Pop's Telescope

When I was young I didn't realize that it was unusual that my Dad built our television set.

In junior high our family moved into a fixer-upper. There was never a handyman, carpenter or contractor on site. Just my parents. Yet major roofing, plumbing, tiling and electrical projects got done. Along with digging out a basement and building an addition. And later a gazebo for my wedding day.

Outside our home in San Diego is a two-man wooden kayak that Dad built. It is a work of art. We are often stopped, while paddling on Mission Bay, so admirers can take a look at his craftsmanship.

So it came as no surprise that we celebrated his recent milestone birthday with a telescope viewing night. Using the telescope he built. From scratch. Even grinding the glass after building test plans and marking graphs to ensure it would be 'ground to perfection'.

Ground board leveled with equatorial platform sitting on rollers. In the process of pulling
out the mirror box so that it can be rotated 90 degrees and set back into the rocker box.

The cover on the mirror box is removed so that the accessories tray is exposed.

Once the tray is lifted out, it is possible to get at the Upper Transport Assembly carrying the diagonal mirror
supported on the spider vanes. The mirror is protected with the circular cover at the bottom of the mirror box.

Upper Transport Assembly (UTA) removed showing the mirror cover
which is protecting the mirror while the UTA is assembled.

To install the trusses, the corner clamps in the mirror box are installed
(labelled with matching dots for easy assembly)

The aluminum truss tubes are installed in the corner clamps. The UTA
is off to the left, ready to be installed after the mirror cover is removed.

Truss tube clamps being installed to ready the UTA for assembly at the top of the telescope.

UTA carefully placed on the truss tubes as the mirror cover has been removed.
The tubes are rotated to seat them in the clamps and then the 8 clamps are tightened.

Looking down into the mirror box showing the 12.5" diameter mirror that has a 2" hole cut
in the middle for a future project. Internal surfaces are flat black to keep down stray light.

Final assembly with finder scope mounted on the left of the UTA. 2 C clamps as
counter weights. The eyepiece holder is on the far side of the UTA and not pictured.

We lined up last Saturday night and took turns looking at Jupiter and its four main moons.

Ooohing and aaahing.

But I thought it was considerably more impressive checking out the actual telescope.

Happy 75th Birthday Pops!

Just Throw A Dart

I attended a seminar at the Rady School of Management, which incidentally is a rather fabulous new building on the UC San Diego campus.

The topic was "The Importance of the Raw Idea in Innovation: Testing the Sow's Ear Hypothesis." Karl Ulrich was the speaker. He is Vice Dean of Innovation and the CIBC Professor of Entrepreneurship and e-Commerce at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

It was a lively and interactive discussion - between the old adage "you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear" which has been used for years to discourage inventiveness and the Midas hypothesis, arguing that with the right resources and approach, an innovator can create value out of just about anything.

He started by taking a poll of the room.

We were shown a raw idea (rough drawing and brief description) of two products and were asked to determine which we thought did better in the marketplace (based on sales data). Lo and behold, the majority picked the wrong one.

Turns out that when 'experts' cull ideas, the very same thing happens.

When it comes to determining success from a raw idea, the data proves that 'throwing a dart' can be just as helpful. At least it did in this particular study of consumer housewares.

Whoa.

How is that possible?

Well, this is when charts and math came into play and let's just say I understood the basic principles but would have a hard time describing the algorithm to get you there.

The study did conclude that using a crowd of ordinary consumers to state purchase intent was a better gauge of market outcomes than a panel of experts when judging raw ideas.

My take-away from this seminar:

* Throwing a dart or listening to an expert are equally effective (at least in the aforementioned study)

* There is an interesting community-driven product development company called Quirky

I also picked up two new words to add to my vocabulary:  

Exogenous:  Refers to an action or object coming from outside a system.

Endogenous:  The opposite of exogenous. Something generated from within the system.

Excuse me, I am off to brainstorm and throw a few darts...

Solar Pops

Given the success of my Christmas pops and Valentine pops.

Success being a subjective term.

I decided to attempt solar pops for our telescope viewing night.

Pumpkin pies were a tasty and visual distraction from the odd-looking brownie pops.

Half moon, full moon, solar eclipse (or it could be a dark moon), Saturn with
a ring of Twizzler and a trio of Earths that seem to have shrinking water mass.

The debris, which was renamed asteroids and meteor shower fallout, was left at home.

A Fork In The Road

Literally.

There is a fork in the road.

Not a knife. Nor a spoon. But a gigantic wooden fork.

18-feet tall.

Where?

Fork Plaza 200 Bellefontaine in Pasadena.

At the fork of Pasadena Avenue and St. John's Avenue. Parallel to Bellefontaine.

It cracks me up!

Happy Halloween

It wasn't until after I had carved the mouth and moved on to the nose that I thought about teeth.

Turns out that you need to think about teeth first.

Oh well.

This could be a baby pumpkin.

Or perhaps an elderly pumpkin.

His teeth are soaking in a glass of denture cleanser (just outside camera range).

Fun from A to Z

Earlier this summer we were in Bay Books on Coronado Island shopping for a picture book.

Thought it would be fun for our Finnish houseguest to flip through sturdy pages filled with bright colors and easy-to-learn English words.

Like 'beach' and 'sun'.

Searched the entire kiddie section and couldn't find anything suitable.

Which is fine because we came across the PERFECT San Diego souvenir.

Here it is.

Basically you build your own book by taking pictures of various places around San Diego that represent the letters of the alphabet.

A game and a book all rolled into one.

There is even an idea list because maybe, just maybe, you might need help finding an activity or place that begins with the letter Q or X or Z.

After excitedly making the purchase, the book was promptly set aside and then forgotten as we got caught up in the everyday routine of a very active almost two-year old.

But we did remember to take lots and lots of pictures.

Two months after our guests returned to Finland, I got around to assembling the 'present' in time for the little guy's second birthday.

Sorting through all the pictures was half the fun. As was matching them to letters.

Although we didn't make it to all the attractions offered by America's Finest City (local parks and beaches won out on most days) - it became a book about a little boy and his first visit to San Diego.

The author recommends using 'horizontal' pictures but he is a tall boy so the very best ones were 'vertical'.

We are saving Legoland for his next visit but we did make it to the San Diego Zoo.

Which took care of Q is for Quack Quack and Z is for Zebra!

Scrimshaw

An American folk art.

Sailors on whaling ships, with a lot of spare time on their hands during long voyages, created common tools using the byproducts of whales.

Carving the teeth and bone.

Scrimshaw: The Art and Craft of the American Whaler is on exhibit at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana through January 2013.

Miniature Cradle, 19th Century American, Whalebone

Turned Thread Case, 19th Century, Sperm Whale Ivory

Pie Crimper, 1890 - American, Sperm Whale Ivory and Wood

Apple Corer, 1850 - America, Sperm Whale Ivory and Whalebone

Also, in the exhibit is a miniature working guillotine produced by French prisoners-of-war.

Must see to believe!