Hi All. Been busy buiding my projector. I have just completed the back part with the bowl, lamp, fan, and ballast and fired it up. Man is it bright!
I decided to take a look at this point source and check my alignment in the bowl, so I used my sunglasses and 3 CDRs to block the light so I can get a look. What I saw was not a point-source but a tube-source, much like a neon tube. Come to think of it, I should not have been surprised, afterall the two work on pretty much the same principle.
So what gives? My thinking all along has been that it was a point-source. So what happens to the light thats not in the center? I would think that it would make the center band of the projection brighter than the top and the bottom. What do you (or y'all for those in the southern US) think?