After perfecting the use of the video cameras (please see the article titled Why Astrovideography?), and keeping in mind the potential commercial value, the next thing in line was a larger aperture telescope to see how far the views could be pushed without spending six figures to do it. We wound up purchasing a 28” Webster Dobsonian, and that has turned into a phenomenal investment.

This beautiful instrument is ten feet tall and almost four feet across at its base, and yet is surprisingly mobile, responsive and easy to use. However, the Webster had to be modified in order to accommodate the video cameras. The focal length was too long; perfect for eyepieces but too long for the way the cameras are set up, and so some home modifications were in order. Once those modifications were complete, we had one other step, and that was to determine how we could best display these beautiful images live and in person for large groups.

We’d been using a 21” Sony Trinitron television for its portability for the images, but once we had eight or more people gathered it began to get a little shoulder to shoulder to enjoy the views, and we were still entertaining the possibility of having large gatherings. So we tried LCD and Plasma TVs, neither of which came close to the views given by the Trinitron because tube TVs have true black instead of artificial black, and high contrast between blacks and colors is crucial for quality views with this equipment configuration. LCDs and Plasmas are coming along, however, in engineering better and better blacks, but on our last check there was nothing quite up to snuff.

In November of 2006, we started looking into warmer climes to continue the development and to locate places where we could do the Webcasts to our 800 subscribers without freezing to death. We got looking into the Death Valley area of southeast California, for both its dryness and the milder nighttime temperatures. Using satellite imagery we located a couple of small towns near that southeastern edge, one called Shoshone and one called Tecopa, which has adjacent to it a large hot springs area with several commercial outfits in operation.

We randomly called one of them and told them what we were up to and might see them. About three days later we pulled into the one we’d phoned and they were excited to see us and to explore the prospects. About seven miles from this area we set up on a very flat and beautiful volcanic bed and did a few Webcast shows, which were wonderful. But, as Nature is in charge, we were eventually chased off by storms and cold weather.

We tried again in December, January and February, and again unbelievably cold weather throughout all of the US in early 2006 made things difficult and trying, especially as in that area the wind never stopped blowing. One day, in Tecopa, a beautiful clear day, the wind stopped. We mounted up and took off to go set up on the same location we had in both November and December a couple of months before.

Seven miles away, the wind was blowing at a 25 mph clip (only seven miles from perfect calm), foiling our plans, and so we drove back to Tecopa Hotsprings Resort and spoke to the owner, “Looks like we’re setting up here!” and she said, “Sounds great!” and the rest is history (well, almost).

Nature had seen to it that we made the decision once and for all to set up at Tecopa Hot springs, and that turned out to be a quite fortuitous catalyst. Nature imposed this upon us, and we’re still grateful for it, for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that this was the impetus for turning us onto modern video projection as an alternative for large screen viewing.

On the second night of being set up at this location, a man who went by the nickname of Govinda pulled into the area in his short Bluebird school bus converted to a motor home, studio and broadcast facility.

Govinda is about sixty, an activist hippie in every conceivable way, always has been, and got his monicker by instituting a yoga school in the U.S. Army for his conscientious objection to the Vietnam war in 1970. He was led to me while I was in the middle of viewing and, needless to say, he was blown away.

He explained that he had a projector we could use to project the views onto a screen, and so we decided right then to have a look  the next night. Meanwhile, I toured his bus. It’s complete with beads hanging between the main living area and his sleeping quarters. It has a restaurant style booth to sit in, a wood burning stove of extremely clever design, and across from the booth a full blown mixing board and pirate FM broadcast studio.

Mounted on top are solar panels, a mount for a satellite dish, and a wind-vane to keep the eight deep cycle batteries topped up. This is an amazingly self-sustaining and self-contained outfit, and had studio monitors for sound, microphone with amplifier, a video projector for presentations, and a large wrinkled canvas for a screen.

His pirate FM broadcast studio has about a sixty mile diameter footprint, and using his satellite dish to up link to the Web he could announce his location and begin a broadcast, and people who followed his activities would turn on their radios and listen in, or even drive to the location to join in the activism.

Govinda’s usual activity is to set up where military, for example, would encroach on sacred or even reservation land held by native peoples, and broadcast the information both over the Web and by FM radio. It was quite extraordinary in every way to have met this amazing man.

