Proxima Project

To mark the centenary of the discovery of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Earth not including the Sun, a scale model of the distance between the Sun and Proxima Centauri was built with corresponding plaques in both the Cape Town and Johannesburg observatories – the size of the stars as indicated on the plaques is to-scale with the distance between the observatories! (Click on the picture of the plaque at the Cape Town observatory to zoom in.)

More information concerning the history of measurement of distance to stars can be found here: Stellar Highway Notes.

Additional educational resources about the scale of the solar system are also available: Complete Solar System.

All the above materials are freely available for use as long as the author is acknowledged.
Case Rijsdijk, ASSA