What the hell IS this thing?!?!

[walter23]

Oh, cut the crap. Everyone knows a door to an alternate dimension when they see it.

I thought it was the thing Aughra used to predict the coming of the Great Conjunction, the opportunity to reunite the pieces of the fractured crystal, and bring the two great races back together again to end the dark period of Skeksis rule.

[Preston]

Some of you guys have waaayyy too much time on your hands. :-)

btw: It's a non-Euclidian Geometry angle finder. At infinity, it will predict the point at which parallel lines will cross.

The thing is really cool looking!

-Preston

[nikon_sam]

My God that is so cool...I want one...I don't care what it does or what it's for I WANT ONE!!!
My first thought is that it's something for "Time Travel"...neat and super cool...

Remember that movie with Jodie Foster??? they built something like this...but on a much bigger scale...

[Sevo]

Remember that movie with Jodie Foster??? they built something like this...but on a much bigger scale...

Remember the hubcap UFO's, Graflex light saber, or the pieces of camera crane rigs that are all over the Enterprise bridge? Film productions are cheapskates, and will always integrate leftovers from previous films in their sets, including surplus camera and lighting gear.

Six degrees of freedom goniometers often were used as a perspective reference in drawing spinning 3D scenes for animated sci-fi sequences, or for stop trick model animation of the same - so these are/were cluttered about the animators desks in any case, and a pretty obvious choice for a prop.

Sevo

[shmoo]

This looks like that contraption that they dropped a pod (containing Jodie Foster) through in "Contact"...

[Ole Tjugen]

I knew that.

I've used one.

Yes, it's a Universal Stage. Absolutely irreplaceable if you need one, utterly useless if you don't.

I had a very atypical mineral in one of my thin sections, and needed to measure precise angles in order to eliminate some of the possibilities. The US allowed me to eliminate all but one possibility, and digging around I found that it had been described before. Once. In 1937. Titanotschermakite is not what you expect to find, anywhere.

[Arne Croell]

I've used one.

Yes, it's a Universal Stage. Absolutely irreplaceable if you need one, utterly useless if you don't.

I had a very atypical mineral in one of my thin sections, and needed to measure precise angles in order to eliminate some of the possibilities. The US allowed me to eliminate all but one possibility, and digging around I found that it had been described before. Once. In 1937. Titanotschermakite is not what you expect to find, anywhere.

Yes again, a Universal Stage for a polarization microscope. I've used it and even taught a course for using it some years ago. They used to be an expensive but not uncommon accessory for polarization microscopes, but are no longer made.

[Bob Salomon]

Here is one for cameras.

[Steve_Renwick]

Titanotschermakite is not what you expect to find, anywhere.

I thought he took over the Enterprise once, 'cos he was mad that Capt. Kirk was flirting with his wife.

[John Schneider]

I was taught that a goniometer was a tool for measuring angles; whether angles found on or between body parts, those that a body part might move through, or those between planes or optical axes of a crystal.

That's what I learned. Our lab has a Rame-Hart goniometer for measuring the contact angles at (typically) solid-liquid interfaces. Really, I hate messing with that thing. This one looks a whole lot more fun.

Speaking of engineers with a penchant for industrial antiques, and their wives who don't share the same interest... Thankfully mine doesn't know about my NIB Norden bombsight, or my goal of eventually putting a ship's telegraph and compass binnacle in my study.