http://www.space.com/spacewatch/main_system_030607.html

It would be good if they did that on the M25. On that motorway, 7mph is the average speed.

London is a sufficiently radial city that you could do an orrery with the Sun located at Charing Cross and Pluto at about the M25 radius, say. Be kind of fun to work out the tracks of the planets. You would move them around to the nearest convenient spot to where they should be - say once a month (they'd be mounted on the top of vans with some sort of GLC parking/congestion exemption).

This actually could be pretty cool - because at a favourable opposition like the current one, Earth-Mars (say) might make a pleasant stroll, but could be a real pain when on opposite sides of the Sun.

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If you want to do something like that yourself, try out this walking tour of the solar system that anyone can do.

THE THOUSAND-YARD MODEL or, The Earth as a Peppercorn

If you don't have the food items he suggests you use for the planets, a bit of clay or playdoh works fine if you use the measurements at the bottom of the page to size them correctly. I did this for my daughter's 2nd grade class and it really drives home how big space is. (Even the teachers were amazed.)

Kizarvexis

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"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." - James D. Nicoll