This is an unusual and interesting piece of art which was designed and made locally from retrieved metals. The sun is an old metal bouy 139cm in diameter and is situated on the edge of the harbour near the battle memorial for the first world war.
On a band around the sun are scale models of all the planets, but there are also models of the planets in different places, all to a scale of 1:1,000,000,000. The sun can be seen from all the planets, although you need binoculars for some. Pluto is 5,900m away on top of Tumbledown and is only 0.23cm in diameter. Fortunately they are all attached to plinths otherwise they would be impossible to find!
We had previously visited all but 2 of the planets and on Sunday we saw the remaining 2 (Jupiter and Saturn). It really gives you new insight into the distances and scale of it all. Apparently on this scale the nearest star would be 40,000km away.
On a band around the sun are scale models of all the planets, but there are also models of the planets in different places, all to a scale of 1:1,000,000,000. The sun can be seen from all the planets, although you need binoculars for some. Pluto is 5,900m away on top of Tumbledown and is only 0.23cm in diameter. Fortunately they are all attached to plinths otherwise they would be impossible to find!
We had previously visited all but 2 of the planets and on Sunday we saw the remaining 2 (Jupiter and Saturn). It really gives you new insight into the distances and scale of it all. Apparently on this scale the nearest star would be 40,000km away.
1 comment:
What an interesting installation. I wonder if you could devise some sort of race where you have to get between all the planets in as quick a time as possible.
Post a Comment