Dan McIntosh
Photos: Dan Videtich

“Among my tattoos, my brother and I both have our family crest—we’re from Scottish ancestry. If I were to get another one, it would be stars or galaxies.” His daughter gave him the Queens of the Stone Age poster, above right. Blade Runner is one of his favorite movies. “I’ve had that poster for 25 years.”

 

McIntosh has several octopuses in his office. “It’s my totem—an animal I relate to. The fascination started when I read John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row. I used to want to be a marine biologist.”

 

 

 

This 10-pound piece of Pyrex glass was a reject from the University of Arizona Mirror Lab. “They make the biggest telescopes in the world in a rotating oven. A piece like this is hard to come by.”

 

 

 

The Star Trek lunch box carries observing tools like flashlights and compasses.

 

 

 

 

McIntosh’s wife, a cultural geographer, brought this mask back from Nigeria.

 

 

 

 

The softball is from the Showbiz League McIntosh played in when he was an undergrad at UCLA. Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest were on his team. “I was a ringer.” Today he uses the balls to show students the scale of objects in the universe.

Trang Bui
Blue steel