water your seeds.... I'm sure you can do the math.

..Chabot, on the other hand, is doing quite-well.. People are diggin' them some trippy-classic Laserium shows.. Sure, some of the (currently-running..) shows are 20-25 yrs old, but.. just like that 'favorite old leather-bomber', or 'ol jean-jacket you still have in yer closet... Ya just still love 'em. ..and there *still* are no other shows, out there, quite like Laserium's.

...And.. well, I don't want to 'count any chickens still in the shell' here, but... we very-well may be making a really-exciting announcement - soon - about Laseriums' return to an even major-er market.. It could be huge. ish. Stay tuned..

cheers..
j

[laserist]

I've long believed that the early Laserium shows had something on the majority of other planetarium laser shows. I say the "majority" simply because I haven't seen every planetarium laser show ever done. And I should admit that over the years some of Laserium's performances and worse the occasional performer sucked. But my opinion about Laserium wasn't enough (for me!) to solicit other people's money to reboot Laserium. An experiment was in order. Enter the St. Louis Science Center. We worked out an arrangement that would put Laserium back in front of audiences in its original setting. I honestly expected one of two possible outcomes. One possibility was people would come to see the show and yawn. The other possibility was that people would come to see the show and be delighted just like I was back in June of 1975 when I saw my first Laserium performance. People this time around were quite simply delighted. But the vast majority of the population of St. Louis didn't know the show was there.

I could have continued performing Laserium on a limited schedule forever, but performing Laserium live - even to recorded music - is hard - and choreographing and performing shows with live bands is very hard. I set this up as a one man operation, and I just didn't have the resources to do all of the things that needed to be done to turn St. Louis into a success. And remember that the return of Laserium in St. Louis was an experiment. It was a successful experiment. So now - other people's money is an option. Is it without risk? No, success will depend upon (among other things!) inventing a new marketing model for Laserium. Marketing something in a planetarium is hard, easily 100 times harder than in 1973. Attention deficit is no longer a disorder - it's a survival mechanism. And finding a successful marketing model for Laserium or Fulldome shows or whatever in planetariums is going to be hard. Success will also demand great shows and great performers. Luckily we know where to find some of those…

[WolfMax]

...And.. well, I don't want to 'count any chickens still in the shell' here, but... we very-well may be making a really-exciting announcement - soon - about Laseriums' return to an even major-er market.. It could be huge. ish. Stay tuned..

cheers..
j

If you can't tell us which city, can you at least tell us which country! (Please let it be the UK)!

[dsli_jon]

Hey Sir C -

If you can't tell us ...(Please let it be the UK)!

..It's not that I can't tell, it's just more, don't wanna go all 'counting the chickens before they hatch'.. and then end up with those eggs splattered all over my face..

But, this-is in the US, in the 'Westernish-1/2'.. But, yeah.. if Laserium was going back to / re-opening in the UK, *that* would-be Huge... We'll see...maybe we can invade England again in 2015..

cheers..
j

[VJ AIWAZ]

so after reading this thread i was thumbing through the new PLSN mag and i saw this article