Leaving for Rexburg this Wednesday evening to fetch another Spitz A3P and console from Brigham Young University in Idaho. Stephen McNeil, Planetarium Director at Brigham Young in the photo.

Northbound...

Romney Building on the Brigham Young campus in Rexburg, Idaho where the A3P has resided for the past 25 years.

This A3P is newer than the other ones I have seen. This machine will rotate 360 degrees on the pedestal.

Partial image of the console. In addition to this part shown, there is another, larger section attached on the left side that holds Spice automation equipment. It is also laminated in the classic Spitz walnut finish.

Left-hand side of the console. I am not sure what was once installed here, but they are using it for Spice Automation now. Does anybody know what Spitz delivered in the blank panel spaces 25 years ago?

This is going to be alot of work...

Lower section of the pedestal. This projector sits low for the 22 foot dome.

My friend Brad, an Electrical Engineer, rode with me to Idaho and assist in the removal. After looking at hundreds of feet of cabling, you can clearly see what he is thinking...

Brad explains some of the issues we will encounter today..

The projector is being taken apart.. scaffold comes in handy.

Starball and planet cage are off.

Central Core is off the pedestal, and ready to go in the truck.

Here you can see the roller bearings that permit 360 degree rotation of the instrument.

Progress is made in the console area..

I really like to use these hard-shell road cases, originally designed for transporting 3-tier slide projectors on stands. They do a good job of protecting the cargo and they are on wheels too.

My friend Brad, Electrical Engineer, and Stephen McNeil, Director, talking about "the hole".

The projector and consoles are out.. Now then, on to the Spice Automation rack.

Brad tackles the Spice equipment..

A full load to Phoenix..

At the hotel, ready to roll southbound..

On the road again!

Everybody passes us on the freeway with this much load..

Here are a few statistics for BYUI:
* Total Duration of Removal = 15 Hours
* Total Number of Days for Removal = 1
* Total Round Trip Miles Driven = 2,053
* Total Gallons of Gas: Too many to count
* Total Nights Sleeping in Truck = 2
* Total Available Hotel Rooms in Rexburg on 4th of July = Zero
* Components removed:
Spitz A3P Projector
Spitz A3P Consoles (2)
Spice Automation
Barco Projector
21 Kodak Slide Projectors
18 Special Effects projectors
2 Sky-Scan High-Precision Slews
Hundreds of Feet of Cable
Cables pulled behind the dome
Vacuam rug, cleanup debris

Wow BJ! Quite the task. Looks like great fun ahead of you. Thanks for sharing a bit of the process for tearing one of these down. Some day maybe.....

Lee

Hi Lee, thank you for responding to my posts. I am in New York this weekend to see another
projector. I took hundreds of photos, countless measurements. Mission accomplished. Just
sitting here in this hotel room waiting to go to the airport and killing some time reading the new
posts on OC. Going back to Phoenix in a few hours. It's really nice to see that others have
an interest in this activity. Going to get them is always a challenge and alot of hard work, but
it's worth it. Never know quite what to expect when entering an unfamiliar dome but the
opportunity to learn and discover is extremely compelling. After several weeks on the road to
planetariums in Texas, Idaho and NYC it's time to reset and contemplate the next step in the
worthwhile (but often under-appreciated) quest to preserve these grand instruments.

Have a well deserved rest BJ. I am enjoying all of your various posts. The only problem is it feeds the growing lust for a planetarium of my own. I was just down at the Cosmosphere in Hutchison Kansas dropping my daughter off for Space Camp. Got to catch a show in their planetarium. The only problem, is I spent half the show looking at the projector trying to figure out how I would disassemble it!

I just need to get my head together and be satisfied playing with my Spitz Jr. and enjoy when ever I get to see a show at a "real" planetarium.

Lee

Boy that is quite possibly the biggest 'bay' around a projector i've ever seen in my life! gare

I've often wondered what the best way to keep "unauthorized hands" away from the very delicate instruments. That "bay" appears to do a double duty. A lot of room for auxiliary projectors and a protective buffer for the planetarium itself.

Everything is finally unloaded in Phoenix. Some of the SPICE automation controllers
from Brigham Young. Some are marked with a sticker that says "Rick's College".

Spice controllers and some of the Spitz A3P analog controllers that were removed
from the console and individually wrapped in bubble wrap. It does not pay to cut
corners on shipping, a few dollars on bubble wrap is well spent.

Rackmount Spice equipment and a couple of PC's used to run the software.
Brigham Young Idaho also included all of the Spice manuals which will be
valuable additions to the library for this older, but still viable technology.

The top unit got sprayed by the sprinkler system while waiting to be loaded,
there must be alot of minerals in the Idaho water supply. It should clean off.

Thousands of original slides from the BYUI planetarium. I will need a light table
to sort through this vast quarter century collection.

More slide carousels from the Brigham Young Idaho planetarium to be sorted.

There were 30 to 40 auxilliary projectors in addition to those that were attached
directly to the Spitz A3P. Most of them were hand made by the planetarium staff
over a 25 year period. Some of them show an incredible level of craftsmanship.

This one is my personal favorite. It is an old toilet bowl float mounted on a heavy
duty slow-speed motor with a light bulb inside. I plugged it in, it still works.

This is a very unusual projector. I can't wait to find out what it does.

Spitz A3P control console section from Brigham Young Idaho planetarium and
the orrery. Spice relay control units sit atop the console.

Some of the aux projectors atop the Spitz A3P pedestal, a couple of Sky-Scan
High Precision Slews, Spice relay units, Spitz A3P consoles from BYUI planetarium.

Perhaps an asteroid belt projector?????

Spitz A3P central core waiting for a gantry lift. A mountain of aux projectors in the
background. Boxes of original show programming on audio and video cassette.
Many 1/4 inch audio mag tape boxes are marked "Hansen Planetarium,
Salt Lake City, Utah".

A wild guess would be a shooting star projector, but I'd have to look at it a lot closer for a more accurate guess. I just love these old auxiliary projectors. It is really fascinating how some of these designs came about. And they all work well!

A great find Brent! I can't wait to see some of them.

If you like, I can begin a transfer process to preserve those old reel-to-reel tapes over to CD's. It would take some time but they should be preserved.

Now that is a pile of Spice. It sure would add a lot of flavor to any planetarium program!

One more pic, a bit wider angle. There is more stuff in the other rooms, it is going to
take awhile to organize everything and clear up space for additional new arrivals.

This is an unusual accessory. It includes a wall-mount storage unit containing
numerous round slide images of things like constellations and a large, hand-held
projector. Old school!

Giant Barco projector. Can somebody tell me what types of things you can
do with one of these, and what to hook it up to?

Ron, please drop by, I have things to give you from this vast collection and I need the space!

Any video source should make it work. Can you get me a close up shot of the connection panel?

OK!!! I'll trade you for some popcorn filler.