Sunday, June 20, 2010

3D Astronomy display

This weekend has been busy with Joanna being here as part of her Summer break from Uni, and we've been looking after her. Lots of Motherly hugs from Angie to make up for the long absence. We look forward to doing the same for both Laura and Joanna after they graduate next year.

Taking a break from family matters, on Saturday I dodged off to the Museum to help out setting up a 3D Astronomy display with members of Nanaimo Astronomy Society. The end results are as seen below. Photographs by me, original images by Pal Virag and Nanaimo Astronomy Society




There are a whole heap more, but they tend to look a bit samey at the low resolution images I have available.



Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Fired


It's cannon season once more, and this lunchtime I persuaded Angie to come and video a noon firing at the bastion. I quite enjoy this little Summertime task, done in addition to my other voluntary work at Nanaimo District Museum. Corinne, one of the museums Summer students, does the speech and tries not to fluff her lines bless her little cotton socks, while I do the grunt work of loading, ramming and firing. Between the two of us, we've got the drill up to a reasonable standard, although seventy two seconds from load to firing isn't quite Navy speed. It's a performance for the tourists, and we treat it as such.

I always find the bangs quite satisfying, although today just as we dropped linstock to charge, two elderly people attempted to bypass the safety rope which we place around forty feet directly in front of the muzzle blast. This noontide we had what I describe as a 'good detonation' and gave our would-be interlopers quite a scare. Perhaps they will pay more heed to the numerous 'do not pass - Cannon firing at noon' signs we put up all around in future. The abject look of terror in their eyes as the gun fired a cloud of smoke and polystyrene wadding at them gave my darker side a brief twinge of amusement.

We were also graced by the presence of a Japanese TV crew who filmed the firing, which is why I was hamming it up a bit with the exaggerated 'parade ground' behaviour. Normally I don't say "Ma'am!" at the end of every command confirmation. Not that I think anyone noticed.

Tuesday is our Museum day, when Angie and I take a break from the day jobs and help out with research and displays. Angie, being the brains of the outfit, mainly handles research, while I help out with displays. Mostly this involves constructing displays which the display staff haven't got time to do. Like the overhead projection array which will be used for this Saturday's Astronomy event. It also means refurbishing and cleaning some of the mechanical exhibits, and generally trying to be useful by restoring various artefacts to working order.

This afternoon's result was a mounting stand for a Mine Rescue Rebreather unit, shortly to grace the inside of the new Coal Mining exhibit. Made out of two pieces of 5mm perspex shaped and bent with a heat gun to support the straps and mask, the intention was to display as much of the unit as possible with the maximum safety. David the curator liked the end result and dropped one of the display helmets from archive storage on its 'head' with a view to fitting a miners lamp. Debbie, the Museums General Manager also seemed quite pleased. The overall effect, once we get the lighting right, promises to be quite spooky.

Next weeks job is the mine lighting display, where we'll be trying to demonstrate the light given off by mine illumination devices such as Davy Lamps etc. As space is at a premium, that may prove quite a challenge. We've done voice overs for the miners biographies, researched events and characters from the past, and generally supported the full time display staff, who have had their work cut out designing and troubleshooting the rest of the mining exhibit. Today they were busy painting the coal seams in and fitting 'support' timbers.

Below is three views taken in late May just after the contractors had finished rendering work on the interior of the exhibit and the floors had been cleaned. Rene and crew usually work constructing film sets for the Vancouver movie industry, or 'Hollywood North' as it is referred to locally. From a bare framework of blue painted steel sections it's come a long way. When you walk past the entrance it really is like being underground, and all Rick Slingerland's design work has really paid off, despite a mountain of hitches and hangups.

Having been involved almost from the beginning, both Angie and I are really looking forward to the opening of the mine exhibit. The end result of everybody's hard work promises to be very good indeed, and in some ways deeply poignant, especially when you read the casualty lists from various local mining disasters which I've heard referred to as a 'deadly tithe'. Safety records like those from the late 19th and early 20th century would nowadays rapidly see charges of corporate manslaughter brought against the mine owners. But then those were other times, and attitudes were different.

I like it, there's always something to tweak my curiosity on the nose. David has tantalised me with the promise of working on a very unusual outboard motor in the near future. One that doesn't utilise a propeller, but instead has some sort of oar based propulsion. Sounds interesting. Very interesting indeed.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Moving

A lot of moving going on of late. Over Christmas and new year I moved house. Angie had the common sense to absent herself to visit the kids and her mother back in the UK, leaving me on my ownsome to do everything.

At the Museum there is always motion. The new Coal Mining exhibit which I've been helping out with every Tuesday, the Bastion Cannons, which have just had their carriages refurbished, and the contents of Nanaimo Bastion itself. While the Cannons are Bailey and Pegg six pounders, the Carronades have a 'P MMM 1809' foundry mark on the barrel. I'm sure there's some form of reference out there somewhere, but I'm not sure where.

The two Bastion Cannons have had their carriages refurbished prior to safety checks on the barrels prior to firing, and we spent last Tuesday morning putting the carriages together for moving. The Quoins or elevating wedges, were fitted before we moved the carriages out of the old Museum premises before fitting the iron shod wheels. Cue much wisecracking about wheel balancing and tyre mileage. Then they were loaded and despatched to have the barrels remounted, which is a specialist task.

The Bastion, or the 'leaning tower of Nanaimo' as it is coming to be known needs around a quarter million dollars to remove, recarpenter and replace rotted structural timbers. At present, the temporary expedient of steel bracing is holding everything together. The only problem with said bracing is the weight of structurally unsupported steelwork putting extra stress on the internal wooden structure, causing it to sag to one side. For example; inside the first floor the main cross timber has two heavy steel C sections bolted along either side running almost, but not quite the full width of the first floor. The rot within the cross timber has spread to the point where the bracing C sections bolted to either side are beginning to have an adverse effect on the structural integrity of this historic building. The only real cure is to strip out the old 10 by 12 inch Cedar cross and supporting timbers and replace with new ones. The new timbers will need to be Fir or Spruce, as the City building code quite rightly doesn't allow Cedar as a structural material.

My own pet project, which is currently an overhead display projection on a nine foot diameter printed satellite photograph proceeds in fits and starts. Focal length is an issue, simply because even with a special short throw lens, there is not a great enough distance between the projector and the screen to fit the projected image. Next week I'm talking to an Astronomer with a view to rigging the current setup to create a special 3D solar display relayed via the Internet from a solar observatory on Mount Benson. Providing I can get into the workshop up at the old annexe, I can build a slightly better overhead projection setup, which should give almost a full image width, but what with me only there five or six hours a week, time is not on my side. Still, it's all interesting stuff, and there is so much to learn. Pictures may follow.

Real life continues to throw surprises my way. On top of being scavenger-in-chief locally for Tetra, I've been asked to serve on the board of Directors for another non profit. Unpaid of course. I swear this whole town would cease to function without volunteers. Not that I mind overmuch, it's just that paying work I'm allowed to do is currently a bit thin on the ground. This, along with recent currency fluctuations, have necessitated a clampdown on spending. Once the right piece of immigration paperwork is stamped our immediate restricted financial situation will ease as I will be able to take up several job offers without breaking the immigration regulations and risking deportation.

I have heard tell of would-be immigrant families who just get fed up with the long wait, give up and go back to their country of origin. All we can do in the meantime is keep up the voluntary work, try and keep our skill sets current and hope for the best.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sp*m OFF!

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