SC State Museum - planetarium laser shows

[buffo]

Sounds good to me!

Adam

[buffo]

Today is the day! What's the plan - meet outside the Planetarium around 6:30 PM or so?

EDIT: I just checked - we have to pay a $5 fee to get into the museum (admission after 4 PM is only 5 bucks) and then you pay another $5 to get into the planetarium to see the laser show. So with that in mind, I'm thinking that it might be better for me to get there early and explore the museum for a while before the laser show starts.

I will probably hit the road around 3PM then. That will give me some extra time to look around. I'll have my cell phone with me, so just give me a call when you guys get there so we can link up.

See you guys tonight!

Adam

[DrEvil]

The observatory is open until 10 today. I might stick around a bit for that.

[DrEvil]

That was a fun time. Their projector was really lacking in the red department though. It could probably use a boost in total power though.

[SaltyRobot]

That was a fun time. Their projector was really lacking in the red department though. It could probably use a boost in total power though.

Yeah I think Adam said 250mw Red 200mw green and 1.4w blue. He has the pictures to prove it.

Overall the show was fun. Our kids really enjoyed it they both said they thought it was cool.

[buffo]

500 mw red (638)
250 mw green (520)
1.8 watts blue (450)

That was right off the nameplate on the projector. (It's an AVI Skylase 2000, complete with the huge honkin' fish-eye lens on top.) Pretty lousy color balance, if you ask me...

Overall it was a lot of fun, but as Jason mentioned they needed more power. A 4 or 5 watt projector would have been better, I think. (A 55 ft dome is a large area to cover!) Also, their sound system was a joke. I've heard portable boom-boxes that had more omph!

They ran Mike Dunn's "Laser Fun 2". I've seen it before, but it was fun to watch again. They were playing off an HD24, which sort of sucked, because the blanking shift was off ever so slightly (tails). Had they been running it off a controller they could have tweaked that a bit. Also, the scanners needed to be tuned. But I think we were the only ones who noticed these slight errors.

I did enjoy seeing the show in a huge dome though. It definitely makes a difference! Also, the food, beer, and conversation afterward at "The Flying Saucer" was really great! Just wish it wasn't such a long drive home. I was wiped out when I rolled into the driveway around 11:30 PM...

That being said - I'm up for another one in a month or two, if we can make it work again!

Adam