Walk the Solar System!
Before I post pictures from my beach vacation I wanted to post our “Walk Through the Solar System” that we did out in front of the place we stayed. If anyone is interested in astronomy (and everyone should be), this is one thing you and your family should do. We did the 1000 yard model (similar to this one I am sure). In this model. This setup is designed to gain a sense of scale in the solar system, both in the size of the planets and in the distance between them. The sizes range from 8 inches for to Sun down to a small pinhead (1/100th of an inch) or bead for Pluto. The total distance is, shockingly, 1000 yards, or a bit over half a mile. Try it out! UPDATE: I have written two posts relating to relative sizes of the objects in our Solar System: Walk the Solar System and A Sense of Scale: The Bodies of the Solar System. Check them out!
Katie preparing the model with Rachel and Nathan looking on.
The group getting ready to pace the planets!
Come on, the Sun and the Sun, that is cool. 
By the end we couldn’t even see the sun!
We had a lot of fun and everyone should do this sometime! (You can also see this as a Flickr set.)
Resources:
Build A Solar System: Pick the scale you want! This website allows you to imput different sizes/distances and it will let you know what all the others should be.
The 1000-Yard Model: or, the Earth as a Peppercorn: Similar to the model we used.
Wikipedia: Solar System Model: Various Solar System models.
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