Mark III Pumpkin Now Operational

[Thomas Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>]

And you all thought I just did telescopes.  For 20+ years I have operated a
big plastic pumpkin at Halloween.  It consists of a large 9 foot diameter
orange plastic bag that is inflated by a muffin fan.  The Mark I was built
at a party which was attended by many famous physicists.  All except one
predicted that a muffin fan was not powerful enough to blow up such a big
bag.  But it works great.  

The first one was assembled by many physicists sitting around my living
room and taping the seams together with glass reinforced tape which was the
only thing that I found that would stick to the plastic.  The first one was
made from 3 ea 9' x 12' orange drop clothes.  It lasted about 10 years. 
Some kids got at it and tried to destroy it, but there is not much you can
do to a big plastic bag that is not more work than it is worth.  They did
poke a few holes in it with cigarettes which does not bother it much. 

I have since bought a bag sealer and  it only took Jennifer one evening to
assemble the Mark III.  

In any case, the Mark III plastic pumpkin is now up on the roof and
operational.

Tom Droege