The next night we set up and projected the views onto a yellowed, mildly stained canvas “screen,” and the very first view dropped our jaws to our chests, and the rest is history (well, almost). The blacks were black and the colors were color, and the only difference between the view of the 21” Trinitron and this wrinkled canvas screen was a little noticeable contrast, and you’d obviously want to stand at least twenty to thirty feet away from the projection screen. As it turned out, you could enjoy the view standing a hundred feet away. People were able to see the screen when they were driving by on the road about 500 feet below our viewing platform. We had people from the Salt Lake City area drive down and locate us by seeing the screen from the road!

We put the word out that we were doing what we decided to call a Cosmocast Starparty the next night and had a respectable little crowd of about thirty people. The next night, however, all of those who’d seen from the road, or were with us the night before and told their friends, made some phone calls, and themselves returned, all began to show up, car after car, truck after truck, pulling in and backing up like at a drive-in theater, the kids in the back munching on popcorn! It was quite a crowd, and quite a debut.

We’d set up the studio monitors and just happened to have join us a man who is quite knowledgeable on details of astronomy, the composition of gases, the distances, why this color, why that size, why that shape, etc., and he took the microphone and discussed the objects throughout the show.  

We also set up what we were calling “party cams,” which were infrared cameras for night vision. We piped those video captures through an audio-video chat we were maintaining for those who joined us from all over the world, which included Greece, Germany, Holland, the UK, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and all points in the states. We were using the audio-video chat for the personal touch of contact - they could see us, we could see them. Piping the crowd there in person to those from all over the world became quite a highlight, and those viewing from the Web were waving and all the locals were waving and making noise and being hammy. This is something that could easily be established where groups of people located in various places could all be in on the same Webcast.

From that point on we began to publicize what we were doing and more and more people began to show up, and a few articles in newspapers and on Websites began to appear.

This all took place in order to show us what sorts of possibilities and trajectories could come from being able to both broadcast live over the Web the views and also to project the views in a large screen format for local parties, especially as those in personal attendance so enjoyed that they were being Webcast worldwide and were more than willing to “ham it up for the camera.”

Nature, ever in charge, forced us to set up in Tecopa, which was perfect, and a by-product of that also drove the bus of the immortal Govinda into our midst to establish the stuff of legend. And now, alas, the rest is truly history.

After perfecting the use of the video cameras (please see the article titled Why Astrovideography?), and keeping in mind the potential commercial value, the next thing in line was a larger aperture telescope to see how far the views could be pushed without spending six figures to do it. We wound up purchasing a 28” Webster Dobsonian, and that has turned into a phenomenal investment.

This beautiful instrument is ten feet tall and almost four feet across at its base, and yet is surprisingly mobile, responsive and easy to use. However, the Webster had to be modified in order to accommodate the video cameras. The focal length was too long; perfect for eyepieces but too long for the way the cameras are set up, and so some home modifications were in order. Once those modifications were complete, we had one other step, and that was to determine how we could best display these beautiful images live and in person for large groups.

We’d been using a 21” Sony Trinitron television for its portability for the images, but once we had eight or more people gathered it began to get a little shoulder to shoulder to enjoy the views, and we were still entertaining the possibility of having large gatherings. So we tried LCD and Plasma TVs, neither of which came close to the views given by the Trinitron because tube TVs have true black instead of artificial black, and high contrast between blacks and colors is crucial for quality views with this equipment configuration. LCDs and Plasmas are coming along, however, in engineering better and better blacks, but on our last check there was nothing quite up to snuff.

In November of 2006, we started looking into warmer climes to continue the development and to locate places where we could do the Webcasts to our 800 subscribers without freezing to death. We got looking into the Death Valley area of southeast California, for both its dryness and the milder nighttime temperatures. Using satellite imagery we located a couple of small towns near that southeastern edge, one called Shoshone and one called Tecopa, which has adjacent to it a large hot springs area with several commercial outfits in operation.

We randomly called one of them and told them what we were up to and might see them. About three days later we pulled into the one we’d phoned and they were excited to see us and to explore the prospects. About seven miles from this area we set up on a very flat and beautiful volcanic bed and did a few Webcast shows, which were wonderful. But, as Nature is in charge, we were eventually chased off by storms and cold weather.

We tried again in December, January and February, and again unbelievably cold weather throughout all of the US in early 2006 made things difficult and trying, especially as in that area the wind never stopped blowing. One day, in Tecopa, a beautiful clear day, the wind stopped. We mounted up and took off to go set up on the same location we had in both November and December a couple of months before.

