Friday, November 4, 2011

We've been away enjoying our planetarium

Today, a group of students repositioned rivets in areas that needed tightening. The repositioning did wonders for the inside of the dome. A second group of students worked inside the dome getting all of the projection mechanisms working. They unpacked and set-up the projector, DVD player, and spherical mirror.  They did some troubleshooting in order to get the best projection. They ended up using a desk and box for the projector to sit on, positioned a little lower than the mirror, and an overhead cart for the placement of the mirror. They final got a projection they were happy with and popped in one of the planetarium DVDs we purchased with the grant money. It was one of those moments as a teacher I could see the students felt accomplished. Their eyes were glued to the dome and not a peep was heard from any of them. 

Four of the gentleman who worked incredibly hard on the dome will be giving tours and talking about the process at parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday, Nov. 8th.  Be sure to stop by if you'd like a first-hand look at this magnificent project.

Note: We will post updated pictures on Tuesday!

-Jessica Anderson, teacher

2 comments:

  1. Wow, these are amazing pictures! Did you build these according to plans you got somewhere?

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    1. We did not have a set of plans that we followed. However, we did use the following website to figure out the dimensions for the triangles and finally the base for the 3V dome: http://www.desertdomes.com/domecalc.html

      We also collaborated with a school in our state that previously built one to work out all of the kinks. If you have further questions about building one or want more information please let me know.

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