Sad to hear that the Blackrock Castle Observatory have no plans to run their Solar System Trail in 2010. For the past two years Freefoam’s Cork facility has been proud to be the location for Saturn on the Trail.
The trail was a temporary installation, beginning in the centre of Cork City with the Sun located at St Patrick’s Bridge and ends with Neptune at Blackrock Castle Observatory. The inner planets of the Solar System, Mercury, Venus and Earth, fit along Merchant’s Quay with Mars situated at the Bus Station, Jupiter located at Victoria Road, Saturn at Centre Park Road (Freefoam) and Uranus at The Marina.
The Solar System Trail through Cork City
For the duration of the trail, a framed banner of Saturn, created by local Cork artist Marianne Keating, hung at the entrance to the Freefoam facility on Centre Park Road.
It was a wonderful idea, and a great way to explore Cork and learn about our Solar System at the same time. Hopefully we will see the trail return to Cork (and Freefoam) as part of a permanent installation in the not-too-distant future.
(The BCO do run a lot of other activities. Check them out at http://www.bco.ie/ )
