Our Solar System

      Two years ago when Katy and I bought our very yellow house, it reminded me of the sun.  Yellow wouldn't be our first choice for a house color, but it had so many other things going for it.  So, since I enjoy naming the places I live (and my cars), the house became "the sun".  I thought of the house being the center of our universe, like the sun.  This led to so many questions: If the house was the sun, then how big would the other planets be? How far away would they be from the house?  And, I thought, wouldn't it be nice if each planet had a significant (to me) place in Portland to reside. I could create a scale model in which our house was the sun, and Portland the solar system, with the planets proportionally placed and sized to our house. It seemed like a nice idea.

On the left side of the page I figured the actual size of
each planet and the average distance from the sun and
then on the right converted for my Portland model.

     This idea started when I briefly lived in the Mississippi area a few years back. Every morning I would walk my dog over the Failing foot bridge crossing I-5 to get to Overlook Park, one of my favorites in Portland.  I love these foot bridges over the highway.  The Failing bridge has fences on both sides and rounded metal supports overhead.  On these very early morning walks, I would dream of hanging a solar system model on this overpass, which would would allow any passerby to look above their head and see all the planets.   I thought it would be cool to figure out a scale version with the correct distances to the sun.  I quickly realized that this would not work, as the first four planets would be very close to the sun, and the others way too far to fit on the bridge. Also, if  I scaled the planet sizes to whatever sun I built, some of the planets would have to be microscopic.  I moved out of that apartment, and I gave up on this idea, until it resurfaced four years later when we moved into "the sun" house.
     As this idea came back to life, I started by measuring the house lengthwise, which I would use as the diameter to compare to the suns diameter.  The house measured at 28.5 feet, which I would make a ratio to the sun's diameter of 1,392,000 kilometers. Doing a little bit of math I figured that in my model of the solar system 1 foot = 48,842 km and 1 inch = 4,070 km.  After looking up all the measurements of the planets and the distances from the sun, I then used these to figure out the distance and size of each planet.  The sizes of the planets was easier than the distances, because the planets do not have a uniform diastase of orbit around the sun.  For my calculations I decided to average the diastase of each planet from the sun, so could have a circular obit, to  help decide where each planet should be in Portland. I then converted the measurements to inches, feet, and miles.
   You know what I found out?  The sun is big, and so is the solar system.  Using my calculations, the Earths diameter compared to our house would be 3.1 inches, Pluto (which I decided to include even though it has been downgraded to dwarf planet) is only about a half inch in diameter.  The biggest planet is Jupiter with a diameter of almost 3 feet.  The distances are also fascinating. The first four planets are all under a mile from our house, with Mercury right down the street.  And, the farthest planets like Neptune and Pluto are 17 and 22 miles away from the house.
     Having the distances, I got a new map of Portland to begin looking at where these planets would be located. I got my pencil compass out.  I used a mapping website to figure out the distances from the house.  I wanted the distances "as bird flies", not distances using roads.  The compass worked great for the first four planets, but the "gas giants" (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) and Pluto were much too far for a full orbit to be drawn; Neptune and Pluto don't even fit on the map of Portland.  For Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus  I put a spot on the map showing the proper distance from the house (sun), but did not draw the orbit.  The map now hangs in our kitchen.
    Having the Planets mapped allowed us to look at possible locations for the Planets to be. I thought parks, hidden gems in Portland (like the failing foot bridge), friends houses, or important locations to me would be the best place for the planets to live.  I have not picked locations for any of the planets, but I often look at the map and think about it.
    As of now I have no plan of actually building the planets. I'm not sure what materials I would use to build them.  There has been talk of giant foam balls, paper mache, glass, and wire.  Paper mache is the most likely, and maybe with a little push I will get them built and hung some dark night. But, at this point no decision has been made.  These may never get built, and hung.  But, I still like the idea and I still like thinking about our house as the sun, and Portland being the solar system.