ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – An educational display in Downtown Escanaba is getting an upgrade after more than two decades.
The Delta Astronomical Society (DAS) installed the Walk of the Planets along Ludington Street in 2002.
“Getting your head around the size of the universe, people don’t really understand,” said DAS Public Communications Coordinator Dan Young. “The numbers are too big; we don’t deal with them.”
Young says the Planet Walk brings our solar system down to a more accessible size.
“The sun is 865,000 miles in diameter, and we shrank it to one foot in diameter, and so our scale is 1 foot = 865,000 miles,” he explained. “The distances that you walk between the planets are also to scale.”
Over the last 22 years, the Planet Walk placards and posts have begun to show the passage of time—and so has the science.
“For example, Pluto,” Young said. “Nothing had ever visited it when we built that. Things have changed, so we decided it’s time to upgrade this.”
After a few years of planning—and a delay caused by the pandemic—that upgrade is finally coming to fruition.
The Delta Astronomical Society is developing more durable, full-color placards with images from NASA. Society President Matt Jensen says the new placards allow for greater attention to detail.
“The red and the blue lines are just like what happens with lightwaves,” he said, referring to the image below. “The lightwaves compress and become red-shifted the closer you get. The further you get, they stretch out and become blue-shifted.”
He says they have also incorporated new forms of sharing information.
“If you scan the QR code, you’re going to get a video back to the National Geographic Society that you can actually watch and listen to that has different, additional information as you go to the next station,” Jensen said.
The cost of the 2002 Planet Walk was $2,000. The total cost of the upgrade is about $5,000. Last week, the City of Escanaba committed to up to $1,500 in grant funding for its installation.
“The rest of the project has all been funded through donations by individuals and businesses,” said Jensen. “That goes back to the generosity of our community.”
The Delta Astronomical Society hopes to install the upgrades by summer. Jensen and Young are excited to improve the Walk of the Planets for Escanaba residents and visitors.
“It’s another thing in the area that gives people a reason to stop here that might otherwise just pass through,” Jensen said. “It helps to make us a destination.”
“It gives you an actual physical experience of the size and distances of the universe,” added Young. “There’s this one tiny little blue marble with this tiny little dot next to it—that’s the moon—and that’s where we live. I designed this, and it blows my mind!”
The Delta Astronomical Society hosts public viewings throughout the summer, as well as educational events at schools. The group also plans to view the eclipse on April 8 in Ludington Park. To learn more about the Delta Astronomical Society, visit the group’s Facebook page.
