The Universe

Axis of Ævil saw my old moblog post of Saturn and produced an English version of the walkabout of the actual scale model of the Solar System that was built 12 years ago in Helsinki. Wonderful! (Did you know that they used to steal Earth every few weeks until they replaced it with something more durable? Or that Pluto had to be relocated due to road construction work? How douglasadamsian can you get with that? :-D )

I can recommend it - I've done the full tour of the Solar System once, and it's a nice bike trip: you get to see some beautiful scenery. Especially finding Uranus among all the bushes is a wonderful experience. And it really does illustrate the scale of the things, when you're traveling at (relatively) 5 times the speed of light and it still takes a bloody hour to get to Pluto :), but just a minute to get to Mars...

(But hfb: why didn't you ask me? I could've told you what it is and where to find it, so you wouldn't have had to harass the ignorant natives ;-).

Update: Just a couple of links added.



Comments

Well, Jarkko had actually heard about it even though he'd never been to see it. I just asked around a bit to see if everyone else knew and it was just blase to the locals much like living in a town where MIT and chowdah are big tourist attractions but don't really generate much excitement from the townies. :) I'm still rather amazed that so few people had ever heard of it, even an expat who has lived here for 30 or so years and works for the HS was unaware of it. I'm hoping the guys at Ursa like the pages and will host them since I feel a little silly with them on my website. :)

--62.78.171.250, 21-Jun-2004

Unfortunately not too many people are interested in the heavens above - even when scaled and packaged into a convenient size.

Sad, really.

--JanneJalkanen, 21-Jun-2004

I'm so sorry. I'm really sorry. But I (or the teen inside me) just can't resist:

"Especially finding Uranus among all the bushes is a wonderful experience."

Brouhahahahahaha!

--KariH, 21-Jun-2004

Bad-puns-r-us. ;-)

--JanneJalkanen, 21-Jun-2004

http://www.blockblock.net/gallery/hb-weddings/jj_14

It's a beautiful place for wedding photography, but I could not resist either ;-)

--213.28.150.154, 21-Jun-2004

From the greatest 80s revival movie ever made: 

I sent my children skyward
I launched them into space
A Herculean effort
The strain shows on my face
We headed for Saturn
Inspected his ring
The dog star and Pluto
We heard angels sing

It was some time, some time on a trip to Uranus
Saturn, Pluto, Mars – who could blame us?
Maybe some time, when the moon
No longer feels the pull of the Earth
We'll be there at the new planet's birth
You and I, and we'll kiss
A supernova born of our bliss
For light years it could happen like this
A galaxy we can call home
-- Venus Hunters: Starburst

--JanneJalkanen, 21-Jun-2004


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"Main_blogentry_200604_2" last changed on 21-Jun-2004 10:31:23 EEST by JanneJalkanen.