This is the back of the saucer showing some of the support rods and wires keeping it upright, along with much of the electrical wiring which ran it. Each light box (see Screen 7) was illuminated with an assembly made of blue Christmas lights wrapped around a wooden dowel. The light boxes were wired to chase using an old Christmas light controller. Two scanning lights (which pan from side to side) were placed in front of the saucer to add motion to the scene, while a blue floodlight was used light the entire saucer scene from the direction of the street. A fog machine was set up in back with a timer that released bursts of smoke from under the frame every minute or so. A small amplified speaker system was placed behind the saucer and connected to a laptop computer hidden near the house. I wrote a small program to randomly play selected saucer "hums" and mechanical hisses, klanks and grinds in an effort convey a sense of unseen mechanical actions happening within the saucer. The audio greatly enhanced the realism of the scene. As the project progressed, I ran into a number problems that were mostly weather related. On Friday October 13, I came home from work to find the entire saucer blown over by the wind. Fearing the worst, I got out out of the car to inspect the damage. Fortunately there were just a few tears in the mylar of one panel. I attached some guidewires to saucer to prevent this from happening again, but the weekend before Halloween, we had another storm that tried to blow it over in the opposite direction. This time I had to brace the structure from behind so that it couldn't move in either direction. I guess I can take some small satisfaction in the fact that if it wasn't securely tied down, the saucer would have probably flown across the street....