From Driveway to Roll-Off-Roof Observatory: A Video Tour of the Newly Constructed Whispering Skies Observatory

Video Capture and Production by Wayne Prentice

Date: June 1, 2025

Background

A year or so back, I gave a talk to our local IS&T Chapter about doing astrophotography from my Driveway. You can see the talk HERE.

I was contacted a while back by Wayne Prentice about doing a talk about my observatory Project. But this time, there was a twist to the proposal.

Wayne offered to come to the observatory and video me while I gave a tour, and then interview me about the project. He would (with my help supplying B-roll) do all of the video production. On the night of the “talk”, we would play the video, and I could sit and relax and then answer questions afterwards.

My first reaction was that this should be the easiest talk I’ve ever done - how could I possibly pass this up!

So we agreed to move the project forward.

Now, I have known Wayne for a number of years.

We both worked at Kodak and worked in digital circles, and encountered each other there. I was focused on digital output and printing, where Wayne has always been focused on the capture end. I have also run into him at our local park and in guitar stores!

Wayne has done a series of talks at the same IS&T forum, leveraging his expertise in digital capture, and they have been excellent. You can see those HERE, among other very interesting presentations.

Filming

After discussing the plan for a few weeks, we began making arrangements for the day we would shoot the video. At one point, Wayne finally asked for my address so he could plan drive times into the plan.

Now, I had moved to our current location about a year ago, and this move was what enabled the observatory to be built.

So we are new to the street.

I sent my address to Wayne, and he surprised me with a response that indicated he lived just down the street!

Every time Wayne went out to run errands, he would pass by our new place and likely notice the construction vehicles as he drove by. But he had no idea that I lived there and that the construction he was seeing was for the observatory!

So small world!

We would not have our production schedules consumed by commute time!

Wayne showed up on the appointed day with a massive load of video toys: Drones, 360-degree cameras, DSLRs, GoPros, a sound system, and even chairs we used for the interview portion.

We had a very nice, sunny, and warm day. This allowed us to open the roof and leave it open for the filming.

We did the tour sequence, and that seemed to go well.

Then we did the interview sequence. It was getting warm, so we moved the roof to a partially open position so that we would be in the shade.

Unfortunately, the cameras were in the sun. After completing a significant portion of the interview sequence, we discovered that the cameras had shut down after a few minutes, and the footage was lost. We finally determined that they shut down because they were still in the sun, due to the heat.

So I closed the roof a bit more so that the cameras were in the shade, and we were able to do the interview again.

Production

After that, Wayne began editing the video, and as we reviewed the drafts, I provided B-roll stock that was used to enhance the narrative. Wayne did a great job integrating this and pulling together the final edit. It was a very enjoyable collaboration.

The final video was about 50 minutes long, and we wanted it shorter for the presentation, so Wayne did a great job cutting things down and keeping it focused. The final version of the video was 40 minutes long, and with the intro and Q&A period, we now have about an hour.

I think this video provides a fairly comprehensive look at the observatory and the motivation behind it.

There was quite a bit of content that was removed from this final take, and there has been some discussion of posting a longer version for those with the stomach and patience to go through it. If we do that, I will update this post.

My Thanks

I wanted to thank the local IS&T for their invitation - I had a lot of fun during the session!

I also want to thank Wayne for all his hard work in producing this video. It was a unique experience for me, a fun collaboration, and it was certainly one of the most enjoyable, low-pressure presentations I have been involved in!