You are so lucky to be living in Houston, Texas, USA. At the entrance plaza of the Museum of Natural Science is a fountain whose edge has the configuration of the Texas coastline; there is a huge scale model of the Solar System in bronze markers in the pavement (the front step of the Museum is the sun; Pluto is a distant speck next to the street).
But the glory of the plaza is the magnificent Sundial soaring above the fountain, which at Noon focuses a beam of sunlight through a lens on today's date of an analemma marked in bronze on the pavement. This breathtakingly beautiful plaza is a superb marriage of art and science.
Anyone reading this blog: if you visit Houston, don't miss the Museum of Natural Science in Hermann Park. It is enchanting; and if the day is cloudy and you cannot see the great sundial in action, go inside and be fascinated by the elegant Foucault's pendulum; and enjoy the otherworldly beauty of the hall of gems, surely the most serenely peaceful atmosphere of any public space I recall.
You are so lucky to be living in Houston, Texas, USA. At the entrance plaza of the Museum of Natural Science is a fountain whose edge has the configuration of the Texas coastline; there is a huge scale model of the Solar System in bronze markers in the pavement (the front step of the Museum is the sun; Pluto is a distant speck next to the street).
But the glory of the plaza is the magnificent Sundial soaring above the fountain, which at Noon focuses a beam of sunlight through a lens on today's date of an analemma marked in bronze on the pavement. This breathtakingly beautiful plaza is a superb marriage of art and science.
Anyone reading this blog: if you visit Houston, don't miss the Museum of Natural Science in Hermann Park. It is enchanting; and if the day is cloudy and you cannot see the great sundial in action, go inside and be fascinated by the elegant Foucault's pendulum; and enjoy the otherworldly beauty of the hall of gems, surely the most serenely peaceful atmosphere of any public space I recall.