Proxima Project

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.)

Proxima-Plaques-SAAO

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