Originally Posted By Mr F For those who haven't seen it, here it is, the Space Mountain Meteor: <a href="http://garnerholt.com/common/showimage.ashx/316871.jpg" target="_blank">http://garnerholt.com/common/s...6871.jpg</a> This is how the meteor was supposed to look like when lit up with black light. The meteor currently sits at the very top of the 2nd life hill on Space Mt. and rotates in the dark. If you look to the left, you can make it out. Originally the meteor was supposed to be lit up on the ride, in all it's florescent goodness, but after it was installed, They decided not to light it up at all for the guests to see. Who knows why, maybe they didn't like how the final product looked. SO it's sad that they spent all of this money on this prop, & it's just sitting there in the dark, even really being used.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros The meteror is a very interesting piece. It's clearly been there the entitre time since the 2002-2005 rebuild, but it hasn't ever been lit up for guests. What's really interesting is that they keep it spinning, even though you really can't see it well. And to further complicate things, they were building HKDL at the same time as DL's rebuild, and a copy of the meteror was installed there. Their version has been lit up the entire time (other than during Ghost Galaxy), and hasn't had any problems that I'm aware of. HKDL opened in September 2005, and DL's new version opened in July 2005. The picture could very well be the HKDL version, since there's a prop from Buzz Lightyear in the background (though DL's Buzz was being built at the same time). I've never heard a clear story on it one way or the other, but it's definitely interesting to see the similarities and huge difference between the two versions.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Maybe it made it too light in DL's version when it was lit up.. So you could see too much of everything else around you.
Originally Posted By DBitz2 During the soft openings of Space Mountain in 2005 I was on it when it broke down. Our rocket stopped on one of the three initial lift hills, right by the meteor. They turned the work lights on and we were walked off the ride. So, I can confirm that it has been there all along. Although, I don't remember it being as big as it looks in the photo. My friend took a picture of it, I think. I'll have to ask him about it. If I remember correctly, at an occasion I was at, Garner Holt mentioned the meteor and said that at least part of the reason they didn't end up using it was that, when lit up, it created more ambiant light inside the mountain than they wanted, as they wanted to make the inside darker than it had been.
Originally Posted By xrayvision It was there when they did the Space Mountain re-do. If I remember the rumored story correctly, imagineers felt that the light needed to illuminate the meteor was too bright, affecting other parts and effects of the dark ride experience. So, they chose not to use the light at all, leaving the meteor in the dark. I look at the meteor every time I ride SM, but didn't realize that it was rotating. I have to look for that during my next space travel.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I guess I understand the concerns about light levels, but what puzzles me is that the HKDL version has been lit up the entire time, and their SM seems just as dark as Anaheim's. Heck, if they were really concerned about the light levels in there, then we wouldn't have seen the Rockin' Space Mountain or Ghost Galaxy promotions, as they both added a lot of light to the interior and made the tracks quite visible in several areas. And with more modern (yes, even since 2005) LED spotlights, they can really control where the light goes, so that there's almost no 'wasted' light. With all the small scale closures and refurbs SM's gotten to install and remove the various overlays, I'm really surprised that they haven't done more tinkering with the lighting to make it possible. People work themselves into a tizzy every year about the potential for the Hatbox Ghost returning to HM, but simply turning on the lights on a setpiece that's already in the ride seems a lot more likley
