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Special Projects
A scaled model of the solar
system and the Rooisand Voetstoots 2018.
©: The pictures on this page were taken by Cornelia, Nicole,
KAT, Fahrbach and Team Chamäleon.
More pictures can be found here.
All images can be enlarged by
clicking the thumbnails ...
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Rooisand Voetstoots 2018 - to the moon and
back
The Rooisand Planet Walk - a scaled model of the solar
system
At Rooisand
Lodge an event called Voetstoots has been taking place for years in the
Namibian winter. Voetstoots is Afrikaans and means "wonder bag". The event is
usually held on a weekend is associated with a bicycle rally.
The idea
for a Planet Walk as a supplement to the Rooisand observatory was born in 2017.
The opening event for the Walk should at the weekend of th e2018 Voetsoots in
congruence with the total lunar eclipse on 27 July and the simultaneous Mars
opposition.
The planning and calculations were carried out by the
Chameleon team, the owner of the lodge was responsible for the design.
The Walk starts at the lodge with the Sun and ends at the observatory
with the planet Neptune. The Walk has a length of 2.34 kilometres and therefore
a scale of1 : 1.927 500 000. With this
scale, the Sun has a diameter of 0.7 meters and each step of the visitor
(approx. 1 meter) corresponds to 2 million kilometres in space. |
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The scaled
planets are located at the end of an arched structure that symbolizes the orbit
of the planet around the Sun. For each planet there are two text tables in
German and English with the most important data of the planet.
The way
ends at the observatory with the planet Neptune. Additionally there are two
information boards with the data and the distance of the NASA probe Voyager I
and the nearest fixed star Alpha Centauri.
In addition there is a
brochure describing the objects of our solar system in detail. The Planetary
Path was inaugurated on 28 July 2018 as part of Voetstoots 2018 with around 80
invited guests. |
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Sundiameter 0.7 Meter |
Trail to the observatory |
The
Arc symbolizes planetary orbit |
Saturn and Earth in comparison |
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Earth and Moon |
Jupiter |
Info
board Jupiter as an example |
Neptun, Voyager I + Alpha Centauri |
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Download the publication of the Planet Path
Rooisand.
Please note that the download is
only permitted for private use. Both books are subject to international
copyright and infringements will be prosecuted. File size 17 Mby
each.
pdf- download (german language):
Planetenwanderweg
Rooisand - ein maßstäbliches Model des
Sonnensystems.
pdf- download (english language):
The Planetary Walk At
Rooisand - A Scale Model Of Our Solar System. |
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The
total lunar eclipse
The
arrival of the guests started on Friday afternoon, shortly before the beginning
of the total lunar eclipse on 27 July 2018. As the lodge does not have enough
guest rooms, many guests spend the night in comfortable tents; for Namibians
this is the normal case for overnight stays in their own
country.
While one of the team
(Paech) stayed on Onjala to watch total lunar eclipse with the lodge guests, Hofmann and
Lucius travelled to Rooisand to look |
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after the
guests there. The eclipse was mainly observed with the large 125mm Vixen double
glass of the lodge. The eclipse was mainly observed with the large 125mm Vixen
double glass of the lodge. The image on the top right shows the Moon, Mars and
the Milky Way in front of the Rooisand dome, taken in the middle of totality.
Left: Palms, Moon and Mars. |
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Camping |
Camping |
Sleeping under the Southern Cross |
Moonrise and Earth Shadow |
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Lunar and Martian Rise |
Moonrise |
Short before totality |
Totality |
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Rooisand Voetstoots - the bicycle rally
The rally started on Saturday morning around 06:00
o'clock with 5 different teams. Because of the heat during the day despite the
winter time, the event had to be finished until noon.
Due to the
astronomical theme of the rally, the participants had to cope with numerous
tasks on the way. Among other things there was a planetary drawing competition
for the children, the adults met aggressive aliens, had to deal with a crashed
and a radioactively contaminated UFO drone, met moon astronauts and had to hand
in a list with 10 answered questions about the planets at the top of the
observatory. |
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Credit
points were awarded for all individual tasks, and the analysis was done in the
evening. The award ceremony was followed by a remarkable
party. |
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The hosts, Yrida + Axel Dainat |
Axel
starts the Voetstoots 2018 |
planetary drawing contest |
Team
planning |
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... on tour
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the contaminated UFO Drone |
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Break for the epidemic team |
end
of the bicycle rally |
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Houston - we have a problem, let´s
party
After an extensive lunch
break (Paech from Team Chameleon had arrived at Rooisand in the meantime)
dinner was prepared, then all prizes and certificates of participation were
handed out to the guests by the hosts Yrida and Axel.
With the theme of
Voetstoots 2018 - to the moon and back - there was
a really cool costume party until well after midnight. Anyone who try to
ordering a drink at the bar - without to say "Houston we have a problem" was
simply ignored :-) .
The team chameleon was quite surprised by the
costume party, so that we could only buy quite silly Minions caps 2 days
before. The last picture shows the team Chameleon (Dirk, Franz and Wolfgang
from left to right). |
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Preparing the dinner |
award ceremony |
award ceremony |
certificate of participation |
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award ceremony |
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Franz |
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wolfgang |
Dirk
+ Hit Radio Namibia |
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Yrida at the award ceremony |
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the NASA Astronaut |
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and the children |
but
now - let´s party |
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let´s party - Elke and Nicole |
let´s party |
let´s party |
Dirk,
Franz + Wolfgang |
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All Images and all Content are © by Wolfgang
Paech, Franz Hofmann + Dirk Lucius |