Today we took a very interesting (and rather tiring) trip through "history". We hiked many places that involved the history of Los Gatos in some way or other, in our neck of the woods.
First Stop: Yamate's Residence
We first arrived at the Yamate's property, or Marty Ranch. Marty Ranch is an around 400 acres, and was famous for it's illegal selling of grapes. The grape stakes date back to 1912, when a family moved out of the farm.
Then a Japanese-American man moved into the empty ranch. Since the immigration block was installed, no immigrants were allowed to have land. But since he was also American, he could own land, but not work. So he sold wine illegally. The tools that were used were all portable to deal with the law, including grape presses and stakes.
The area has geological history as well. It used to be completely barren in older pictures, but evidence of all the different fir trees shows that the area was also a christmas tree farm. Multiple slides occured on the slope as well.
Second Stop: Skyland Church
Skyland church is noted to be the oldest building on the mountain. It is also the most fragile building, due to the fact it was knocked off it's foundation not only once, but twice due to the 1989 and 1906 earthquakes. Because of this, the architecture on the inside of the building is held up with metal and wood beams, laid on a small concrete foundation.
The bell also didn't fit in the building, so it was set to the side of the church. The church was sent over from the east coast by a patron of the church who decided that the church needed a bell.
Third Stop: Radonich Ranch
We stopped by here to get lunch, and learned very fast sprinklers were installed. Radonich Ranch contains a shed that holds writing thought to have been written in the early-1900's. The building is so old though, it has holes in the roof.
Fourth Stop: Burell School
We got out in the middle of the street to go to Burrel, the only remaining, refurbished school. This school only could take 30 people at one time, and the train ran right by the area. The Wright Station is just downhill from the school. Unfortunately, the camera died in the sun at this point.
Fifth Stop: Patchen Marker
Patchen used to be the very first town in the Los Gatos area, but now all you can see is a road and a tree farm. The only remanant of it remaining is the marker from 1950's, telling about the first settlers.
The De Anza planetarium has finally returned from it's 3-year long renovation. The De Anza planetarium shows have been favorites by many since 1969, entertaining and educating many children and adults on the night sky. The MS-15 served it's purpose for all of the well, satisfying the astronomer in all of us. But the MS-15 was getting old, and more technical issues began arising at each show. The decision to renovate was brought about along with the decision to try the newer projector invented, called the Infinium S star projector. So after 3 years of renovation, the planetarium is finally ready for the public again. Given a private opportunity to "test drive" the equipment, both my brother Ben (see The Revival of the Minolta Planetarium) and I couldn't wait - and we weren't disappointed.
The Infinium projector is very different than the predecessor. Instead of two projection units on the ends of a connector, the Infinium has only one large projector in the center. The projector changed from looking like some sort of odd preying mantis to a spider head with multiple eyes. The seats are also not in a circular orientation in relation to the projector anymore, but instead facing a side of the planetarium. According to Karl von Ahnen, the technical director of the Minolta planetarium, this was because of complaints from school teachers on the previous orientation. Apparently the school teachers were annoyed they could not be in front of all of their students at one time. The control panel has also been moved all the way to the back of the chairs. The ceiling is also very different. Instead of the old ceiling, which generally gave the sense of being inside a giant volleyball, the ceiling is smooth and reflects the planetarium feeling a lot better. The sound system and the lighting systems that give aid to the main projector have become less visible so they do not take up as much space. Overall, the planetarium had gone many changes, some more pleasant than others.
My personal bane was the seating arrangements. Since all of the seats were facing one direction, most of the seats did not get as good a view as the seats in the far back. This becomes a problem if the seats are extremely filled up in a certain show, which happens many times at popular planetarium shows such as Magic Sky.
But the seating is not a key issue since the new projectors power is so amazing. because the new projector's power is something to be shared by all people that visit the planetarium. The Infinium can show even more stars then visible at Fremont Peak. One could even take out a pair of binoculars and observer clusters and galaxies. The color in the Lagoon nebulae was even visible, and that is something that is normally not visible on a normal night. Even more amazing was the new ability to see the night sky from other planets and other time frames in the world's history. This ability offers a new opportunity in the planetariums future shows, so they could incorporate more abilities and shows.
