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well, amy and i drove up to new berlin wisconsin today to pick up the portaball. unfortunately the weather gods are not on my side so all i was able to do today was put it together, wax it, and take a bunch of pictures. below are the pictures as well as brief descriptions of each. lets hope that i get to take it out some time this week, i’m not sure i can take any more pictures.

1. the completed package — the whole package of everything that i ordered. the sphere, stand, cover, poles, manual, free shirts, and polish.
2. portaball manual — the cover of the portaball manual.
3. mirror specification — the specifications of the mirror surface from carl zambuto. that’s a damn nice mirror.
4. mirror data results — the final numbers on the mirror specification sheet that really matter.
5. all packed up — the 12.5″ sphere all packed up with the uta, 2 new eye pieces, cloth, charger, laser, light shroud, light baffle, primary, secondary, 2 batteries, and the curved spider.
6. all unpacked — everything taken out of the sphere and placed on the floor.
7. uta up close — a close up of the upper tube assembly (uta) which has the feather light focuser that i ordered. i can’t wait to try it out.
8. inside the sphere — the inside of the sphere with the uta removed. that is the cover that is placed over your mirror when not in use. it has 3 feet that make it rest above the mirror without touching it. those feet are also padded on the top which is what the uta sits on.
9. control ring up close — an up close look at a portion of the control ring around the sphere.
10. control ring up close — an up close look at a portion of the control ring around the sphere.
11. tube container — this is the container that houses the truss tubes for the portaball. it holds all 6 truss tubes and has room for another i think.
12. assembly part 1 — the first stage of assembly which includes attaching the 6 truss tubes and plugging in one end of the electrical.
13. assembly part 2 — the next stage of assembly involves attaching the upper tube assembly (uta) to two of the truss tubes and attaching with the bolt. each bolt has an attached wire so you can’t drop it onto your primary.
14. assembly part 3 — continuing around the rest of the truss tubes are attached to the uta. you should have 3 sets of 2 tubes attached at this point.
15. assembly part 4 — the light shroud slid on and the wind shield attached to the uta.
16. assembly part 5 — get your wife (amy seen here) to marvel at the beauty and simplicity of the design.
17. complete assembly — the completely assembled portaball in our family room. it is a bit taller than we thought but it is truly amazing.
18. portaball love — it was love at first sight when i hugged my new toy.
19. look down at the primary cover — a view from the top of the uta down at where the primary sits. this is a the completely assembled scope with the covers still attached to the primary and secondary.
20. uta up close — another shot of the uta up close and personal with the feather light focuser i bought. i have the rigel quik finder attached in this picture. also notice the light shroud strings and zipper for easy access to the optical assembly.
21. sphere on base — an up close shot of the sphere on the base. notice the vent holes drilled into the sphere to increase ventilation. there are some pencil marks on the sphere that came off when we were polishing / waxing it.
22. sphere and wax — another up close shot of the sphere on the base with the polish / wax sitting next to it. the pencil marks seen here on the sphere came off when we were polishing / waxing it. notice the tape on the legs so people can see them in the dark.
23. recommended wax — the wax that peter recommends you use with your new portaball.
24. new eyepieces — the new 35mm panoptic and 9mm t6 nagler that i bought with the new 12.5” portaball.
25. finder and laser — the rigel quik finder and collimation laser up close and personal.
26. uta, finder, secondary, spider — an angled shot that allows you to see the complete uta and all of the moving parts.
27. light shroud construction — you can see here how the light shroud attaches to the uta. in the previous shots you can see that the shroud goes over the bolts. in this shot you can see that velcro, a zipper, and a pull tie are also involved. the quality is really nice and is very easy to get on and off.
28. bolts up close — you can see here how the bolts are attached to the uta, truss tubes, and how they have metal wire attaching them to the bolts which prevent them from falling on your secondary.
29. secondary up close — an up close shot from the inside of the optical tube looking up at the secondary mirror. yes, the cover is still on but you can see the light shroud, secondary, spider vanes, and the light baffle.
30. primary and batteries — you can see the primary mirror and the 2 rechargeable battery packs that are attached to the bottom of the sphere. also notice two of the three alignment knobs next the the mirror.
31. charger and cable — the recharger pack and cable you can use to recharge the portaball. the pack plugs into the wall and the cable either plugs into a cigarette lighter or into the charger pack.

