Ron fixed the A3P 75 watt starter today. A new 2N3442 transister and skill at the
soldering iron will mean some fun tonight when it gets dark! Thanks Ron.. haven't
been able to use the 75W arc lamp since last August.

Good thing Ron accepts Dr. Pepper for payment or else I would never be able to afford
this service call.

It's tedious alright

... and some skill at installing an A3P starter in that little hole.

WOW!
That picture looks like you have an A3P farm and its harvest season......
Great!

Owen

It was really grand to just sit under the A3P sky and enjoy it for once. I tend to spend all of my time either fixing or re-designing these beautiful machines. Not that I'm complaining, as I'm not, I really enjoy doing every part of this.

I must say that the star field that this machine projects is nothing short of outstanding. The biggest surprise for me and something that I was really wondering about is how well it did with the southern hemisphere, especially that area that is blocked by the planet analog section of the unit. I was expecting disappointment but was very pleasantly surprised. Under close scrutiny one can tell that there arn't as many faint stars there as compared with the rest of the sky, but there is certainly no "black hole" as one would expect. The Spitz engineers and designers really did their homework and the unique use of small prisms to bend the brighter stars projections around the projector body really works well. This is trully an amazing instrument.