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Planet Walk |
Taking a tour of the Solar System is as easy as taking a walk. In Juneau Alaska, a one mile paved walking trail has been painted with the Sun and the eight planets including our poor demoted Pluto incorporating their relative size and distance apart. This project was initiated due to the work of Michael Orelove. This project involved various school classes and volunteers from the Marie Drake Planetarium. These volunteers used a measuring wheel, plotted the exact planet distances along the trail. A spike was pounded into the ground to mark the spot until painting could begin. After the locations of the planets were marked on the trail, the planets' relative sizes were drawn. The diameter of the sun was adjusted to fit the available paved sidewalk area from the start of the trail. Eden Orelove was the project assistant and did the initial trail measurements, calculating the size and distance of the planets. Local schools and volunteers organizations were invited to paint the sun and each of the planets. A photo gallery of the planet walk will be added at a later time. Today volunteers maintain this project. Michael Bott, a Juneau artist, is currently doing improvements to this project. See photos below. Thank you to Valley Paint for donating 5 gallons of paint for the Sun project at the Planet Walk |
History August 30, 2002 Juneau Empire article A trip through the solar system Local organizations and volunteers bring the planets to Twin Lakes Click here for photos of planet walk opening celebration on September 1, 2002. January 2005 Updating the solar system. Stephen Cosgrove, left, and Michael Orelove add a revised list of known moons in the solar system to the Juneau Community Planet Walk sign last month at Twin Lakes. Since the sign was put in place in 2002, scientists have found 39 new moons around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. |
Photo by Michael Orelove |