

Sweden Solar System - lelf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Solar_System

======
jsingleton
I went on a hunt for a few of these when I was in Stockholm recently and it
was a bit disappointing. We couldn't find a sign at the globe and lots of
places were shut. Venus is now a building site and we couldn't find Jupiter at
the airport. We found the Earth and moon, Mars and Mercury (from a distance).
It is a good way to explore and you get good value out of a T-bana pass.

Edit: If anyone is interested I can write up the hunt. Got some good photos.
It was this or a visit to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterby)
and I think the solar system was the best choice. They should really promote
these attractions more.

~~~
lelf
> _If anyone is interested I can write up the hunt_

Please!

~~~
jsingleton
OK, will do. I also checked out [http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pionen-
data-center](http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pionen-data-center) in
Södermalm. It was shut but you can see a bit through the glass doors. Missed
out on [http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/r1-nuclear-
reactor](http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/r1-nuclear-reactor) though :(.

~~~
jsingleton
Here you go: [http://unop.co.uk/misc/sweden-solar-system-
photos/](http://unop.co.uk/misc/sweden-solar-system-photos/)

I've also submitted it to HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8181696](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8181696)

Enjoy!

------
theaeolist
Just to have an idea how sparse space is, the closest star at this scale would
be about 5x the (actual) distance to the moon.

------
neves
Solar Systems in scale are really impressive. We usually see them in books,
where all the planets are close. The amount of space is astonishing. I saw one
in Brazil in a Astronomy Museum [http://www.mast.br/](http://www.mast.br/),
the Sun is smaller than a golf ball and you have to walk dozens of meters to
get to Uranus. The nearest star would be in a city more than a thousand
kilometers away. This is what I call a humbling experience.

------
vnuk
Zagreb also has this, albeit a mini version ...

The system is at scale 1:680 000 000. Earth's model is about 1.9 cm in size
and at 225 m distance from the sun's model, while Pluto's model is 7.7 km away
from it...

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views)

------
lukedjn
I shouldn't laugh, I really shouldn't...

"Uranus (2.6 m in diameter) was vandalized"

~~~
marvin
If it's in Gävle, it would be a logical guess that it was vandalized due to
the local population's decades-long tradition of vandalizing monuments.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat)

~~~
daviis01
Destroyed 27 times in 48 years. That makes the recreation seem like a bad
idea.

~~~
Rovanion
It's an absolutely fantastic idea, best publicity that town gets all year. The
whole country is engaged in the burning of that thing.

------
robbiep
We have one in Australia too - I drive it several times a year. Distance sun
to pluto is 190 km unfortunately - I visited the wiki link ready to hurl abuse

[http://www.solarsystemdrive.com/map-planet-
locations.html](http://www.solarsystemdrive.com/map-planet-locations.html)

------
petercooper
Previous discussion on this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2220903](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2220903)

------
jerryluc
There's one in Denmark as well, although much smaller (1: 1 billion). One
thing that I thought was really cool when I visited was that if you stood by
the fake earth an looked at the fake sun it appeared precisely the same size
as the real sun. Also very cool to walk for a couple of hours and reaching
tiny Pluto.

[http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm](http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm)

~~~
Someone
That should be the case for any model that is to scale. The moon and all
planets should be real-sized (in steradians), too.

------
dspillett
Not on the same sort of scale at all, but York (UK) has a scale model along
one of the Sustrans cycling routes:
[http://www.york.ac.uk/solar/](http://www.york.ac.uk/solar/)

SkyRide do free regular guided public rides down the route (or sometimes a
subset there of for people who don't feel up to the full length and back)
which is a pleasant way to spend an hour or two if you are in the area.

------
Kiro
How accurate is it? It seems that a lot of locations were picked because of
them being in museums and other significant places. I guess if it was really
accurate they would end up in more inconvenient spots.

~~~
saalweachter
Earth's distance from the Sun varies by +/-~2% at its current eccentricity,
and the eccentricity isn't constant. So at a distance of ~7.5 km (1:20 mil of
Earth's average orbit) you've got a ring about 300 m wide around the Sun to
find a museum in.

Other planets further away give you larger rings to search in; you could place
Jupiter in a ring ~4 km wide ~39 km away, and it would be within the range of
its orbit around the Sun.

That said, while the task is easier than you might think (since there isn't
One True Position for each planet), I don't know how well they did.

------
zachbeane
[http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/](http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/) is
another version of this idea.

------
tegeek
I pass through Ericsson Globe almost daily but never realized that I'm
travelling in "Solar System"

~~~
yen223
Technically, _all_ of us are travelling in the Solar System.

------
dbaupp
Does anyone have a decent photo of the one (Saturn) in Uppsala? Surprisingly,
I can't find any photo on the internet (searching in either English or
Swedish), I lived there in 2012 and don't remember seeing a 6.1m circular
object in Celsiustorget at all.

~~~
bencoder
From the article:

> the model is a mat with a picture of Saturn, but will eventually grow to
> crown a school planetarium at the city

~~~
dbaupp
I didn't notice a mat with a picture of Saturn (and I walked past the place
many times); but, ivh notes it was just temporary.

------
basicallydan
That's great, I'm going to Stockholm in November so I'll check out Mercury.
Thanks for sharing.

It'd be even _better_ if there was an international solar system which
involved several countries, to make it an even larger scale.

------
brunnsbe
This page contais more information and photos as well:
[http://www.astro.su.se/english/about-us/the-sweden-solar-
sys...](http://www.astro.su.se/english/about-us/the-sweden-solar-
system-1.74650)

~~~
jsingleton
That's a good page if a little out of date. We followed
[http://ttt.astro.su.se/swesolsyst/stations.html](http://ttt.astro.su.se/swesolsyst/stations.html)
but the wikipedia page is better and more accurate.

------
pivo
Boston has one as well:
[http://www.tripadvisor.com/Guide-g60745-i3496-Boston_Massach...](http://www.tripadvisor.com/Guide-g60745-i3496-Boston_Massachusetts.html)

not to scale :)

------
JonRB
I seem to recall reading about a scale model of the solar system somewhere in
the northern hemisphere that 'included' the nearest star in Australia
somewhere... Anybody else heard of this?

------
jacobheric
We have one in Maine as well, scale 1:93,000,000:

[http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/](http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/)

------
linuxlizard
The Smithsonian Institute (Washington DC, USA) has a walking model along the
capital mall.

Our local (Boise, ID) Discovery Center has a model, too. Fun stuff!

------
julianpye
Munich has one, too with a much smaller scale, with the sun central at the
technology museum 'Deutsches Museum'

------
ep103
Ithaca, NY has one of these too : )

