I came across this while reading the July 1993 edition of Sky & Telescope and thought it was interesting. I wonder if this could be done here in one of our cities.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by http://www.bradley.edu/las/phy/solar_system.html
The Lakeview Museum Community Solar System is the world's largest, as listed in the Guiness Book of Records. It is a unique model of our Sun and its nine (eight) planets, in which both size and distance are represented on the same scale (42 ft. = 1 million miles/1 m = 1.4x105 km). The planets are centered around the sun, depicted on the Lakeview Planetarium dome, offering an earthbound concept of the vastness of space.
While models of the solar system may be common, virtually all of these show only relative sizes or relative distances to the same scale if any attempt is made at all to be accurate. (Frequently such models only show the relative order of the planets from the sun). In any case, the impression is created that our solar system is much smaller and the planets much closer than they actually are, and a correct understanding of the vastness of space is totally lost.
Since the space between the planets is enormous relative to the sizes of the planets, few models exist in the world which show the true scale of our solar system, since they have to be miles across.
Peoria's model starts at Lakeview Museum of the Arts and Sciences. (1125 West Lake Avenue, Peoria Il 61614 (309) 686-7000) The Sun is the planetarium dome, and is also painted on the outside of the building. Descriptive graphics about the Sun and the model are located in the planetarium lobby. At each planet location visitors find a custom moldePlexiglas sphere, painted by local spacescape artist Walter Kinsman. Planets approximate the detail seen in the best space probe astronomical photographs. The 45 inch sphere of Jupiter is surrounded by a 76 inch ring system of clear Plexiglas, and Saturn's 3 foot sphere is surrounded by a 90 inch ring plane, painted in full detail. Uranus and Neptune also have their rings represented. The full scale utilized is as follows:
BODY: SCALE DISTANCEFROM LAKEVIEW (SCALE SIZEDIAMETER)
The Sun: N/A 11 m (36 feet)
Mercury: 0.4 km (0.25 miles) 3.8 cm (1.5 inches)
Venus: 0.8 km (0.5 miles) 9.6 cm (3.8 inches)
Earth: 1.2 km (0.75 miles) 10 cm (4 inches)
Mars: 1.9 km (1.2 miles) 5.6 cm (2.2 inches)
Jupiter: 6.4 km (4 miles) 1.1 m (45 inches) rings 1.9 m (76 inches)
Saturn: 13 km (8 miles) 0.97 m (38 inches) rings 2.3 m (90 inches)
Uranus: 24 km (15 miles) 0.41 m (16 inches) rings 0.81 m (32 inches)
Neptune: 37 km (23 miles) 0.38 m (15 inches) rings 0.76 m (30 inches)
Pluto (deceased): 64 km (40 miles) 2.5 cm (1 inch)
That's very cool - I wonder how many punters traveled the 64km to see the 1 inch model of Pluto though....
You could expand it too - for alpha-centauri you'd almost need to put its model on the moon! (approx 270,000km from the sun model at this scale according to my calculations!).....
I thought a similar thing was done locally based on the Parkes radiotelescope. I'm not sure if there's scale models of each of the planets but I'm pretty sure there's a description at the dish which places the planets in different towns in order to try to put thing in perspective.
I know someone Ex-Society of SA president, who does Geocaching and has set up caches with planet names, they are also to scale to the distance from the sun.. Covers half of Australia, Starts in Adelaide.
When I looked at this post I wondered what the life of such models would be in our wonderful outdoors. Great targets for vandals sadly but I checked out the website and almost all of their models are in businesses of in parks. Maybe they have survived.
When I looked at this post I wondered what the life of such models would be in our wonderful outdoors. Great targets for vandals sadly but I checked out the website and almost all of their models are in businesses of in parks. Maybe they have survived.
I have to say that after living in the USA for years, the level of vandalism, including grafitti, is far higher here in Australia. Apart from some areas of the Bronx and LA I hardly ever saw any. Here all you have to do is go down to your closest train line. I agree that they'd be targetted here in an instant - lack of understanding breeds aggression.
There is actually heaps of these around the world. http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/solarsystem/
This link takes you to the list of a lot and a link too.
I just started building a model Solar System for my sons' room. We are going to paint a big sun one upper corner and spread the planets across his room. I am currently trying to make my foam balls as smooth as possible as any little blim blam will show up badly in this scale.
Has anyone else had a go at making one?
Cheers for now
Andrew
There is a fairly "common" scale in use in many public solar system models that shows both relative size and distance of the various bodies - it is sometimes called the "Thousand Yard" or "Half Mile" model due to it's approximate size.
It was deliberately scaled such that the relative size was large enough that all objects, from the smallest to largest, could be easily represented by common items that are familiar enough to people that the reative sizes are immediately apparent, ie peppercorn, pea, golf ball, bowling ball.
The scale is however small enough that the distance between Sun and Pluto is walkable, in order that people can gain a true appreciation of the variations, and total distances involved.
At the chosen scale the Sun is approximately 8 inches across, ie bowling ball sized, Mercury & Pluto are represented by the head of a pin, Earth is a peppercorn, etc. I can't provide any links at present (not on open access to net at present) but you'll find info easy enough if you google it.
There' a great location near here where I'd love to see the local council / schools get involved and set this kind of thing up - along the local "major road" which runs dead for well over the required distance, happens to pass schools, sports fields, etc.
This project could even have leeway for some businesses (if they're at exactly the right distance) to "adopt" the planet outside their premises (or maybe protect it by having it permanently displayed in their front window??) by helping sponsor the project. I'm trying to talk to someone in local Council about it at present to see if it can get off the ground.
I am currently trying to make my foam balls as smooth as possible as any little blim blam will show up badly in this scale.
Has anyone else had a go at making one?
Cheers for now
Andrew
Yep, I made one for the Ballarat Astronomical Society about 18 years ago. It graces the full wall of the Main building
Fortunately it is a pretty long wall
At each Planet I placed information: distance from Sun, size, temp etc.
I hand painted each scale-size Planet to look realistic
When our SVAA gets our own property, I want to make a model taking up the whole length of the property. And I am also going to do a 3D Crux illusion
If it works well, I might try a 3D Orion illusion too.
I came across a couple of the 'planets' just by accident when travelling to the 2007 SPSP, and found some more on a recent trip to Coonabarabran. One of the 'Neptunes' is in Coolah (photo attached). Individual planets are to be found in more than one place to cover most of the routes radiating from the 'Sun', which is the dome of the 3.9m AAT.
There are certainly many of these models throughout the world - it'd be great to have some walking-size ones in some of our cities.
(By the way, don't send any visitors off to the AAT who want to see the 3.9m scope from the viewing gallery - it's closed until sometime in November due to asbestos removal.)
