Solar System Model, Otford, Kent, UK
Posted by: 
Team Sieni
N 51° 18.937 E 000° 11.298
31U E 304062 N 5688677
A solar system model constructed to mark the millennium in 2000, showing the positions of the planets at midnight on 1 January 2000.
Waymark Code: WM4WA1
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/05/2008
Views: 31
This model is quite wonderful. The sun is a mirrored 303mm dome. Each planet is represented as a to-scale engraving on a plate mounted on a pillar.
The positions of the pillars reflect the positions of the planets at midnight on 1 January 2000.
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are on the recreation field, Jupiter on the edge of the field, Saturn in an adjoining lane, and so on to Pluto, which is over a kilometre's walk away, in a hedgerow on a public footpath.
A 38mm model of the nearest star, Proxima Centauri is in the Griffith Laboratory, Los Angeles, 5,390 miles away. This makes it the largest scale model in the world. A 600mm globe representing Sirius the Dog Star (the brightest star in our hemisphere) can be seen at Sydney Observatory 10,550 miles away and a 50mm ball for Barnard's Star in the Falklands Islands Museum 7,825 miles away.
The tiny, tiny engravings of the planets and the great distances really emphasise the emptiness and vastness of space
I have attached a good quality picture of the display, which is well worth a read.
There is more information, and planetary models, available at the nearby Heritage Centre:
- Weekdays 8.30 - 12.30 if staff available
- Weekends & Bank Holdiays 2.30 - 4.30
See
website for more information.