Hi Chuck (et al), I like the idea of the dome as the Sun. For a moment after reading your suggestion I flirted with suggesting we paint the dome yellow but then I came to my senses. But I did get a chuckle as it reminded me of someone (Joan?) years ago saying they wanted to paint their refractor yellow and add a large Chiquita Banana logo. :) With the dome as the Sun we could buy several balls to be stored at SPOC and used to compare the sizes of the various planets to each other and to the Sun. Though, if I've done my math right, some of those balls are going to be pretty small (see data at the bottom of this message). However, I'd like to see this remain a topic here on the list, meaning by "topic" the various ways of possibly constructing such an orrery and not dredge up the whole Pluto mess which caused so much strife here before. All, BTW, are welcome to attend the SPOC committee meeting on the 25th (http://slas.us/displayevent.asp?EventID=1896). All are also welcome to take part in the SPOC cleanup(s) which I think will be scheduled soon. Clear skies, patrick On 19 Feb 2012, at 21:03, Chuck Hards wrote:
Make the refractor dome itself the Sun. Then Jupiter is basketball sized and the other planets aren't microscopic. We can discuss materials in committee. I have some ideas. I move that this SLAS issue be moved off-list.
Relative sizes of the planets to scale. Assumes the Refractor House dome to be 5 meters (500 cm) in diameter. Object Diameter Scale Sun 1,392,000 500.0 Mercury 4,879 1.8 Venus 12,103 4.3 Earth 12,756 4.6 Mars 6,792 2.4 Jupiter 142,984 51.4 Saturn 120,536 43.3 Sat rings 275,000 98.8 Uranus 51,118 18.4 Neptune 49,528 17.8