[FRIAM] st john's

[Jonathan Wolfe]

There was a nice piece in the news the other day about this armillary sphere which seems like a very beautiful scientific artwork at St Johns.
https://www.usnews.com/news/news/articles/2019-12-31/new-devise-in-new-mexico-turns-back-clock-on-astronomy <https://www.usnews.com/news/news/articles/2019-12-31/new-devise-in-new-mexico-turns-back-clock-on-astronomy>
I’d very much like to pay a visit and see this device, which, while it doesn’t contribute much scientifically to the astronomical community, it’s one heck of an artistic and historical project. I love the aesthetics of armillary spheres, and the visionary role they’ve played for so long, showing us our place in the heavens. 

I have a pet art project in mind called the “Galactic Observatory” that builds off this tradition, which is a galactic pointer that rotates slowly with the earth’s turning to constantly point at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, allowing us to orient ourselves to a larger scale. It’s the logical evolution from the geocentric to the heliocentric to the galactocentric reference frame. It was only just over 100 years ago that we discovered where we sit in the Milky Way, and hey, we’re not in the center of it all (and a good thing we’re not, too!)
I would love to meet the folks responsible for creating the St John’s armillary sphere; maybe they’ll have an interest in helping see a next generation modern updated astronomical sculpture come to life too...  


-Jonathan Wolfe, Ph.D.   
Executive Director, Fractal Foundation
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> 
> On Fri, Jan 3, 2020 at 6:05 AM Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com <mailto:wimberly3 at gmail.com>> wrote:
> I've heard about it from our friend John Balwit, who may have some responsibility for it.  
> 
> Frank
> 
> -----------------------------------
> Frank Wimberly
> 
> My memoir:
> https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly <https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly>
> 
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> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2>
> 
> Phone (505) 670-9918
> 
> On Fri, Jan 3, 2020, 5:45 AM Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm <mailto:profwest at fastmail.fm>> wrote:
> I just read that St. John's has the only working Armillary Sphere  on Earth.  have you all checked it out?
> 
> davew
> 
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