The Constellation of Starke Creatives Network and Prairie Trails Club will meet on Sunday, October 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. CT.
They will travel the Erie Trail together in order to check out Our Solar System in Scale (OSSIS) project which incorporates education, arts and culture.
This event is open to all ages and experience levels. The OSSIS installation depicts the planets of our solar system in a scale of 1:355 million over several miles of the Erie Trail.
To explore OSSIS, start at Main Street, just east of the Hoosier Valley Rail Museum in North Judson, and head east. The planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are an easy one mile round trip walk from the trail crossing at Main Street.
To get to the gas giants, such as Jupiter and Neptune, you’ll need to cover many miles of the trail so bicycle travel is recommended. Neptune, the final planet in the installation, is 8.5 miles from the starting point.
The OSSIS project was accomplished through a wide-spread community effort. It was funded by the Starke County Community Foundation through a Lilly Endowment Inc. GIFT Phase VII Implementation Grant. Robert Aloi and his team at Territorial Engineering donated the scale calculations and sign placement marking.
Sign printing and installation were through a contract with OTES Signs and Graphics. Martin Lucas donated the sign information research and art design, using mainly NASA information and images. Permission to utilize the area adjacent to the trail was granted from the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum and the Prairie Trails Club.
For further questions email starke@nicf.org or call 574-772-3665.
