A Universal Tour

Thursday, curiosity carried me 41 miles outside of 285.  After arrival, I picked up an informative pamphlet about the locale.  The one thing that stuck out about this little informational nugget was the quote on the front. (below)

Quite grandiose wouldn't you say????

When I read this, I didn't know if the authors were serious or just being facetious.  Did they really feel this strongly about this place?  Would I have the opportunity to complete my experience as a human being on this day??? Well lets find out shall we.

This metal sphere is the first site on the tour.

Do you know where I went?  Take a guess.

Well if you guessed downtown Gainesville, then you were correct.  I travelled to this small town to take the 1.8 mile Scale Model Walking Tour of the Universe.  The silver sphere represents the sun.

Luckily it was a nice, cloudy and cool morning.  The tour begins right in the heart of downtown at The Square.  As you saw in the previous picture, its pretty empty.  Where are the people? 

The background surrounding the creation of the walking tour really intrigued me.  In a nutshell, two astronomers were here in the square during the 1998 partial eclipse.  Kids were on hand to use the filtered telescopes to view the eclipse.  One of the kids wanted to know how much bigger the sun is as compared to the moon. He told her that, "A hollow sun would hold 64 million moons."  This prompted them to create this scale model so that the kids could have a better understanding of these concepts.  

The whole concept of CREATION is something that is becoming more and more important to me.  They could have just told her the answer and kept it moving.  Unfortunately, that's what I would have done.  Or I might have did some type of demonstration to help bring the point across.  But I would have NEVER though of CREATING a LASTING model for every ones benefit.


But I digress, the tour was kinda cool.  You start in the center of town, and walk from planet to planet ending at Pluto.

Saturn

One mile equals two BILLION miles using their scale.  The whole concept of the model is actually better than just going to sit down in a planetarium.   It would be nice to take the tour if you are in the area and you like to walk, or if you have kids it could be something to do one Saturday since the tour ends at Lake Lanier. This is where I got my initial information: http://northgeorgiaastronomers.org/

Along the way, there are a few other sites.  Of course since we are in Georgia, and we are outside of I-285, we have to have a statue honoring the Confederacy.

This (below) was in in Rock Creek Park, near Jupiter.  There were also a few elderly (I'm guessing WWII or Korean War) veterans walking around the area.

After leaving this area, I found myself walking through a heavily wooded trail.  For a while there I felt like I was in a Friday the 13th movie...walking through the trails I only saw ONE person.  Got a little anxious for a minute.  See for yourself.....