I have been stunned by how beautiful these flickering cityscapes are. When I started this project, I imagined that the lights would turn off all at once to reveal darkened, apocalyptic streets. Instead I have seen lights dancing in mesmerizing rhythms, as pedestrians walk by unaware. In recent months, I have assembled a new short film of the flickering in New York City, which is available along with the older films at www.youtube.com/60hztelescope. In October, I visited Tunisia and captured some flicker there. A film of this footage will be on YouTube in the next few weeks.

But my goal all along was to make a flicker telescope — an optical device through which a viewer could see this flickering with their own eyes. I’ve made strides in this direction but there’s still much to do.

Soon I’ll be setting up camp in a machine shop to create and assemble the physical and optical components. With some hard work and lots of luck, the telescope will be ready for the new year!

The microprocessor in action.

This fall I made substantial headway in getting the microprocessor to interface with the motor and motor driver. It accurately reads the speed of the motor and is ready to drive the powerful switches that will control the speed of the motor.

500W power supply, complete and ready for testing!

On the other hand, the power supply and motor driver have been difficult to keep working. This summer I had the power supply fully operational, but it overheated during testing and I have been wrestling with it ever since.

The motor driver to be.

This month, I’m assembling and testing the motor driver.