Seven miles away, the wind was blowing at a 25 mph clip (only seven miles from perfect calm), foiling our plans, and so we drove back to Tecopa Hotsprings Resort and spoke to the owner, “Looks like we’re setting up here!” and she said, “Sounds great!” and the rest is history (well, almost).

Nature had seen to it that we made the decision once and for all to set up at Tecopa Hot springs, and that turned out to be a quite fortuitous catalyst. Nature imposed this upon us, and we’re still grateful for it, for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that this was the impetus for turning us onto modern video projection as an alternative for large screen viewing.

On the second night of being set up at this location, a man who went by the nickname of Govinda pulled into the area in his short Bluebird school bus converted to a motor home, studio and broadcast facility.

Govinda is about sixty, an activist hippie in every conceivable way, always has been, and got his monicker by instituting a yoga school in the U.S. Army for his conscientious objection to the Vietnam war in 1970. He was led to me while I was in the middle of viewing and, needless to say, he was blown away.

He explained that he had a projector we could use to project the views onto a screen, and so we decided right then to have a look  the next night. Meanwhile, I toured his bus. It’s complete with beads hanging between the main living area and his sleeping quarters. It has a restaurant style booth to sit in, a wood burning stove of extremely clever design, and across from the booth a full blown mixing board and pirate FM broadcast studio.

Mounted on top are solar panels, a mount for a satellite dish, and a wind-vane to keep the eight deep cycle batteries topped up. This is an amazingly self-sustaining and self-contained outfit, and had studio monitors for sound, microphone with amplifier, a video projector for presentations, and a large wrinkled canvas for a screen.

His pirate FM broadcast studio has about a sixty mile diameter footprint, and using his satellite dish to up link to the Web he could announce his location and begin a broadcast, and people who followed his activities would turn on their radios and listen in, or even drive to the location to join in the activism.

Govinda’s usual activity is to set up where military, for example, would encroach on sacred or even reservation land held by native peoples, and broadcast the information both over the Web and by FM radio. It was quite extraordinary in every way to have met this amazing man.

The next night we set up and projected the views onto a yellowed, mildly stained canvas “screen,” and the very first view dropped our jaws to our chests, and the rest is history (well, almost). The blacks were black and the colors were color, and the only difference between the view of the 21” Trinitron and this wrinkled canvas screen was a little noticeable contrast, and you’d obviously want to stand at least twenty to thirty feet away from the projection screen. As it turned out, you could enjoy the view standing a hundred feet away. People were able to see the screen when they were driving by on the road about 500 feet below our viewing platform. We had people from the Salt Lake City area drive down and locate us by seeing the screen from the road!

We put the word out that we were doing what we decided to call a Cosmocast Starparty the next night and had a respectable little crowd of about thirty people. The next night, however, all of those who’d seen from the road, or were with us the night before and told their friends, made some phone calls, and themselves returned, all began to show up, car after car, truck after truck, pulling in and backing up like at a drive-in theater, the kids in the back munching on popcorn! It was quite a crowd, and quite a debut.

We’d set up the studio monitors and just happened to have join us a man who is quite knowledgeable on details of astronomy, the composition of gases, the distances, why this color, why that size, why that shape, etc., and he took the microphone and discussed the objects throughout the show.  

We also set up what we were calling “party cams,” which were infrared cameras for night vision. We piped those video captures through an audio-video chat we were maintaining for those who joined us from all over the world, which included Greece, Germany, Holland, the UK, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and all points in the states. We were using the audio-video chat for the personal touch of contact - they could see us, we could see them. Piping the crowd there in person to those from all over the world became quite a highlight, and those viewing from the Web were waving and all the locals were waving and making noise and being hammy. This is something that could easily be established where groups of people located in various places could all be in on the same Webcast.

From that point on we began to publicize what we were doing and more and more people began to show up, and a few articles in newspapers and on Websites began to appear.

This all took place in order to show us what sorts of possibilities and trajectories could come from being able to both broadcast live over the Web the views and also to project the views in a large screen format for local parties, especially as those in personal attendance so enjoyed that they were being Webcast worldwide and were more than willing to “ham it up for the camera.”

Nature, ever in charge, forced us to set up in Tecopa, which was perfect, and a by-product of that also drove the bus of the immortal Govinda into our midst to establish the stuff of legend. And now, alas, the rest is truly history.