By the time I got over to the site today, the truck from Builder's Concrete had come and gone. The Hazelton crew had completed their work. All the remaining sections of the concrete flatwork had been poured and finished. The site was very quiet. I gave the concrete a day to harden, then on September 2, I took my first walk up the main approach to the Downing Planetarium. It looks quite impressive.

Inside the planetarium work continues on the final patching and plaster work on the sheetrock.

The sun must be almost exactly 18 degrees West of due South, judging from the sunlight coming through the slit on the front of the buidling. With some good astronomy software we could figure out what time I took this picture.

After making my grand approach up the main walkway I found City-Wide Glass hard at work installing the frames for our main entrance doors.

Once again I used the new main walkway to approach the Downing Planetarium. Things are still pretty quiet out here right now, but I saw the truck from City-Wide Glass and Mirror, so I knew they were still at work on the main entranceways and windows.

Greg Saldana showed me the vinyl weather-stripping that will hold the glass. His cousin Val Saldana was in the lobby working on the frames for the main entrances. They tell me that all the measurements were made and the glass has been ordered, so we should see glass in place in a few days.

You can also see paper masking in place around the frames. A coat of white paint has been applied to many of the inside walls.

From the outside of the building you don't see a lot going on. Inside, however, we find a lot of activity on the ceilings of the various rooms of the Downing Planetarium.

The lobby has some scaffolding in place that has allowed the display mounts and ceiling lights to be plastered into the ceiling. A coat of blue paint will complete this part of the lobby. Just below the scaffolding we can see City-Wide Glass continuing to install the lobby entranceways.

In the other rooms around the periphery of the building, the drop ceiling supports are in place. In the inset picture at the above right, we see Steve White, the Planetarium Director, walking through the rooms. In the picture on the right, an electrician from Westech is preparing one of the large fluorescent lights for the halls or bathrooms.

Inside the planetarium star theatre it is DARK. A coat of flat black paint has been applied to all the walls above the catwalk. The planetarium dome is due to arrive on September 27, so we have to get the interior fully ready for the installation. The dome is 28% perforated to allow some images to be projected through it. We need the background behind the dome to be all black so the audience cannot see any stray light from the projectors that will be mounted on the catwalk. If you look carefully you can see Steve White conferring with Mark Riordan of Westech about power access to the catwalk projectors. Steve has a projector mount to show how the projectors will be placed.

I've been told that the exterior finish will be applied very soon now, either this week or the next, so I got a shot of the exterior as it stands now. The window frames and doors are in place, but no glass yet. It is on its way, though.

Inside, we see that the interior walls are ready for final painting. Additional electrical conduit and fixtures are still going in.

In the bathrooms, the walls and floors are being prepped for tile installation.

Five days later the tile is almost done in the North bathroom. The grouting still needs to be done. The inset shows work underway in the South bathroom.

The lobby is essentially done, except for paint, glass in the windows, granite on the floors and pillars on the star theatre wall.

Inside the star theatre, the electrical conduit that will feed the thirty slide projectors is being installed. The walls are ready for paint. I heard that the painters will be here Wednesday to do all the interior walls. Monday we expect the dome installation to begin.

On September 21, the usual date for the Autumnal Equinox, we indeed had an auspicious Planetarium event. I heard the sounds of heavy machinery outside my office in the Science Building, just across the street from the Downing Planetarium. I had just covered the tile installation in the planetarium bathrooms. Today's activity takes place at the other end of the pipe. It is our long-awaited Lift Station!

Now I realize that Lift Stations are not as glamorous as things like Star Projectors, but our tenure in the Planetarium would be very short without this. In the picture on the upper right, we see a smaller white pipe coming from the Planetarium. In the inset we see the larger brown pipe that leads to the University sewage system. The brown pipe is above the white pipe. Basic physics tells us that to get from the white pipe to the brown pipe will require some technology. The special pump that goes into this casing is on order and hopefully will arrive before our first show in January of 2000, otherwise our Search for Alien Worlds may have to be a brief one.

Several trades are arrayed around the Downing Planetarium today. Westech continues to install conduit and pull wires. In a few days we will be putting the building onto the power grid of the University. Out in front we can see City-Wide Glass and Mirror installing the framing for the soon-to-be famous slit window on the front of the planetarium that will light our sundial patterns on the floor. Val Saldana is shown measuring the top of the slit.

A crew of painters are hard at work doing the final finish coat on the interiors. They have done many of the walls, and have completed the blue of the planetarium lobby ceiling.

Meanwhile, in the South bathroom we see the tile being placed around one of the sinks. I had to be really careful walking around today, since there were wires and lights everywhere, and lots of wet paint on the walls.