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well, today’s the day we’re going to pick up my portaball telescope. i’ve been waiting about 22 months for it’s construction and now i finally get to pick it up. i’ll post a few pictures later after we get home. it’s about a 2 hour drive to new berlin wisconsin to get to the mag 1 instruments locations. let’s hope that the weather gods are nice to me tonight and i get a chance to use it. i’m off for the next week from work so a few observing sessions at night would be perfect. but i’m getting ahead of myself now, i have to pick it up first.

i started and finished the da vinci code this past week. i was surprised at how detailed and well put together the novel was. the author put together a story that tells a detailed controversial history of the bible, the catholic church, and the secret societies that encircle them both. you’ll notice that is did say novel, not a history book. this book comes in the form of a enthralling dramatic well researched murder mystery that not only sparked my interest in the alternate history of the church but really made me think about how much the church is like today’s corporate america.


both the church and corporate america do everything within their power to change peoples perception of their indiscretions, including rewriting history. they amass huge marketing campaigns to deface their enemies or advertise their few successes. they beg borrow and steal to stay alive and then later deny any involvement or indiscretions that led to their failures.


anyhow, throughout the book during different plot points the main character referred to various books and research from which he extracted his knowledge. my interest in the topics that were discussed was piqued throughout the book so i decided to follow my interest and pick up a few of the books. i started reading holy blood, holy grail which actually came out in the early 80’s and made quite a splash around the release. i also plan on reading a few of the other books he recommends like the woman with the alabaster jar, the messianic legacy, the templarr revelation, and others.


i created a new ”religion” category that i’ll be posting things i learn or find interesting from the books. yet another new hobby for me … woohooo.

the mars express space craft successfully went into orbit around mars today. the british build beagle 2 spacecraft also landed on the red planet as well though the success of the landing is still in question as scientists here on earth have been unable to communicate with the lander. they are hoping to make another contact attempt shortly. lets hope we this isn’t going to be yet another failed mars mission.

amy and i exchanged our christmas gifts early. yea, we’re horrible i know. we just didn’t know if we were going to be here on christmas so we figured we would open them early. she picked me up the west wing first season on dvd and the apple wireless keyboard. i’m now completely wireless from head to toe. i picked her up a some personal things and a few of the harry connick jr. cd’s that she was missing, lofty’s roach souffle and harry connick, jr. which was his first cd.

i received a few communications this week about my portaball finally being finished. well not exactly it seems, but close. if all goes well i can pick it up on monday. we’ll likely be in michigan at that time though which means we’ll pick it up after we get back. 22 months after ordering it and he finally finishes it on the week i’m going to be out of town. did i do something bad to a famous astronomer in a previous life or something?

amy and i went to the harry connick jr. — harry for the holidays concert on monday. actually we went to the tuesday showing as well, amy is a big fan and i picked these tickets as a surprise christmas gift.


i was very impressed with his concert. not only were each of the concerts unique but they kept you watching and tapping your feet. one of the things that most impresses me about harry is that he doesn’t have the ego that so many other performers do. during both of his shows he gave the stage to many of the musicians in his big band and they were knock outs. the first evening the drummer performed a solo playing on the piano. yea, he didn’t actually use his drum set, he played his sticks on the top of the piano. not only did he use his sticks but his palms, knuckles, and elbows. there were also performances by his trumpet and trombone players we well.


another thing that i noticed about the concert was how much the lighting affected the impact of the songs. i found myself really engrossed in the songs and really experiencing the words. it hit me during the concert how well the lighting matched the mood of each song. stage design is a subtle yet important part of so many performances and i don’t think any of the previous concerts i had attended had taken it to the level of detail that the harry connick jr. concerts did.


if you’ve never seen a jazz concert or any other concert for that matter i highly recommend that you check out harry connick jr. the next time he’s in town.