[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

Thought a few of you might be interested in this project we're working on in Kendal for IYA 2009...

http://ksssm.wordpress.com

[ngunn]

Looks great - pity it's only for one afternoon. I did something similar in our college grounds once, but unfortunately my candlewax gas giants melted in the sun! looks like your model scale is 10^10. I have made a 'paper model' at that scale which I give to my students as a souvenir of the course. The orbits of all the big moons fit conveniently onto A4. Attached is a specimen page. I can post the complete set if anybody wants it.

EDIT: That should fill an A4 page to be at the correct scale. I notice that when I try printing from the attachment it comes out smaller. No idea why. Computers -

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[john_s]

Good luck with the project, Stu! Is there any way to include Eris too, maybe conveniently outside some pub in town?

John.

[Stu]

I'm actually working on plotting locations for Eris, Sedna and other objects at the moment. I'll probably produce a map handout sheet to give people to take away.

Liked your Saturn + Titan sheet Nigel, would be interested in seeing the rest...

[ngunn]

would be interested in seeing the rest...

OK here they are:

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[dmuller]

i remembered going to an exhibition like that when I was a child.

I was actually toying with the idea to propose to our dear politicians here in Australia to use one of the long Australian highways and their rest-stops to make a scale model of the solar system distances. On the 1600km Eyre Highway from Norseman WA to Port Augusta SA Earth would be 53kms from the starting point (if we go 30AU to Neptune). But probably it's a waste of time so I havent done anything about it.

[Astro0]

Australia hosts what is believed to be the 'World's Largest Solar System Drive'.
Actually it's multiple drives starting from a central location and fanning out across the state of New South Wales.
Have a look at this website http://www.solarsystemdrive.com/
At the scale they are using, typical drives from the Sun to Pluto takes 2-2.5 hours

They use billboards to illustrate the journey.


Astro0

[dmuller]

Aaaa nice one. Never heard of it. They dont do much advertising :-)

[ngunn]

Some nice links here:

A Solar System Scale Model Meta Page

I'm trying to link to it directly but in the meantime Google should find it.

EDIT
http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/solarsystem/

[ngunn]

I have been looking at ways of representing whole planetary systems such as the solar system in single page diagrams. One scale for global radii and another for orbital radii has always been unsatisfactory. I looked at log scales but didn't like the results of that either. Eventually I hit on this very simple mapping which deals nicely with the full range of distances required. (Of course being non-linear it isn't 'child friendly'.)

I haven't yet got round to producing the diagrams for the solar system, 55 cancri and the rest but I hope to do it soon. Meanwhile I thought I'd share the formula for others to play with. In case the attachment doesn't work here it is in words:

scale radius in millimetres = cube root of actual radius in megametres

Attached File(s)

 SoSyCubescaling.doc ( 23.5K ) Number of downloads: 705

 

[ngunn]

First attempt at a comparative diagram attached.

I had a bit of trouble uploading this attachment and it seems a bit tricky to open too. Can anybody confirm that the link does work and they have managed to access the diagram? It should fill an A4 sheet in landscape format. Advice on what I'm doing wrong file-wise would be helpful too!

Attached File(s)

 CuberootSystemsDiagram.zip ( 270.35K ) Number of downloads: 291

 

[Stu]

Many of you will remember that my astro society created a scale model of our solar system here in Kendal last year (if you don't, then start reading this thread from the beginning), which was a huge success, in no small part due to the fantastic input and help we received from Doug.

We're doing it again this year, bigger and better, of course! Here's the project blog, which I've just started putting together this morning:

http://ksssm2.wordpress.com

What I'd like to do this year, as well as just showing the positions of the planets and the major dwarf planets, is include some "side shows" along the way, too. I've already decided I'd like to show the following:

* The greatest distance driven by a Mars rover in one day (someone remind me what that would be?)
* The total distance walked by Neil Armstrong on the Moon (Phil? Help me out here :-) )
* A model of the Milky Way, showing the solar system's location

... but I'd like to show some more cool stuff, too.

So...

...any ideas?

BTW: any UMSFers who would like to come along on the day (which is Sat August 14th) would be very welcome! (Hope to see you this time, Nigel!)

[dmuller]

... but I'd like to show some more cool stuff, too.

Speeds ... though I wouldn't know exactly how you could do that. Maybe use lines of lights, or distance covered in a particular time, or time required to cover a certain distacne. Show:

Speed of light
Speed of Helios B
Formula 1
Speed of Spirit / Oppy

[ngunn]

Soddit - I'll be in Shetland then. I can only hope that in the meantime WISE discovers a brown dwarf at 0.7 LY. In that case I'll buy a cherry tomato in Lerwick, stick it on the end of a knitting needle and plant it out in the garden.

Have a great event! (I'm sure you will.)

[alan]

* The greatest distance driven by a Mars rover in one day (someone remind me what that would be?)

I believe it was 219.7 meters

http://marsandme.blogspot.com/2010/03/oppo...it-sol-433.html